culture
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Tilane Jones: Making Her Mark in Hollywood
Empires are built by forward-thinking individuals who see things that other people do not. Foundations are stabilized by great logistical minds who convert grand ideas into practical steps. For six years, visionary film director-writer-PR expert Ava DuVernay has been just that kind of individual. Her African American Film Festival Releasing Movement [AFFRM] is a first…
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Beyond 12 Years a Slave: 8 More Books We Want to See on the Big Screen
Solomon Northup’s harrowing story, 12 Years a Slave, was deserving of the silver screen and the accolades that followed. But there are books by black authors, like Tananarive Due, Octavia Butler and Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, that tell other stories, beyond the whips and chains of slavery, that Hollywood should consider bringing to the big screen.…
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Annie’s Black Now. Get Over It
“The sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun.” The words and the tune are familiar, but the decidedly hip-hop twist belies a completely different story: that of the orphan Annie, who, in 2014, just happens to be black. On Wednesday the world was given a sneak peek at…
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3 Students Suspended for Posting Racist Tweets After Basketball Loss
Some New York high school students who couldn’t handle a tough semifinal basketball loss took to Twitter to send racially insensitive tweets at the opposing school, leading to the suspension of three students and possibly several more. According to CBS New York, on Thursday, Mahopac High School lost 43-40 to top-seeded Mount Vernon, which is…
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Idris Elba to Voice Shere Khan in Jungle Book Remake
Idris Elba is a pretty diverse actor, grabbing important roles across starkly different genres in films like Thor, Pacific Rim, American Gangster, Daddy’s Little Girls and, his most recent success, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. But this time the talented entertainer is stretching his voice acting muscles. He is well into final negotiations to be the new voice…
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Scandal Recap: Of Monsters and Men
Last night was so tantalizingly entertaining and fun to watch that I literally clapped my hands and squealed with delight while watching alone in my living room. Remember when Beyoncé’s first single came out and we all thought, “This is really good, but she still could be a one-hit wonder”? Then she comes out with…
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A Letter From Death Row
What would you write if you knew those words might be your last? Ray Jasper is a death row inmate in Texas. His execution is scheduled for March 19. According to Gawker, at the age of 19 Jasper was convicted of the 1998 robbery and murder of recording studio owner David Alejandro. He wrote a…
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Man Gets 4 Years for Jet Ski Accident That Killed Usher’s Stepson
A Georgia jury has found the man who fatally wounded pop singer Usher’s 11-year-old stepson in a 2012 Jet Ski collision guilty and sentenced him to four years in prison, Rolling Stone reports. Jeffrey Simon Hubbard, 40, was found guilty of homicide by vessel as a result of the 2012 water incident that took the…
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Isaiah Washington to Guest Star on Grey’s Anatomy
Isaiah Washington, who was fired from ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy in 2007 for calling cast member T.R. Knight an anti-gay epithet, is throwing on the scrubs once again for a guest appearance on the show in May. According to the Associated Press, Washington’s return as Dr. Preston Burke coincides with the announced departure of series star…
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6 Times Privilege Went Wrong for White Families
Most times, the people who suffer as the result of entitled attitudes are the ones who, because of race and class, don’t have them. But lately, privilege seems to be coming back to bite the wealthy parents who provided it, in the form of everything from court costs to hassles to humiliation. A New Jersey…