culture

While celebrities were gliding the red carpet and scooping up Oscars Sunday, Will and Jaden Smith received honors they probably could’ve done without: They were both given Razzies for their roles in After Earth, the Associated Press reports. Golden Raspberry Awards are given each year to movies that suck and to actors whose performances also…

When Michael Jackson died almost five years ago, his finances were a disaster. Comedians joked that the llamas on his Neverland ranch were going to be sold as tall pit-bulls in Los Angeles just to recoup money owed to collectors. Now the executors are claiming that the estate is not only out of the black…

Naquasia LeGrand was tired. She had been working at two KFC restaurants, 15 hours at the first and then hiking it across to work whatever hours she could get at the the other store. Some nights after a full day of frying chicken, sweeping floors and serving customers, she would close the store at 1…

Anita Thompson Dickinson Reynolds was the black—or mocha—Zelig, traipsing continents at will, dancing on Broadway, acting in Hollywood with Rudolph Valentino, toiling as a journalist during the Spanish Civil War, slumming it with French royalty—all the while rubbing shoulders with the likes of Coco Chanel, Ernest Hemingway, Charlie Chaplin and W.E.B. Du Bois. As Reynolds…

While reading the many news stories that appear in my in-box each morning, I eventually get to the articles that center on race and racism. I save this part for last because know I’m going to read about an attitude or injustice that will piss me off, and I prefer to let my anger build…

The brilliant yet brutal 12 Years a Slave made history Sunday night as the first film directed by a black man, with a predominately black cast, to win an Oscar for best picture. In one of the most competitive Oscar races in recent memory, the honor was bestowed tonight at the 86th Academy Awards. Producer…

The “It Girl” is really “It.” Lupita Nyong’o won an Oscar Sunday night for best supporting actress for her role as Patsey in 12 Years a Slave. After hugging director Steve McQueen, her co-star Chiwetel Ejiofor and (oddly) Liza Minelli, the stunning star took the stage to give an emotional and heartfelt acceptance speech. “It…

In a year when movies like 12 Years a Slave have captivated audiences around the globe, the Academy Awards tonight will have 10 prominent black entertainers as presenters—the most ever in its 86-year history. The star-studded list includes Viola Davis, nominated for Doubt and The Help; Jamie Foxx, who won best actor for Ray; Whoopi…

A 25-year-old student at the University of Texas at San Antonio was simply filming officers as they pulled over cars along a highway and posting the videos to Facebook. She wrote: “This is where our funding is going, straight into hard police work,” according to KENS 5. The next thing Abie Kyle Ikhinmwin knew, she was…