culture
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My Brother’s Keeper Gains Support of Top Female Leaders
Women in top leadership positions in faith and community organizations across the nation have joined to sign a letter to President Barack Obama, acknowledging his work with the My Brother’s Keeper initiative. “We believe that a successful ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ can result in stronger families, stronger fathers, stronger employees, stronger leaders; and ultimately, a stronger…
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Judge Tosses George Zimmerman’s NBC Lawsuit
George Zimmerman has no case for libel against NBC Universal, a Sanford, Fla., circuit judge ruled on Monday, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The ruling effectively puts an end to the lawsuit filed two years ago, in which Zimmerman accused the media company of portraying him as a racist and defaming his name in broadcasts after…
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Police: New York City Dad Admits to Killing 8-Year-Old Son
A 41-year-old Queens, N.Y., resident confessed to killing his 8-year-old son before trying to kill himself, the New York Post reports. The father was found with cuts to his wrist. According to the Post, a 2-gallon bucket of blood found in the bathroom is believed to be from the man’s wounds. The child’s bloodied clothes were…
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Judge to Rule on Sale of Los Angeles Clippers
A judge will determine the fate of the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday and is expected to rule on a family-trust provision that would give Shelly Sterling, Donald Sterling’s estranged wife, the right to sell the NBA team without her husband’s consent, Fox News reports. According to CNN, the terms of the trust regarding the…
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Poll: 63 Percent of Americans Believe Blacks Are Responsible for Their Own Conditions
According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center (pdf), 63 percent of Americans believe blacks are responsible for their own inability to succeed. Those polled ranged from those who identified as “solid liberals” to those who identified as “steadfast conservatives.” They were asked whether they believed that “racial discrimination is the main reason why…
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We Watched the BET Awards so You Didn’t Have To
The BET Awards show has been marred in recent years with violent encounters. In 2012 rappers Rick Ross and Young Jeezy had entourages of long T-shirts and heavy necklaces that came to blows, and at the same show, rapper Gunplay got mollywhopped by 50 Cent’s crew. This year, at the many “unauthorized and unaffiliated with…
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Louis Vuitton Employee Claims Manager Called Black People ‘Slaves Who Eat Dirt Off the Floor’
Louis Vuitton, one of the oldest fashion houses, is fighting claims of racism after a Central London store employee alleges in a legal filing that he overheard his manager say to an African employee: “Black people are slaves who eat dirt off the floor,” the Mirror reports. Oliver Koffi, a sales associate at the store…
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Yes, Mentoring Works: It’s Why I Graduated From College
My name is Sakinah Muhammad. I graduated from Temple University in May as a criminal-justice major with a minor in psychology. My next step is working for Houston Teach for America Corps while I attend graduate school at St. Thomas University. So much of where I am now is because of what I learned, and…
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Must-See Photos: Do the Right Thing’s Brooklyn, Then and Now
This summer marks the 25th anniversary of Do the Right Thing. June is also when part of Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Stuyvesant Avenue—where the fim was shot—was renamed Do the Right Thing Way in honor of the film and its director, Brooklyn, N.Y.’s native son and outspoken gentrification critic Spike Lee. The Root’s multimedia editor, Nicole Cvetnic, went to Bed-Stuy to photograph the…
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How Did a Chinese-American Woman Become a Black Power Activist?
Every once in a while, someone comes along who challenges your assumptions and forces you to rethink everything you thought you knew about history, culture and identity. Take, for instance, Grace Lee Boggs. Before Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X emerged as leaders in the civil rights movement, Boggs—a 99-year-old Detroit resident born to…