culture
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Trinity College Elects 1st African-American Woman President
Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., has elected its first African American and first female president in its almost 500-year history, according to a press release. Joanne Berger-Sweeney, Ph.D., will become the 22nd president of the college starting July 1. Sweeney, who is currently dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University in…
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What Kobe Bryant Doesn’t Get About Trayvon—or Colorblindness
Come on, Kobe Bryant. If you’re going to play the colorblind card, then at least try to think through what you’re actually saying. And if you don’t want to be pigeonholed for your outlook on race in America, then maybe you shouldn’t pigeonhole your NBA colleagues when they express their views. No professional athlete—black, or…
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The Mining Queen: South Africa’s Daphne Mashile-Nkosi Named CEO of the Year
Call her the Iron Lady. South Africa’s Daphne Mashile-Nkosi was named CEO of the Year last week at the African CEO Forum in Geneva—an outstanding accomplishment for a black woman navigating the country’s male-dominated mining industry, Destiny Connect reports. According to the report, the award recognizes the CEO who is committed to and successful in…
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Thieves Steal More Than $500,000 Worth of Hennessy
Baltimore police are searching for thieves who made off with more than $500,000 worth of Hennessy cognac from a shipping yard in Baltimore County, CBS Baltimore reports. On Sunday just before 5 a.m., police say, the thieves stalked Serve U, a shipping company on the edge of the city, walking past dozens of trucks and…
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12 Years a Slave Filming Site to Become Baseball Stadium
It was a life-altering, heartbreaking scene: Chiwetel Ejiofor, portraying Solomon Northup in the film 12 Years a Slave, had woken up to find himself imprisoned and set to be sold into slavery. The powerful scene was filmed in Shockoe Bottom, Richmond, Va., a site known for its connection to the slave trade. But now, according…
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Kobe Bryant on Trayvon Martin: Don’t Defend Someone Just Because He’s Black
Kobe Bryant wasn’t impressed by the Miami Heat’s 2012 hoodie photo, which was aimed at showing solidarity and support for slain unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, the International Business Times reports. According to the site, in the upcoming March 31 issue of the New Yorker, Bryant discusses the controversial topic that still ripples through the nation,…
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Charlotte Mayor Resigns After Corruption Arrest
Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon was arrested Wednesday on bribery and corruption charges in an FBI sting operation and resigned hours later from the post he had held for less than six months, the Associated Press reports. The 47-year-old Democratic politician is accused of taking more than $48,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as…
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Oprah Winfrey Launching Inspirational Tour
Oprah Winfrey is bringing out the big guns for her new venture—an eight-city inspirational tour that will encourage attendees to be their best, Variety reports. It has been dubbed “Oprah’s The Life You Want Weekend,” and the mogul’s magazine, cable network and Harpo production company, along with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, will be leading the…
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Scandal Actor Columbus Short Arrested
Looks like Columbus Short may have taken the whole “gladiator” thing a little too far. The Scandal actor was arrested Wednesday on a felony battery charge. According to CNN, Short, 31, who plays Harrison Wright on the hit ABC series, allegedly gave a man a knockout punch at a West Los Angeles restaurant on March…
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Rather Than Paying College Athletes, Let’s Invest in Their Education
The campaign to generate salaries for college athletes is a standard rant that always accompanies the storied brackets of the annual NCAA March Madness basketball tournament—and the heat just got turned up on the issue, now that a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Northwestern University student-athletes can unionize. The…