culture
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Move Aside, Barbie, the Queens of Africa Dolls Are Here
Taofick Okoya couldn’t find a black doll for his niece in Nigeria. This realization shocked the 43-year-old into action when he saw that in the booming economy of his country, there was a gap in the market with little competition from foreign companies like Mattel Inc., the creator of Barbie. So he set up shop…
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Ballerina Misty Copeland Signs Partnership With Under Armour Brand
Leading sportwear company Under Armour is adding a very interesting new member to its team of elite athletes: African-American ballerina Misty Copeland. Copeland, who is a soloist with the American Ballet Theatre, signed a multiyear partnership with the influential clothing and accessory company. She will be featured this year in Under Armour’s biggest marketing campaign…
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Teacher Put Kindergartner in Closet and Left School
A Memphis, Tenn., teacher has been suspended and an investigation is under way after she reportedly put a 5-year-old student in a closet and then left the school, WAFB 9 News reports. According to officials at Shelby County Schools, Kristin Oshfeldt, a teacher at A.B. Hill Elementary, has been suspended without pay after an administrator…
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Vanity Fair Slammed for Making Lupita Nyong’o Appear Lighter
Face it. Lupita Nyong’o is the new “it” girl, and one can only imagine how many magazines are dying to feature her. However, those who do get the opportunity should use Vanity Fair as an example of what not to do. The magazine included Nyong’o in a tweet on Wednesday about its upcoming issue’s Vanities…
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Ride Along and the 12 Best Black Buddy Comedies
If you haven’t felt the surge of black creativity in film and TV, you’re seriously missing something. The revolution is being televised, downloaded, recorded and streamed on screens big and small, and two of our biggest stars are happy to be a part of it. We chatted with Ride Along partners Ice Cube and Kevin Hart at the…
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4-Year-Old Girl Fatally Shoots 4-Year-Old Male Cousin
A 4-year-old girl fatally shot her 4-year-old cousin while they were playing with a gun on Thursday, Detroit police said, according to CNN. Three children, all cousins, the oldest of whom was 5 and unharmed, were in a home on the city’s west side at the time of the shooting, reports say. According to Detroit…
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Hollywood Doesn’t Recognize the Complexity of Black Life
This should have been the year that black directors dominated the Oscars. In 2013 several black filmmakers produced and directed well-crafted films that examine black life. Of that group, three in particular—Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station) and Lee Daniels (The Butler)—created films of historic significance, each of which explores a…
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12 Years a Slave Wins Best Picture at the Critics’ Choice Awards
The lead-up to the Academy Awards is getting intense as last night’s Broadcast Film Critics Association presented its annual awards ceremony in Santa Monica, Calif., honoring several movies that had earned Oscar nominations hours earlier, the Associated Press reports. 12 Years a Slave, the favorite by Vegas oddsmakers for Oscar’s top billing, walked away with…
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High School Suspends Black Basketball Players, Claiming Gang-Related Hand Signs
A Wisconsin school district is standing by its decision to suspend two black basketball players because the signals they were making with their hands looked gang-related, saying that proper procedure was followed, the Raw Story reports. It all started at the beginning of the month when a local newspaper, the Sheboygan Falls News, ran what…
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Watch Out for the Ladies of Late Night
Sasheer Zamata is set to debut on Saturday Night Live this weekend. It’s been five years since an African-American female was part of the cast. But Zamata will have some company in the halls of NBC’s Rockefeller Center. Take a look at the new ladies of late night. Amber Ruffin is an alumna of Second…