culture
-
No Slaves, No Brutality: We Deserve a Holiday
You should go see The Best Man Holiday when it hits theaters Friday, Nov. 15. I don’t know anything about what you like, but if your movie-watching habits are anything like mine, you’ve earned this film. I like my films black. That doesn’t mean I like all black films. I don’t. I’m just more liable…
-
Actor Rob Brown Slams Macy’s and NYPD With ‘Shopping While Black’ Lawsuits
One of the stars of HBO’s Treme has launched an expansive federal class-action lawsuit against the Macy’s department store for allegedly singling out customers of color for criminal suspicion. According to New York’s Daily News, Rob Brown charged Macy’s with “policies and practices [that] have left … customers of color feeling victimized, humiliated, traumatized [across the…
-
Richard Cohen’s Racial ‘Groundhog Day’
Tempting as it is to join in the fray, I’m taking no part in the online beatdown that Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen is suffering for his ill-advised comments about interracial relationships. Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jelani Cobb and a host of other brilliant young writers have already got that covered. Besides, I’ve got my own bone…
-
Central Park 5 Hope Victim and De Blasio Can Help Settle Case
A group of five men who were imprisoned as teenagers for a brutal rape they did not commit are looking to have a conversation with a second victim of the real perpetrator in hopes of settling their lawsuit against the city of New York, the Huffington Post reports. The Central Park Five, as they are…
-
Ted Cruz’s Father: ‘All Blacks Should Be Republican’
According to Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, African-American and Latino voters (non-Republican ones, anyway) are “uninformed” and “deceived.” It was recently discovered that the evangelical pastor gave a speech back in February to conservative activists and took up a previous speaker’s point that Hispanics were uninformed or deceived, the Huffington Post reports. “The same thing…
-
Don Cheadle to Play Miles Davis in Biopic
Don Cheadle is set to play legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis in a biopic that the actor co-wrote and is also slated to direct. BiFrost Pictures told the Associated Press on Wednesday that it will finance and produce Kill the Trumpet Player. Cheadle has been trying to make the film for years, AP reports. The…
-
Cronut Craving? Pay New York Man to Wait for It
As the holiday season looms large and lines form outside of stores’ doors for must-have items, New Yorker Robert Samuel has made a business of waiting. The 38-year-old Chelsea resident will stand in line for the everything from the latest iPhone or a cronut—a donut-croissant hybrid that’s New York’s latest baking sensation—for those who must…
-
Former NFL Player Sam Hurd Gets 15 Years for Drugs
In 2011, Sam Hurd had the world in his hands. The wide receiver had just signed a three-year, $5 million contract with the Chicago Bears. But being a professional athlete making big money wasn’t enough for Hurd, who wanted to be a drug kingpin who specialized in brokering “high-end deals.” “You had everything going for…
-
It’s Not Your Man’s Fault His Mother Dislikes You
“My Ghanaian boyfriend is upset because I left his family’s party without him knowing. The feud between his mother and me came to a head at the event. She told me I wasn’t good enough for her son because I’m African American, I don’t have an Ivy League degree, I have kinky hair, I don’t…
-
Outgunned: Replacing Incarceration With Graduation
Editor’s note: Read part 1 here. Talking about the intersection of gun violence and schools instantly draws our hearts and minds to the tragic shootings at Columbine, Sandy Hook and Sparks Middle School. However, in communities like Chicago and Detroit, where shootings take the lives of hundreds of people each year, the relationship between violence…