culture

Race relations in Florida returned to the spotlight this week when outrage erupted on Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee after a white student’s tweet referred to blacks as “monkeys,” according to Business Insider. The student claimed her Twitter account had been hacked, said authorities investigating the incident. Florida State University’s administration and police department…

The Atlantic‘s Ta-Nehisi Coates says it’s time for the Obama administration to re-evaluate its Syria strategy after a recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that an overwhelming number of Americans oppose a military strike. By a 48% to 29% margin, more Americans oppose than support conducting military air strikes against Syria in response…

Iranian-backed Shiite militias have issued warnings that they will retaliate against American interests in Iraq if the U.S. proceeds with strikes against Syria, the Associated Press reports, citing Iraqi security officials and militants themselves. Iraqi officials say they are taking the warnings seriously. The threats, which come as President Barack Obama’s administration and Congress debate…

Writing at the New Inquiry, Ayesha Siddiqi argues that broad interpretations of styles that flow out of pop culture should never really be surprising, but in contrasting so deeply with her “white girl” image, Miley Cyrus earns both praise and scorn for her MTV Video Music Awards “struggle-twerk.”  [Miley Cyrus’] loyalty to the white girlhood she…

In a powerful piece at Ebony, Jamilah Lemieux issues a stern rebuke to those who think that black people can police themselves into becoming respected or validated by white people. She asks, “How are white folks gonna confront their biases when at every turn there’s a black person willing to hop up and tell them that we are really…

(The Root) — “My name is Linda Brown, and I have definitely hit a dead end regarding my great-grandfather, Firmin Francois Fortier. How do I find out if he was really born in Martinique? The story in the family is that he was born in Martinique on Oct. 27, 1850, to a French father and…

The Labor Department released its August jobs report today, showing that the nation’s employers added 169,000 jobs last month, just slightly below what economists had predicted. The overall unemployment rate fell to 7.3 percent from 7.4 percent, but mostly because people dropped out of the labor pool and were no longer being counted as unemployed,…

Saying they are still gathering information, several members of the Congressional Black Caucus apparently are not ready to rubber-stamp President Barack Obama’s plan to strike Syria, according to The Hill. Black Democrats were among the most consistently vocal opponents of the Iraq war a decade ago, and they’re now among the most reluctant to endorse…

Shellie Zimmerman, the wife of George Zimmerman, has filed for divorce, according to ABC News.  The petition says the couple, married in 2007, “separated on Aug. 13, 2013 and are not presently cohabiting as husband and wife. The marriage between the parties is irretrievably broken.” They have no children. Shellie Zimmerman, 26, has asked for…

New York City can’t get enough of Dante de Blasio, and it’s not just the striking Afro that sits atop his head like a crown. The 16-year-old son of New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio continues to impress with his poise and maturity. Though that hair does make for quite the cutting figure…