culture
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‘I Understand Shanesha Taylor’s Story All Too Well’
Being a mother is rough, and and when you’re a single mother trying to make ends meet, it’s even rougher. There were times in my life when I didn’t know how the bills were going to get paid, if my car was going to be repossessed or if I’d be able to afford a class…
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Then LeBron James Did This …
With the NBA playoffs weeks away and the Miami Heat fighting to stay atop the Eastern Conference, LeBron James has been battling—the media. The expectations. The on-court matchups. Ebony Nettles-Bey, 16, has been battling, too. Late last summer the student at Verona High School in Wisconsin had trouble breathing. She was diagnosed with stage 4…
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Virginia Couple Wins Lottery 3 Times in 1 Month
Calvin and Zatera Spencer have been having an epic month. On March 12 the Portsmouth, Va., couple won a $1 million Powerball drawing. Then, on March 26, Calvin Spencer won $50,000 in the Virginia Lottery’s Pick 4 game. The next day he dropped his wife off at an appointment and stopped at a 7-Eleven in…
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10-Year-Old Shot Dead in Attempted Pennsylvania Home Invasion
A fourth-grader from Washington County, Pa., was killed early Monday morning from a shot fired inside the apartment where she lived, WPXI reports. Investigators believe that little Taniyah Thomas was the victim of an attempted home invasion. The shooter allegedly entered the building from a bottom-level door and went upstairs and began firing shots. The…
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Army Accused of Targeting Black Hair With New Grooming Standards
Changes in U.S. Army grooming policies are drumming up cries of racial bias, with some saying they discriminate against black women who have natural hair, Al-Jazeera America reports. According to the news site, the Army Regulation 670-1—which has not yet been published or made official—includes tightened rules for grooming, particularly regarding how women in the…
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Hollywood Can’t Figure Out What to Do With ‘Exotic’ Lupita
Now that Hollywood’s award season has come to a close, perhaps it was inevitable that the fawning over media darling and Academy Award winner for best supporting actress Lupita Nyong’o would come to an end as well. The Hollywood Reporter put the official nail in the cliched coffin with its latest print issue, which asks…
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Nephew Charged in Shooting of Reality Star
The 36-year-old nephew of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta reality actor Ray “Benzino” Scott will be arraigned Monday in Plymouth, Mass., on charges of assault with intent to murder his uncle, the Boston Herald reports. According to several news stations, Gai Scott shot several times into a vehicle that was carrying his uncle, Ray Scott,…
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Stephen A. Smith: Kobe’s Trayvon Comments Were ‘Right on Point’
ESPN radio host and TV commentator Stephen A. Smith told Arsenio Hall on his talk show over the weekend that Kobe Bryant was “right on point” in his assessment that he wasn’t comfortable with Miami Heat players protesting in support of Trayvon Martin without knowing all of the facts. Bryant was quoted in the upcoming…
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Confessions of a Black Brooklyn Gentrifier
When the train tracks clink, I know that in about two minutes my train will come roaring into view—unless it’s the R train. The R comes when it wants to. To date, I have taken every train the MTA has to offer, many of its buses and even New Jersey Transit. One might guess that…
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9 Biggest Lies About Black Males and Academic Success
Editor’s note: This weekend, Morehouse College hosted the inaugural summit in a White House-sponsored series of events aimed at addressing educational outcomes for African-American students. The Morehouse event, called the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans: Addressing the Socio-Cultural Factors Impacting the Academic Achievement and Development of African American Males, focused on…