culture

Legendary jazz musician George Duke passed away on Monday at the age of 67, the Associated Press is reporting. He had been receiving treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The keyboardist and producer, who worked in a variety of genres with luminaries ranging from Quincy Jones to Miles Davis, had just released the album DreamWeaver, which…

A study done by the Huffington Post takes a critical look at the lack of diversity on magazine covers. The study tallied the number of white and black women who graced the cover of magazines like Cosmo and Teen Vogue from September 2012 to September 2013. While there was a 50-50 split for some publications,…

(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. Within the plain, candlelit space of a large, open-raftered kitchen, a convivial gathering of…

(The Root) — In 1987 a 15-year-old black girl from upstate New York became the center of a national media circus. Tawana Brawley had gone missing, which, of course, wasn’t the story. It was when she was found that all hell broke loose. After her four-day absence, a neighbor discovered Brawley, seemingly unconscious and unresponsive,…

More people are being jailed for crimes they committed because of mental illness. And many of them are destined to cycle in and out of the criminal-justice system without getting the help they need because of a reduction in treatment facilities. According to The Economist, it costs much more to jail a mentally ill person…

In a piece for the Huffington Post, Antwaun Sargent tackles why the CNN anchor’s statements about black men are so stinging. Sargent explains that Don Lemon’s words only perpetuate the stereotypes that white America already has about black men.  I have by Don Lemon’s estimation done all the right things. I am a 24 year…

Julius Chambers, a Charlotte, N.C., civil rights attorney who successfully brought eight cases before the Supreme Court, died Friday at age 76, the Associated Press reports. Chambers, a former director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was chancellor of North Carolina Central University from 1993 to 2001. He is survived by…

After years of waiting, about 18,000 U.S. farmers are set to receive payments from the Department of Agriculture as part of a $1.2 billion discrimination settlement with the department, the Clarion Ledger reports. Attorneys for the farmers were expected to submit papers to the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., regarding final payment on Friday.…

U.S. diplomatic posts in 19 cities in the Muslim world will be closed at least through the end of the week, the State Department said Sunday, citing “an abundance of caution,” the Associated Press reports. On Friday, the Obama administration announced the closings over the weekend, and officials issued a global travel alert, warning that…

America’s political arena started to become polarized nearly 25 years ago, after conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh syndicated his act, L.Z. Granderson writes at CNN. It also marks the time when Republicans began carrying the talk-show host’s literal and emotional baggage. If you want to know why there’s little cooperation in Washington these days, I’d…