culture
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Report Finds a Resurgence of Segregation 60 Years After Brown v. Board of Education
In many parts of the South, you would never know that the landmark Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education declared separate schools for blacks and whites unconstitutional and inherently unequal. The resegregation of public schools is widespread and growing. The investigative news website ProPublica, in partnership with The Atlantic, presents a stunning and comprehensive…
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Scandal’s Columbus Short Allegedly Threatened Wife With Murder-Suicide
Actor Columbus Short has been served divorce papers after allegedly threatening to kill his wife, Tuere Short, and then himself, TMZ reports. According to a restraining order that the entertainment news site got ahold of, on April 7 the actor went into Tuere’s room intoxicated, with a wine bottle in hand, acting as if he…
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Biden Celebrates Joining Instagram With a Selfie With Obama
It seems that Vice President Joe Biden has retained selfie privileges with the president. The personable right-hand man celebrated joining the popular photo-sharing site Instagram by sharing, among his photos, a selfie with President Barack Obama. The two men are shown grinning in the back of what seems to be the presidential limo, presumably in…
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DNA Matching Ex-NFL Player Darren Sharper Found on Rape Victim
Darren Sharper could find out on Thursday if an Arizona judge will grant him bail, just a day after authorities gave testimony saying they found semen matching the former NFL star’s DNA, USA Today reports. According to the report, the sample was found on the leggings of one of his alleged Arizona victims, with testing…
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Warrant Issued for Air Force Officer Weeks After Run-in With Police at His Home
Air Force Capt. Nicolas Aquino’s future is on hold as he faces charges arising from entering his own house in Monterey County, Calif., KSBW reports. Aquino, who is a student at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, got the news of his arrest when his school supervisor called him and told him he is barred…
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Elderly ‘Homesick’ Bank Robber to Be Sentenced
An elderly bank robber who was homesick for prison is to be sentenced Thursday for the bank robbery he committed last year in the hopes of returning to prison life, the Associated Press reports. Walter Unbehaun, who dropped out of high school, spent most of his adult life in prison, and last year, bored, alone…
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Children’s Fantasy Fiction Needs More Characters of Color
In his 1976 essay The Devil Finds Work, James Baldwin wrote, “No one, I read somewhere, a long time ago, makes his escape personality black.” Baldwin was talking about the movies, but he might as well have been talking about children’s books. When I was a kid, I loved reading works like J.R.R. Tolkien’s The…
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25 Alternatives to Pharrell (or Any Other Celeb) for Insights Into ‘the New Black’
Pharrell Williams’ comments in a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which he seemed to embrace the familiar suggestion that racism can be overcome by a change in attitude, didn’t go over well with many folks. Here’s what the artist and producer had to say: The “new black” doesn’t blame other races for our issues.…
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Baseball Legend Hank Aaron Gets Racist Hate Mail After Likening Obama Opponents to KKK
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. So the adage goes—and in the case of Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, it is painfully true. The 80-year-old legend was subjected to racist slurs and threats days after a controversial interview with USA Today. Last week Aaron spoke to the news site about the lack…