culture

Back on Aug. 18, Fox Sports sideline reporter Pam Oliver was doing what she usually does: giving viewers at home the latest updates on the Indianapolis Colts and New York Giants, who were scheduled to kick off their preseason game. Out of nowhere, while broadcasting, Oliver was hit in the side of the head by…

What was supposed to be a bust for counterfeit sports jerseys turned out to be so much more, after federal agents raided the home and business of Richard Schmidt. The Ohio resident, who is an ex-con, was discovered to have the kind of firearm stash that your favorite rapper only raps about, according to the…

(The Root) — Talk about ugly timing. Word comes from Atlanta that on the very day on which thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, the sons of Martin Luther King Jr. were dragging their sister into court, accusing her of planning to keep using their…

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…