culture

(The Root) — The year 1963 was a major turning point in the civil rights movement, both in tragedy and hope: the death of Medgar Evers, the Birmingham campaign, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A new movie written and produced by Tonya Lewis Lee examines the impact of that year on a…

Dominique Hazzard writes in a piece at Disrupting Dinner Parties that it’s important to integrate white sororities because after graduation, most of the members go on to become involved in organizations in larger society. Whether or not we like “this inherently flawed system,” she writes, opening it up “to students of color will lead to…

Chicago native Joshua Adams writes in a piece at Ebony that the media need to change the conversation about his hometown. Although the city frequently makes headlines because of its spiraling crime rate, media talking points never include the impact of institutional racism on the lives of residents, he says. Conservatives will bring up violence…

ln light of intractable racist attitudes that are repeatedly expressed in heinous encounters across the nation, Brittney Cooper writes at Salon that America is a long ways away from becoming postracial, despite accomplishments by blacks like President Obama and Oprah Winfrey. The 50th anniversary of the 16th Street church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., was sandwiched…

(The Root) — There has been little to celebrate in media in recent weeks — particularly if you are a black American. In addition to this week’s tragic Navy yard shooting, of which the alleged perpetrator, Aaron Alexis, was black, there was a report from the U.S. Census Bureau that the majority of American children…

Fresh on the heels of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, his personal secretary is set to auction off a page from the iconic address, along with more than 100 other items, the Associated Press reports. Maude Ballou…

With all of the bad news making headlines these days, Glen James represents a welcome change. You see, James has been homeless since 2005. He made news this week when he returned a lost backpack containing $2,000 in cash, almost $40,000 in traveler’s checks, Chinese passports and other personal papers despite his harsh situation, ABC 7 reports. He…

(The Root) — One week after it was revealed that the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority at the University of Alabama didn’t allow a biracial student into its organization because of pressure from alumnae members, members of the university at large are now speaking out in protest.  The New York Times reported from Tuscaloosa, Ala., where…

(The Root) — “My husband is working overseas on business for several more months. He keeps asking me to make a sex tape for him so he can watch it and think about me over there. I am afraid he will either show it to his friends or lose control of it. But I don’t…

“The forward movement” on Obamacare is “not unqualified good news,” Imara Jones writes in a piece at Colorlines that examines the pros and cons of the linchpin of the Affordable Care Act — millions of uninsured Americans’ ability to sign up for plans on their own or through Medicaid — which takes effect on Oct.…