culture
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Brain-Dead Teen’s Family Hoping for a Holiday Miracle
The family of a 13-year-old girl who was declared brain-dead after having surgery to remove her tonsils is asking that doctors not take her off life support until after the holidays, CBS News reports. The family’s attorney, Christopher Dolan, said Thursday that Jahi McMath’s family will meet with officials at Oakland Children’s Hospital to make…
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Renisha McBride’s Killer to Stand Trial
The 45-year-old man who shot and killed Renisha McBride, an unarmed teen who was seeking help after a car accident, will stand trial on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges, a Michigan judge decided on Thursday, MSNBC reports. Judge David Turfe said Thursday that based on the evidence, Theodore Wafer made a poor decision in shooting McBride.…
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You’re 25 and Think You’re Immune From Racism? You’re Not Alone
What does it mean if you believe that sexism and racism are real, but you don’t feel that they have an impact on your day-to-day life? Does it mean that you’re like the Grand Old Party and think we all overcame by virtue of Rosa Parks’ sitting where she wasn’t supposed to sit oh so…
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How to Survive a Winter Without Flowers
The Garden in Winter Here is what I do when I look out the window and see my garden buried under three feet of snow: I think of the gardens and the plants I saw in them, or the plants I saw in the wild. In August I was in Daniel J. Hinkley’s garden, where…
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A Crack in ‘Affluenza’ Justice
President Obama announced on Thursday that he will be commuting the sentences of eight crack-cocaine offenders who were given extremely lengthy prison terms basically for being black and possessing a drug whose users are incorrectly perceived to be majority black. We can stammer around the issue, but ever since crack cocaine entered urban cities during…
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Jazz Vocalist Connects Christmas Album to Loss of Her Family
Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal is joined by vocalist Nnenna Freelon and John Brown to talk about their seasonal jazz collaboration, entitled Christmas, and how the death of Freelon’s parents motivated her album. Watch the interview here:
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Sorry, Duck Dynasty, That’s How Capitalism Works
It’s not exactly a shock that Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson is embracing his inner homophobe. After all, he’s a self-proclaimed “Bible-thumper” who sees his hit reality-TV series as a vehicle for delivering “the good news about Jesus” to folks, “whether they’re homosexuals, drunks, terrorists.” So when he emptied both his barrels in the pages of…
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Obama to Set 8 Crack-Cocaine Offenders Free
President Obama is expected to commute the sentences of eight federal inmates who were convicted of crack-cocaine offenses, expanding the president’s push to curb severe penalties for drug offenses, the New York Times reports. The prisoners, all of whom have been locked away for at least 15 years, are expected to be released in the…
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Black Art Student ‘Lynches’ 2 White Men in Art Project
An African-American Sacramento State University student has the school in an uproar after she simulated two white men being lynched from a tree on campus for an art project focusing on civil rights. The two men, who had actual nooses hung around their necks, are fine. They are hired actors who were suspended from the…
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In Virginia, Black Males Twice as Likely to Be Suspended From School
In Virginia, black males are twice as likely as their white male counterparts to be suspended from school, a report by the University of Virginia Curry School of Education and Charlottesville’s Legal Aid Center has found. The report also shows that when black students are suspended, it is mostly for subjective, minor reasons, such as…