culture

Pastor Marvin Winans missed an opportunity to begin “training a child up” when he recently refused to bless the son of an unwed mother, writes Washington Post columnist Rahiel Tesfamariam. Prominent pastor Marvin Winans of Perfecting Church in Detroit joins a growing list of preachers who have recently made headlines for taking theological positions that…

Fox Searchlight’s 12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen and starring Chiwetel Ejifor, triumphed this weekend at the box office during its limited opening in 19 theaters, grossing $960,000, Deadline Hollywood reports.   Searchlight said Sunday that the film, produced by New Regency, reached an “incredibly diverse audience,” adding, “We have been attracting both…

A young Detroit mother was heartbroken recently when her request was denied to have her 2-year-old son blessed by famed gospel singer and pastor Marvin Winans during a special ceremony. Why? Well, it seems that Winans, pastor of the Perfecting Church in Detroit, has a strict policy of not blessing the babies of unwed mothers…

(The Root) — The NAACP Saturday announced that Lorraine C. Miller, a member of the national board of directors since 2008, would become interim president and CEO of the 104-year-old organization. In doing so, she’s the organization’s first interim president and the first woman to fill the president-executive secretary’s role since 1916, a spokesman told…

(The Root) — The “Best Colleges” rankings from US News & World Report are usually an opportunity for many colleges and universities to go into PR overdrive to attract the best and brightest to their campuses. For other schools, it’s an opportunity to take stock of their aspirational goals. For Howard University, the school’s decline…

Writing at Salon, Andrew O’Hehir says that the poisonous effects of white supremacy, clearly depicted in 12 Years a Slave, “endure in American politics” and were on full display during the 16-day shutdown of the federal government. Five years before the beginning of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee – future commander of the Confederate States of…

While Kim Kardashian’s post-baby physique looks great, she has essentially morphed into Kanye West’s personal blow-up doll, Michael Arceneaux laments at Clutch magazine.  Kim Kardashian’s [a—] looks amazing on Instagram. I wouldn’t touch her even if I had Kanye West’s penis in my hand, but she gets a “gon’, girl” all the same. Still, all I could…

Grambling State football players refused to travel to Jackson, Miss., to suit up in a game Saturday against Jackson State, after complaints about mold and mildew on equipment and in facilities fell on deaf ears, ESPN reports. The cancellation, announced Friday by officials at the school in Grambling, La., was also the result of leadership…

News 4 Jacksonville has unveiled disturbing letters written by Michael Dunn, the 45-year-old Florida man charged with last year’s shooting of 17-year-old Jordan Davis. The incident occurred after Dunn, who is white, and the black teen clashed over loud music while in their cars. Dunn, who says he acted in self-defense and writes that he…