culture

Mychal Denzel Smith writes a penetrating piece at the Nation about black women activists, through the prism of Sybrina Fulton and her life after George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of her 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin. In the country’s effort to “address the problem of anti-black racism, we neglect to consider the experiences of…

While it’s important for all women to take precautionary measures to avoid attacks, not enough men are being trained not to rape in the first place, Christiana Mbakwe writes in a piece at XOJane that tackles rape culture in America. Like many woman, I’ve bought into the fallacy that by adhering to a list of…

On her MSNBC show on Saturday, Melissa Harris-Perry slammed Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, for refusing to allow a former guest to testify about anti-poverty programs. She penned a letter to the congressman explaining that Washington need a safety net to fight poverty. Dear Congressman Ryan, It’s me, Melissa. Look,…

President Barack Obama turns 52 today and is spending part of the day at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, the Associated Press reports. The White House said little about how he’s celebrating. He played golf Saturday with friends from his days in Hawaii and Chicago. Some of them joined him at Camp David.…

(The Root) — John Singleton’s Poetic Justice was released in 1993 during a watershed period that saw a number of black films entering theaters. Janet Jackson starred as Justice, a poetry-loving hairstylist (the works of Maya Angelou were prominently featured), and Tupac Shakur played Lucky, a postal worker with dreams of making it big as…

Florida’s Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said his officers followed protocol when they fired 15 shots at unarmed Roy Howard Middleton, 60, because he failed to comply with their commands, according to Salon. During an interview on Thursday with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Morgan said that the officers saw a metallic object in Middleton’s hands as…

The Miami Herald is reporting that Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford has announced plans to order hearings this fall on the state’s controversial “Stand your ground” law. It is considered a victory for the Dream Defenders, a group of activists and professionals who began protesting at the capitol after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the…

Why are black female crime victims invisible? Joy Goh-Mah, at the Telegraph, asks the pertinent question after the global media virtually ignored recent news about the bodies of three black women being discovered in trash bags in Cleveland. Would there have been a public outcry if the victims had been white? On the July 21 the bodies…

In an evocative piece at Salon, Myisha Cherry deconstructs racial and gender privilege. She says acknowledging such privileges forces people to admit they didn’t achieve everything on their own. Privilege is a systematic structure that grants unearned advantage to a select few on the basis of their identity. Peggy McIntosh describes privilege as an “invisible package… of special provisions” —…

Republican leaders are once again resorting to fear-mongering and empty rhetoric in an effort to block Barack Obama’s budget proposals, Earl Ofari Hutchinson writes at his blog. He examines the GOP’s relentless budget sparring matches with the president. GOP Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is nothing if not persistent. And it’s always the same issue…