culture

Rick Wade, a former senior adviser in the Obama administration and deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Commerce Department, is considering a run against GOP South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Warren Bolton writes in The State. If Wade, who now heads a fledgling global-business-development firm, decides to step into the race, it would create…

Calling Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye “completely objectionable, from language to the content,” Republican Sen. Bill Holtzclaw of Alabama said it should be banned from schools, according to The Atlantic. Bowing to Tea Party pressure, Alabama State Senator Bill Holtzclaw said this week that he thinks The Bluest Eye, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison’s…

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…