culture

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz told Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, that “Stand your ground” laws actually benefit African Americans as much as they do whites, the Atlantic Wire reports. During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Cruz said that the law didn’t hold any negative racial implications. Since many black people are victims of violent…

The musical gods have seen fit to bless the minions with this announcement: Stevie Wonder plans to release two new albums, and he will be performing in concert songs from one of his most acclaimed albums, 1976’s Songs in the Key of Life, CBS News reports. The 63-year-old musical genius says the albums will be a…

Civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton and the CEO of Barneys, Mark Lee, had a closed-door meeting to discuss recent allegations of racial profiling at the New York department store, the the Huffington Post reports. The two met at Sharpton’s National Action Network in Harlem. “We had a very candid and open meeting today…

The Hells Angels are going hard at gangster rapper Young Jeezy and his 8732 Apparel for jacking their Death Head logo, TMZ reports. According to the website, the infamous motorcycle club has filed a lawsuit claiming that the rapper’s clothing brand has used the logo on jackets, vests and hats. While the design isn’t an exact…

(The Root) — Like an incurable and recurring infection, blackface just never seems to go away. This disease rages throughout the nation and in other places around the world. What is it about blackface? What is it that attracts people to do it? Could blackface be the equivalent of smoking crack for some people? You know that…

(The Root) — 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen’s critically acclaimed movie opening nationwide on Nov. 8, is the most powerful cinematic depiction of slavery ever seen on-screen. The critical buzz surrounding the film has rightfully focused on the combination of its astonishing performances, nuanced script and unflinching examination of antebellum slavery’s impact on a…

In light of Sheryl Sandberg’s campus initiative to promote her best-seller, Lean In, bell hooks, in a piece at the Feminist Wire, is critical of Sandberg’s “simplistic description of the feminist movement.” Sandberg’s brand of feminism, she argues, flies in the face of the work that so many scholars have done to clarify and strengthen the equality for women movement. …

In a piece at Ebony magazine, Jamilah Lemieux says she’s finally getting the message that some white people have been sending black people for years regarding racially insensitive Halloween costumes: They don’t care about the history; they just want to do what they want to do. So stop trying to create a teachable moment — or…