culture

Dr. Boyce Watkins, writing at Your Black World, slams Clear Channel for trafficking toxic and denigrating hip-hop and rap lyrics over its airwaves. He says the company must be confronted in court to put an end to negative messaging in the black community.  This week, I spoke at a conference hosted by the Center for…

Writing at the Washington Post, Jonathan Capehart explains why a detente may be fleeting in the latest searing bipartisan battle on Capitol Hill. He says President Barack Obama is done rewarding the GOP’s bad behavior.  As the sad drama of Miriam Carey was unfolding on Pennsylvania Avenue, I was listening to a Republican member of Congress talk…

Updated Oct. 6, 12:25 p.m. EDT: Washington police are investigating the use of deadly force in the shooting of 34-year-old Miriam Carey, who reportedly tried to ram her car through a White House barrier. The review comes after Carey’s family raised questions about the shooting, saying it was “unjustified.” Deadly force experts have also raised…

The Obama administration has been unflinching in its war on terror, despite exceptional political dysfunction at home, which includes a partial shutdown of the federal government. On Saturday, amid a day of bipartisan bickering over who is responsible for the closing of the government, came news of the capture of a Libyan al-Qaida leader, who…

Zerlina Maxwell, writing at BET, delivers a stern message to women passing off bad relationship advice: We are not in the 1950s. She is responding to advice from the sandwich-making New York Post reporter and one of the “Housewives,” who essentially suggest that women cater to their men in order to keep them. It’s 2013, but…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, at his Hutchinson Report News, says that the Republican Party’s debt-ceiling debate cannot be separated from its “never-ending hunt for any issue that can taint, embarrass and ultimately weaken the Obama presidency.” The GOP’s goal has altered only slightly since Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s oft repeated, and failed, vow to make…

Usher visited the set of Sesame Street this week and sang the ABC song along with the cast in a version that will delight the old and young. “You guys ready?” he asked Elmo, Murray, Grover and Addy Cadabby before launching into an R&B version of the song. “Let’s do it,” he said. “Clap your…

(The Root) — “Oral history tells me that my paternal great, great, great grandfather, Sanford Mason, was born in Virginia and sold as a slave. “Sanford met and married Nancy Jewett, and they had three children: Joe, Jeff and Eve. At some point, because of slavery, the family was separated. Sanford went to fight in…

Why are we so angry? Amid escalating violence in America, Don Lemon raises the salient question at BlackAmericaWeb and explores solutions. I might sound happy this morning but I’m actually scared to walk outside of my house sometimes. Sometimes I’m scared to log onto social media. I’m nervous to turn on the TV. Because I…