culture

On Saturday morning, instead of heading off to Dunkin’ Donuts where he was supposed to open the store, Darion Marcus Aguilar, 19, whom neighbors describe as a quiet, skinny teenager who loved skateboarding, got in a cab with a pump-action, pistol-grip Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun hidden from sight and a backpack filled with homemade explosives and…

Editor’s note: With this article we introduce a new column: My Thing Is, a place for The Root’s readers and contributors to reveal their personal narratives. Want to tell your story? Send pitches to MyThingIs@theroot.com. I’m a 5-foot-4, 130-pound woman who loves her stilettos and pastel suits—especially pink ones. What do I know about football?…

R&B crooner Usher flew to Panama in an effort to have a sit-down with imperiled pop star Justin Bieber, TMZ reports. The 19-year-old singer’s mother, Pattie Mallette, his manager, Scooter Braun, and close friends Ryan Good and Ryan Butler were also reportedly on hand in Nitro City, a resort in Punta Chame, Panama, the report…

Ride Along cruised to the No. 1 spot at the box office for the second weekend in a row, earning $21.2 million and leaving its competitors the dust, the Daily News reported Sunday. The Universal Pictures buddy comedy, co-starring Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, zoomed past the week’s lone new release, the monster thriller I,…

A social media contractor is said to be out of a job after an offensive flowchart appeared briefly Friday on the website of the Iowa Republican Party, the Daily Beast reports. A.J. Spiker, the party’s chairman, told the Daily Beast in a statement that the contractor responsible for posting the flowchart, “Is Someone a Racist?”…

Here we go again. A school district in Washington state has suspended an elementary school principal after a group of fifth-graders claimed that she used the n-word during play rehearsal last week. Poulsbo Elementary School Principal Claudia Alves has been placed on a leave of absence while the district investigates the incident, North Kitsap County…

LL Cool J., who has hosted the Grammys for the last two years, is back again. Um, yay? Anyway we have a list of five things to look out for during the show, which starts at 8 p.m. EST on CBS, including a performance by hip-hop’s biggest couple, Beyoncé and Jay Z. The event will…

When 29-year-old Kynan Dutton joined forces with Craig Cobb, 62, late last year, they planned to set up a whites-only community in Leith, N.D. But those plans fell by the wayside after the two men were arrested and charged with felony terrorizing, following confrontations with other residents, reports say. Now Dutton, who is being released…

Illinois has long been known for its history of political shenanigans, but a recent story is still likely to turn heads. The Illinois prison director’s chief of staff reportedly approved the hiring of a former gang member to a high-paying job last year—just one day after the agency’s own background screening determined he was not…

For years Oprah Winfrey has literally been the face of O magazine, gracing the cover since its inception. But the gruelingly long shoots may be taking a toll. Winfrey is reportedly thinking about bringing an end to her days as a cover girl for the magazine she famously founded in 2000, because she is worn…