culture
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Cellphone Broken by Rihanna Fetches Staggering Price on EBay
Rihanna’s wristband caused a chain reaction that raised over $80,000 for the Los Angeles Police Department. Last week at a Los Angeles Clippers game, the pop princess, who was wearing an LAPD wristband, just happened to be seated next to Los Angeles Police Commission President Steve Soboroff, who of course wanted to take a selfie…
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Michigan Man Beaten by Mob Released From Hospital 6 Weeks After Attack
A Michigan man savagely beaten by five men after he accidentally struck a 10-year-old boy with his truck has been released from the hospital some six weeks after the attack, the New York Daily News reports. Steven Utash, a tree trimmer, was driving in Detroit on April 2 when a 10-year-old boy slipped from the…
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A Sex-Trafficking Survivor’s Perspective on the Kidnapped Nigerian Schoolgirls
I was 18 years old when I first felt powerless. I stood, frozen, as a gun was pointed at my head. I was demeaned and called unprintable names. The victim of abuse and sex trafficking, I was repeatedly violated and tortured and then blamed for it all. On April 15 that powerless feeling returned. That was the…
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Watch: Jay Z and Beyonce Release Steamy Short Film
With Sunday’s unexpected release of their Bonnie and Clyde-style short film, Run, Jay Z and Beyoncé may have created enough distraction to slam shut the doors of elevator gate. Besides the Carters, the stylish, four-minute film features a blockbuster cast, including Don Cheadle, Guillermo Diaz, Emmy Rossum, Blake Lively, Rashida Jones, Kidada Jones, Sean Penn…
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SNL Parodies Solange and Jay Z Elevator Fight
Saturday Night Live mercilessly lampooned the Solange and Jay Z elevator fight during the show’s season finale. In the comedy sketch, Solange was not attacking her brother-in-law, but trying to remove a spider off his shoulder. This was not the first time the show parodied the family, well, Beyoncé. Just weeks ago, they released a…
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Oprah’s Network to Hold Michael Sam Docuseries
Just days after announcing that Oprah Winfrey’s OWN would chronicle Michael Sam’s every move for a documentary series, officials said Friday that the project has been placed on hold indefinitely, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Last week, Sam made headlines when he became the first openly gay player to be drafted by the NFL’s St.…
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Veteran’s Death in Hot Jail Cell Exposes National Problem
It was a horrifying discovery when Jerome Murdough was found dead in his Rikers Island jail cell after malfunctioning equipment caused temperatures to skyrocket to nearly 100 degrees in February. Now, officials say the death of the 56-year-old former Marine may be emblematic of a growing problem in jails across the nation as the inmate…
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School Closures: A New Version of Separate and Unequal
Saturday marked the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, which struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine in public schools. Long after this landmark civil rights victory was won in the courts, however, communities of color have continued the struggle to realize an equal education for their children. From…
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How US Evangelicals Inflame Hatred of Gays in Africa
In February, when Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed an anti-gay bill that imposed harsh prison terms for acts of homosexuality, most Americans were probably clueless about the bill’s ties to U.S. conservative Christians. In the documentary God Loves Uganda—which airs Monday on PBS—Academy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams shines a light on the U.S. evangelical…
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NH Pols Join Push for Ouster of Racist Police Commissioner
New Hampshire political leaders have joined a widening chorus of residents calling for the resignation of a police commissioner who called President Barack Obama the n-word, the Associated Press reports. Wolfeboro, N.H., Town Manager David Owen posted a statement (pdf) Friday on the town’s website calling on Robert Copeland, 82, to resign the position to…