culture

(The Root) — The film 12 Years a Slave is a virtuosic and unrelenting depiction of pre-Civil War American slavery as seen through the eyes of a free black man lured into human trafficking at best, and damnation at the very least. To some, it’s one superlative art form — Solomon Northup’s literary masterpiece of…

(The Root) — “My girlfriend and I are planning to visit my mother. She’s upset because my mother has told us we’ll have to sleep in separate rooms, since we are not married. My girlfriend says I let my mother push me around too much, but my mother has always had these rules. My girlfriend…

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross provides a rare and provocative view of American colonists as the architects of slavery and racism, Jamelle Bouie writes at the Daily Beast. It also takes a hard look at Africans who sold other Africans into slavery.  Even if you accept that race is a social construct, separated…

Renowned neurosurgeon and Obama critic Ben S. Carson writes at the Washington Times that it’s time to consider alternatives to the Affordable Care Act, just in case it fails. He explains what one option — patient-controlled health savings accounts — would entail. Rather than complain about Obamacare, it might be useful to begin to discuss…

In the aftermath of the controversy surrounding Grambling State football players’ protests over school conditions, Brittney Cooper explores at Salon how massive Republican-driven budget cuts have endangered the welfare of this Louisiana school and other HBCUs. I grew up down the road from Grambling, and learned my appreciation for black college football and band culture,…

A fifth-grade teacher in Fort Worth, Texas, has ignited a firestorm of controversy after he reportedly separated students by race last week and then hurled insults at them and their families, CBS 11 reports. The Fort Worth Independent School District is investigating the incident. The event occurred Friday during a music class at Hazel Harvey…

(The Root) — When President Obama delivered remarks on the issue of race and racial profiling in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin verdict, he said the following: “There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes…

On Sunday in Chicago, while in town for several preaching engagements and to promote his new book, The Rejected Stone, the Rev. Al Sharpton announced that he is renting an apartment on the West Side of Chicago. Sharpton is making good on an announcement he made back in July, saying that he planned on taking…

Children who are spanked often go on to have higher levels of behavioral problems and low vocabulary scores by age 9, Columbia School of Social Work associate professor Michael MacKenzie writes in a piece at CNN. As a researcher, MacKenzie challenges experts in his field to do a better job communicating these findings to time-strapped parents.…