culture
-
Watch: Samuel L. Jackson Nails Pulp Fiction Speech 20 Years Later
It is arguably the coolest, smoothest and coldest hit man scene ever: Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction reciting an Ezekiel Bible verse right before he shoots somebody. It is probably the cult scene in the cult classic. But that was 20 years ago, and Jackson, 65, has starred in a gazillion…
-
Obama to Sign Executive Order Banning Discrimination Against Gays
President Barack Obama cannot do much nationally about discrimination based on sexual orientation without the help of Congress. However, the president is set to help those he can, and he plans to sign an executive order extending protections against such discrimination to federal employees, the Associated Press reports. According to the news wire, the decision…
-
Watch: Pa. Man Punched in Face by Teen Playing ‘Knockout Game’
Six teens approached a Pennsylvania man sitting at a trolley stop. One teen walked up close to the man and without warning punched him in the face while the other teens recorded the assault, leading officials to believe that the attack could be another chapter in the violent “knockout game” saga that peppered the news…
-
Black Identity and Racism Collide in Brazil
Before teams representing their countries from around the world arrived in Brazil, the country’s president, Dilma Rousseff, took the opportunity to label 2014 the “anti-racism World Cup.” The declaration came after a wave of racist incidents in soccer around the world targeting black players, many of whom are Brazilian. While it’s a well-intentioned gesture and…
-
Lina Viktor: Who Spins Art Out of Gold
The artist Lina Viktor is every inch a living, breathing piece of art, from her gold-draped fingers, brown skin and blond hair to her skintight catsuit and platform sneakers. Some have called her the art world’s cross between M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj, but she begs to disagree, and so does The Root. Viktor is her…
-
Black Parents, Gay Sons and Redefining Masculinity
“As a gay black man, I find myself at the top of the list of people to hate,” wrote Michael Arceneaux for The Root five years ago. “That’s a hard fact to contend with at 25, let alone at 11. The accepted notions of how a black man should look and act are confining and…
-
Malia Obama Heads to Hollywood
Usually a teenager’s first summer job entails flipping burgers at a fast-food joint or folding clothes at H&M, but for soon-to-be-16 Malia Obama, it’s off to Hollywood, according to a report by TheWrap. Malia, an aspiring filmmaker and a fan of HBO’s Girls, was spotted last week working as a production assistant for a day…
-
Writer-Director John Singleton: ‘Negritude’ Sells
John Singleton, who received two Oscar nominations for Boyz N the Hood and is currently working on a Tupac Shakur biopic, spoke at the Los Angeles Film Festival on Saturday about diversity. “Don’t be afraid to be black,” he told a predominantly black, packed audience at a session moderated by film critic Elvis Mitchell at…
-
Turkish Man Accused of Being Illegal Cab Driver While Dropping Off White Friends
Turkish immigrant Melih Kalyoncu was just doing his two good friends a solid, dropping them off at Kennedy Airport for their flight to San Francisco, DNAinfo New York reports. His good deed, however, definitely did not go unpunished: He was accused by Taxi & Limousine Commission agents of operating an illegal cab and was slapped…
-
Black Women Run Hollywood?
Turns out that all those years that black women were left on the sidelines in Hollywood were not because of discrimination but because of a secret organization of black women—including actresses such as Alfre Woodard, Tracee Ellis Ross and Meagan Good—who deliberately set it up that way so they could rule in secret. At least,…