culture

On Saturday evening the Michael Dunn verdict came in, and I was thrown. Not because he wouldn’t be serving time, as the jury found him guilty for shooting at the three boys he didn’t kill, but because I, like many people around the nation, felt like another grown white man had gotten away with killing…

Turns out that Tom Ford also rocks Tom Ford. The high-end fashion retailer included two sequined football-jersey-style dresses with “TOM FORD” emblazoned across the back in his runway show at London’s Fashion Week on Monday. In between his luxurious fur coats and cashmere dresses, the designer sent down two versions of the dress, which had…

Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett doubled down on his attacks on CNN’s Don Lemon. On Sunday the two had a war of tweets over Lemon’s live, impassioned delivery of the news after receiving the verdict in the Michael Dunn “loud music” murder trial. Jarrett called Lemon a “pompous, pretentious jerk,” to which Lemon replied, “mind…

On Monday, George Zimmerman appeared on CNN’s New Day to say that he was the victim in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. He doesn’t watch the news anymore, he said, so he isn’t up on the Michael Dunn case, and only God can judge him. Zimmerman also told host Chris Cuomo, in one of…

As a young graduate student conducting research on the black freedom struggle, I had the distinct honor and privilege of visiting the National Archives for Black Women’s History, a vital repository of the history of black women’s contributions to this country, housed in the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, a national historic site in the…

There’s snow on the ground in much of the United States, with some areas seeing several inches and below-freezing temperatures in the past couple of days. Visions of sandy beaches and rays of sun seem like far-fetched daydreams while staring at mounds of snow and icy streets. But why not treat yourself to a quick…

Winter Olympic sports are notoriously lacking in racial diversity, but there have been a handful of black stars to emerge at the games over the years. One of them is Surya Bonaly. The figure-skating legend won the national title in France a record nine times and was a world silver medalist three times. She appeared at…

We Americans end our national anthem with a question: “O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” But in Florida—the Sunshine State—those of us whose skin has been kissed by the sun are still awaiting a response to that question. For the second…