culture

Rachel Canning, the 18-year-old New Jersey high school cheerleader who made national news after she sued her parents to force them to pay her college tuition, won’t need their money after all. The “spoiled teen,” as the judge who dismissed her case referred to her, will attend Western New England University on a $56,000 scholarship,…

I like Nick Cannon. I do. I’m one of those people who defend him when women call him goofy because I like a guy who seems like he knows how to have fun and doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously. I’d take all of that over a man who thinks he’s God’s gift to…

Stop and frisk, a law-enforcement policy found to disproportionately target men of color, emerged as a key issue in last year’s New York City mayoral race. Now-mayor, then-candidate, Bill de Blasio, who is white and the father of a biracial teen son, spent much of his campaign decrying the measure and vowing to stop its…

Henry Louis Gates Jr., editor-in-chief of The Root, is among the winners of the 73rd annual Peabody Awards for his PBS documentary series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. Peabody winners were announced live Wednesday on CBS This Morning, the first live television unveiling of Peabody awardees since the inception of the awards. While…

Former football star and current talk show host Michael Strahan is expected to join the cast of ABC’s Good Morning America on a part-time basis, the Associated Press reports. While the deal has not been completed, a person with knowledge of the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity told AP that Strahan will work…

After months of training to be a 911 operator in DeKalb County, Ga., Crystal Morrow was prepared for her first day on the job. During the first half of her shift, Morrow answered several routine calls, including one reporting a burglary in progress and one about a house fire, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. Then came…

A Venezuelan tourist was acquitted of shoplifting at a flagship Macy’s store in New York that has been the target of claims by several black shoppers that they were racially profiled there, her lawyer said. According to the Associated Press, Maria Paez said that during a Sept. 12 trip she carried a few items around…

As we watched the video for “I, Too, Am Harvard,” our hearts broke.  Harvard undergraduates recounted painful experiences of isolation and alienation. They spoke of being maligned, underestimated and underappreciated. One student said that he did not feel valued or valuable. Another student said that although she went to Harvard, she was not “of Harvard.”…