culture

Stanley Roberts was just doing his job as a producer for Bay Area news program KRON 4. But after airing one particular story, Roberts did more than bring awareness to his community over a civic issue—he helped reunite a homeless man with his long-lost, famous friend. For eight years, Roberts has produced a segment for…

Charles Ramsey, the hero who became a reluctant celebrity after busting open a door that freed several woman from a Cleveland house where they had been imprisoned, is writing a book about the ordeal. The Cleveland native has signed a contract with publisher Gray & Co. for a memoir of his life before, during and…

After Sunday’s Seattle Seahawks loss to the Arizona Cardinals, Joe Fitzgibbon, a Democratic state representative whose district includes Seattle, took to Twitter to express his upset. “Losing a football game sucks. Losing to a desert racist wasteland sucks a lot.”   Yahoo Sports reports that he quickly deleted the tweet, but not before the Washington…

Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the Duck Dynasty clan, isn’t backing down from his racially charged and homophobic comments that appeared in GQ last week. According to an exclusive in the Daily Mail, Robertson led a Bible study group in his hometown of West Monroe, La., and told attendees: “I will not give or back…

 For Thembi Duncan, it seemed like the kind of opportunity best described as golden. A popular Washington, D.C., radio talk show wanted Duncan—the new producing artistic director of the African Continuum Theatre Company—for an interview on the air. As recently as 2011, the African Continuum, once billed as D.C.’s only professional black theater company, had…

The holiday parade in Semmes, Ala., is usually a predictable affair, with marchers, floats and carolers, but not this year. Some members of the town erupted in furor Saturday when one of the acts turned out to be a group of black drag queens, the Raw Story reports. The troupe, known as the Prancing Elite,…

Two cable channel executives have said they would gladly broadcast Duck Dynasty if the A&E channel decides to drop the hit reality-TV series. Executives at the Christian-affiliated Hunt Channel and the outdoorsy Pursuit Channel told TMZ that they believe in the freedom of speech and would like to air the show, which came under fire after a…

Ninety-four-year-old Clara Gantt’s wait to be reunited with her husband ended before dawn Friday on a tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Calif. But it was not the ending she had hoped for after six decades, NBC Los Angeles reports. Her husband, Army Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Gantt, died as a prisoner of war…

Justine Sacco, the fired public relations executive, released a statement apologizing for her racially insensitive tweet that touched off a maelstrom in the world of social media, ABC News reports. In the statement, Sacco says she is a native of South Africa. Until recently, she worked for InterActive Corp., which owns websites like Match.com, Dictionary.com…