culture

Arguing that America’s so-called war on drugs has contributed to the disintegration of black communities, destroyed families and bloated the prison system, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, at the Hutchinson Report News, applauds Attorney Gen. Eric Holder for planning to end America’s so-called war on drugs. A frank admission that the laws are biased and unfair, and…

Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk-show host, hit a new low Friday. He said on his radio program that Oprah Winfrey’s widely publicized encounter with racism at a Swiss boutique was perhaps because the clerk thought she was “fat,” not because she was black, according to Salon. Oprah has said in recent interviews that a clerk…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has a plan to help integrate communities across the nation as housing policies have been ineffective at creating “the kind of communities the agency had hoped for,” according to U.S. News & World Report. Many neighborhoods are racially imbalanced or lean too much toward the rich or…

Bloomberg provides a video tour of the first family’s spectacular $7.6 million Martha’s Vineyard vacation spot. The 4-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot home sits on 9.5 acres, boasts floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the Atlantic Ocean and has an infinity-edge pool. Click here to watch the video. Read more at Bloomberg.

The Washington Post is reporting that on Sunday the State Department plans to reopen 18 of the 19 U.S. embassies and consulates in the Middle East and Africa that were closed last week in the wake of terrorist threats.  It said Friday that the embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, would remain closed “because of ongoing concerns…

The Associated Press is reporting that Swiss tourism officials and the owner of an upscale boutique in Zurich issued apologies on Friday to Oprah after a clerk intimated that the media mogul could not afford an expensive handbag. Oprah was in Switzerland to attend Tina Turner’s wedding when the incident occurred. Billionaire media mogul Oprah…

Ethnocentric Hollywood producers and American moviegoers would foil any plot to cast Batman as black, the Portland Mercury’s Bobby Roberts argues in response to the widening debate about people of color playing roles of classic superheroes. … It’s a strange tug-of-war that many superhero fans are engaged in. There’s the desire to see superheroes look…

(The Root) — Now that we live in an age in which the president of the United States has referenced gay Americans in his inaugural address and publicly supports same-sex marriage, it’s hard to remember a time when coming out as gay was career-ending. And at a time when Magic Johnson is thought of first…

(The Root) — “My father’s grandfather, Will D. Carter, born in 1875 in Fayette County, Ky., is listed as being white in the 1880 census. The family is listed as white, too. But by the time the 1910 census rolled around, he was listed as black. My father remembers a picture of him that used…