culture

Gladiators, get ready: The second-most-important moment that Scandal fans have been waiting for is finally here: the first official teaser for the season 3 premiere (the most important is the night the show comes back). But there is some additional news, not only for die-hard fans but also for newbies who are thinking of giving…

Justice has finally prevailed for Robert Miles of Syracuse, N.Y. Seven years after being duped out of a winning $5 million scratch-off ticket, he will receive his winnings within the next couple of weeks, the Associated Press reports. The maintenance worker, who bought the ticket in October 2006, tried to claim his winnings at the…

The scrutiny of Cory Booker continues, but instead of his sexuality, the National Review is going after his credibility. Since the first time he ran for mayor, unsuccessfully, in 2002, Booker has woven into his speeches a story about a drug dealer he befriended named T-Bone. Booker has given detailed anecdotes about his relationship with…

(The Root) — For as long as Africans in America have been producing music for the recording industry, there’s remained a tension between black performance styles and the mainstream society that benefits. This hasn’t always been a bad thing. There are times when the use of black style and form has moved pop culture to…

(The Root) — Once praised only for their athleticism and running ability, black NFL quarterbacks today are bucking a system that has stereotyped them since the beginning of the National Football League. The new crop of black NFL quarterbacks are eager to show everyone that they can torch opponents with their feet but just as…

(The Root) — Tamron Hall is already considered one of the best-dressed women in the news biz, according to Vanity Fair magazine, and now she is officially one of the busiest. Already an anchor for MSNBC’s NewsNation With Tamron Hall, she is also a regular substitute anchor for NBC’s Today show. As if two jobs…

At the New Yorker, Jelani Cobb delivers trenchant criticism of President Barack Obama’s leadership. Responding to his remarks on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, Cobb asks, “Has a black presidency moved us closer to the ideal of King’s dream, or reflected its exhaustion as a real possibility?” Four years have passed [since…

Recent Hampton University graduate Nicole Breeden was shocked that her $100,000 degree didn’t come with a cheat sheet to instant success or a black credit card, she writes at Clutch magazine. She castigates the hip-hop industry for encouraging hopes of achieving extraordinary wealth that most people will never obtain. The fantasy, she says, promotes cynicism…

Colorlines‘ Imara Jones admonishes the president for blaming people of color for persistent economic inequality during his speech for the March on Washington’s 50th anniversary. He said that Obama’s talk was long on rhetoric and short on substance. On the very site of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the nation’s first black…

The Daily News is reporting that Carson Huey-You, who just started his freshman year at Texas Christian University, is the youngest person ever to attend the private university in Fort Worth. He was in high school at the age of 5. Today he is 11 years old and taking a full college load, including physics, calculus,…