culture
-
McBride Shooter Used Shotgun Named 'The Persuader'
The story of Theodore Wafer—a white, suburban Detroit man charged in connection with the Nov. 2 shooting death of unarmed black teen Renisha McBride—has all the elements of an American tragedy: a shooter and victim of different races, living on either side of the suburban-urban divide, in a state with a permissive self-defense code backed…
-
Funding Crisis Threatens Black Theater
With the success of films like Lee Daniels’ The Butler, 12 Years a Slave and now The Best Man Holiday, which surpassed box office expectations this weekend, 2013 is being billed as a banner year for African-American films. But while films with predominantly black casts are thriving, live theater featuring predominantly black casts is not.…
-
Here’s a Rarity: Blacks Performing in a Painting Free of Racist Overtones
This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black in Western Art Archive at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute, part of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Thomas Eakins was, with Winslow Homer, one of the foremost American…
-
Kanye West Done Beefing With Obama
Kanye West probably won’t be making peace with President Barack Obama any time soon, but that doesn’t mean the pseudo-feud between the two men will continue either. “I’m not gonna mention him no more, I’m past that,” West told Hot 107.9 in Philly’s Morning Show interview, which aired Monday. “That’s out my thoughts. That’s lowering my priority of…
-
George Zimmerman Arrested Again
Updated, Monday, Nov. 18, 5:30 p.m. ET: George Zimmerman has been charged with aggravated assault, battery and criminal mischief in Florida today, as police say he pointed a shotgun at a woman, ABC News reports. Police identified the alleged victim as Samantha Scheibe, and said the incident occurred at a home the two share. Zimmerman, 30, was…
-
NFL Player Claims Ref Called Him 'Garbage-Ass, Disrespectful Motherf–ker'
Washington Redskins left tackle Trent Williams claims that umpire Roy Ellison called him a “garbage-ass, disrespectful motherf—ker” during a drive near the end of the first half in Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles, ESPN reports. Williams said that Ellison walked by him and cursed him, an accusation that teammates acknowledged happened. After the game,…
-
Civil Rights Icon Who Helped Design Bus Boycott Dies
Civil rights icon the Rev. Theodore Judson Jemison, one of the organizers of the 1953 Baton Rouge, La., bus boycott, died on Friday at the age of 95, The Advocate reports. The bus boycott served as a template for the nonviolent, yearlong Montgomery Bus Boycott planned by Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama. According…
-
Don Lemon Talks to the ‘I Hate Being Black’ Guy
Don Lemon had an interesting guest on his CNN show, CNN Newsroom, over the weekend: The Guardian columnist Orville Lloyd Douglas, who wrote the controversial article “Why I Hate Being a Black Man.” In his piece, which sparked widespread debate on the Internet, Douglas cited the negative stereotype of being a criminal, and people’s fear…
-
Obama Family Attends Oregon State-UMD Game
Since president Obama took office, the family has made it a point to attend at least one college basketball game a year. That game is whenever Oregon State plays a team in the Washington, D.C. area. This year the unlucky opponents were the Maryland Terrapins, who were stunned in a 90-83 loss in front of…
-
CEO Shocked by GQ Portrayal of Kendrick Lamar, Claims Racism
Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, CEO of Top Dog Entertainment, isn’t crazy about label star Kendrick Lamar landing GQ’s Man of the Year cover and accompanying story. “This week, Kendrick Lamar was named one of GQ’s 2013 Men of the Year, an honor that should have been celebrated as a milestone in his career and for…