culture

Beyoncé asked Kid President to kiss her on the cheek after the 10-year-old YouTube sensation asked her a slew of questions about the United Nations’ World Humanitarian Day campaign, the Huffington Post reports. The day, which was observed on Monday, honors aid workers who have lost their lives helping others. “I think it is so important for…

Lauren Walker, in a piece at xoJane, describes how her infatuation with women’s rights as a child was a way to numb the insecurities she felt as a black girl. She also realized that it closed her eyes to the erasure of black women within feminism. Ultimately, she says, “oppression in the guise of liberation for another…

In a piece for the Washington Post, Benjamin L. Crump, the lead attorney for Trayvon Martin’s family, is encouraging supporters of the Trayvon Martin movement to sign a petition on Change.org to amend “Stand your ground” laws in 21 states. He also says that these “Trayvon Martin voters” should come out in droves during the…

NBC New York and NY1 are reporting an alleged hate crime that took place outside a bar in the New York City borough of Queens early Saturday morning. Billie and Jacob James-Vogel were leaving Shi restaurant in Long Island City with a gay friend after celebrating Billie’s 40th birthday. As they walked down the street,…

(The Root) — A Waco, Texas, pastor made headlines yesterday when AmericanPreachers.com published a story about the minister banning weaves among the female leaders in his church. “Our black women are getting weaves trying to be something and someone they are not,” the Rev. A.J. Aamir told American Preachers. “Be real with yourself is all…

(The Root) — This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black in Western Art Archive at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. The durable medium of pottery preserves one of the most-intact surviving impressions of ancient Greek civilization. In addition to…

Although many say the Bible’s message is “come as you are,” one pastor in Texas is taking the adage to a whole new level. A.J. Aamir, of Resurrecting Faith in Waco, recently told the women on the church’s leadership staff not to wear weaves, reports Clutch magazine. His reason? He believes that women who wear…

Although nearly 98 percent of U.S. homes now have access to some kind of broadband service, about 20 percent of the population doesn’t use the Internet at home, work or school or on a mobile device. And the disparity is still greater within the black community than the white community, according to a New York…

Amid the multilple stories to be told about the candidates in this year’s New York City mayoral race, the one about New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and his family are some of the more interesting. De Blasio, who is of partly Italian descent (his surname comes from his mother), is married to…

(The Root) — August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with activist and entertainer Harry Belafonte not far away. It was one of the many moments in which Belafonte, throughout his career as an actor and singer, used his star…