culture

(The Root) — “My cousin on my mom’s side of the family has done extensive research on our family background. From what she has obtained thus far, it appears as if my mom’s family are descendants of Gen. Braxton Bragg (Fort Bragg is named after him). There have been a few challenges trying to see…

Whispers of a Tupac Shakur biopic have been around since Sept. 14, 1996. That was the day after the rapper died from gunshot wounds in Las Vegas. At the time of his death at the age of 25, Tupac was arguably hip-hop’s biggest star for all the wrong and right reasons. Numerous arrests and run-ins…

The story of absentee fathers is all too familiar in the black community. More than 53 percent of black children only have a mother in the home. Everyone from local preachers to the man once known as America’s favorite dad, Bill Cosby, has raised the issue. But even as the crisis continues, there are people…

UPDATED Saturday, Sept. 21, 9:55 a.m. EDT: Chicago Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy on Friday called for a ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, a day after gunmen opened fire at a South Side park, wounding 13, including a 3-year-old boy, CNN reports. “An assault-style rifle with a high-capacity magazine was used in the shooting,…

(The Root) — When it comes to teaching America’s ugly history of slavery, how far is too far? What’s the appropriate age and approach? The answers to these questions are being discussed right now in Hartford, Conn., where the school system is under fire for a controversial field trip and methodology of teaching seventh-grade middle…

(Special to The Root) — The Bondwoman’s Narrative is believed to be the first novel ever written by an African-American woman. The book was purchased at auction by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. in 2001 and published in 2002, becoming a best-seller. New research has uncovered the identity of the mystery author. She was…

(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…