culture

In a nod to author Norman Mailer’s 1957 description of whites who appropriate black culture as “white Negroes,” David J. Leonard writes at the Chronicle of Higher Education about a new subgenre of hip-hop called frat rap. It serves up rhymes about all things white and middle class, he says. Adele, Justin Timberlake, Eminem, Teena…

Writing at Time, John McWhorter argues that speculation about Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker’s sexuality is all wrong. It would be greatly advantageous to the New Jersey Democratic Senate candidate to be an openly gay politician on the national stage, he writes. “I don’t intend to answer.” “So what does it matter if I am?”…

South African President Jacob Zuma’s office said on Sunday that Nelson Mandela has been discharged from the Pretoria hospital where he had been receiving treatment since June, according to CNN. The former South African president will continue his recovery at home. “Madiba’s condition remains critical and is at times unstable,” President Jacob Zuma’s office said,…

Updated Sunday, Sept. 1, 6:07 p.m. EDT: Serena Williams defeated Sloane Stephens Sunday at the U.S. Open, “pulling away from the young American for a 6-4, 6-1 win to return to the U.S. Open quarterfinals,” the Associated Press reports. Stephens beat a hobbling Williams in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in January. But in the…

(The Root) — Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan, in his weekly YouTube address, challenges the Obama administration’s call for military intervention in Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons during the country’s civil war. He states pointedly that the Syrian government has nothing to gain by using chemical weapons against its citizens.…

(The Root) — In 1935, when Congress passed the Social Security Act, supporters declared it one of the pivotal moments in the country’s history.   The act, which created a guaranteed income source for most American workers during retirement, was a declaration of the country’s faith that the economy would not only rebound from the…

The conspicuous failure of Republicans to pay homage to Martin Luther King Jr. this week reveals precisely where African Americans rank in the party’s pecking order and highlights the nation’s widening racial chasm, Jonathan P. Hicks writes at BET. There was one group curiously absent from the memorializing: Republicans.  Not one GOP figure attended the event…

Writing at Ebony, Lesli-Ann Lewis, who attended Dave Chappelle’s controversial recent return to the stage in Connecticut, writes that the comedian did not have a meltdown and argues that the problem was with the audience. The Oddball “Funny or Die” tour was supposed to be Chappelle’s big return to stand up (again). Shorty after taking…

Professor Cornel West, the radio personality and scholar, on Friday lashed out at organizers of Wednesday’s 50th-anniversary commemoration of the March on Washington, saying that it offered scant celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. and his accomplishments, according to Mediaite. He said the event merely highlighted “the coronation of the bona fide house Negro of…

MSNBC‘s Al Sharpton Friday slammed Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly for being disingenuous in his apology for incorrectly assuming that members of the Republican Party were not invited to speak at the 50th-anniversary celebration of the March on Washington. O’Reilly really struck a nerve with Sharpton when he said the apology was important because his viewers…