culture

Casual basketball fans might have already thought that Allen Iverson stepped away from basketball and that they just missed the press conference. But Iverson, 38, never made his retirement official. Instead, reports over the years were always about him trying to get a spot on a roster both overseas and in the U.S. Only now,…

(The Root) — “I’ve been dating a lady for a while, so I figured it was time for her to meet my son, who is biracial. She was very nice to him. However, on the way home, she said she was surprised that as a white guy I’d had a child with a black woman.…

(The Root) — The March on Washington is considered one of the greatest gatherings for equal rights in human history. Yet while the crowd congregated to push for the equality of black Americans and workers’ rights, female participants in the march, and the civil rights movement as a whole, struggled for equal treatment, acknowledgment and…

(The Root) — Before the ladies of Sex and the City pounded the New York City pavement in their stilettos and before our new-millennium Girlfriends were taking over Los Angeles, we tuned in to our girls Khadijah (Queen Latifah), Synclaire (Kim Coles), Max (Erika Alexander), Regine (Kim Fields) — and the guys, Kyle (Terrence Carson)…

Kevin Hart, responding to criticism of his relationships, expressed frustration with black women, saying they “assume they know your life,” MadameNoire reports. Kevin Hart stays in trouble with black women[,] doesn’t he? At least that’s what we gathered from the controversy, or better yet criticisms, that have seemed to follow his career since he entered the…

Is blue-eyed soul a form of cultural appreciation or appropriation? Spurred by Robin Thicke’s soulful summer hit, “Blurred Lines,” Michael A. Gonzales explores the question at Ebony.  Nevertheless, while “Blurred Lines” is most definitely one of the hottest songs of the season, Robin Thicke also retains his spot as one of the more popular “blue-eyed soul” singers…

Today’s youths, like their forebears in the civil rights movement, are turning to strategic protest to challenge the status quo, including fighting to end “Stand your ground” laws, Dani McClain writes at Colorlines. Since July 16 — three days after the George Zimmerman verdict was announced — [Curtis] Hierro and between a dozen and 60…

(The Root) — Starting this Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013, at 3 p.m. EDT, The Root, in partnership with the NAACP and the Black Youth Project, will kick off the “Martin Moment” series on Google+. Against the backdrop of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington, and the reinvigorated discussion…

Writing at CNN, Tavis Smiley argues that racism is one reason it took the federal government so long to change harsh, mandatory sentencing guidelines for certain low-level, nonviolent drug offenders. The laws primarily affected minorities, especially black men, he says. As I watched the announcement by Attorney General Eric Holder this past week in San Francisco…