culture

(The Root) — “My ancestors were former American slaves invited to live in the Dominican Republic when Haitians had control of the island. We know that these former slaves came from Philly. Samaná was mostly populated by American slaves. Everyone there pretty much has an American last name — mine from that side is Jones. What other information do…

(The Root) — Brooklyn, N.Y., resident LeRoy McCarthy has long been a fan of slain rapper Christopher Wallace, who was also known as Biggie Smalls, Big Poppa, Notorious BIG and so on. So he started an online petition to rename a street corner in honor of the rapper, who immortalized his Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in his…

Sitting in a wheelchair, Maya Angelou was still a “vivid presence in dark glasses and a sparkling black dress” as the 85-year-old writer accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Norman Mailer Center, according to the Associated Press. The annual gala took place at the New York Public Library on Thursday evening.  The AP reports…

(The Root) — Michael Fassbender, the actor who plays Master Edwin Epps in 12 Years a Slave, told an audience at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado that working with film director Steve McQueen is “painful.” “I like to be punished, and Steve likes to punish,” Fassbender joked, as he explained how it is every…

(The Root) — You don’t go to see 12 Years a Slave expecting a good time at the multiplex — the title alone is enough to disabuse anyone of that notion. No doubt about it, it’s a hard, hard slog, disturbing and despairing, gnawing at the spirit long after the last credits have rolled off…

In a bruising piece at the New York Times, Charles M. Blow writes that the 16-day shutdown of the federal government is emblematic of the danger and conflict that resides within leaders of the Republican Party. Congress has finally worked out a deal to end the government shutdown and dodge default, but not before the…

Dara Mathis says at For Harriet that the natural-hair revolution is showing society that black women’s beauty standards are not bound to relaxer kits, weave tracks or numbered curl patterns. We take verbal arms and umbrage against the mentality that polices anything black women do with their hair. But not only that, we are fighting…

At the Washington Examiner, columnist Cal Thomas asks, “Can something as tragic and immoral as slavery become, if not less tragic, then noble, even righteous, in the telling?” It can, and it does in the hands of The Root’s editor-in-chief, Henry Louis Gates Jr., in the upcoming PBS series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross,…

Editor’s note: This article contains a graphic image that may be unsuitable for young readers.  (The Root) — Benjamin Crump, the attorney for Trayvon Martin’s family, has become a new face in the fight for the equal treatment (under the law) of black and brown boys. Just months after a demoralizing verdict in George Zimmerman’s…