culture
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Rangel Hits Tea Partiers, Calls Them 'White Crackers'
In a wide-ranging interview with the Daily Beast published on Friday, 83-year-old Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) railed against the Tea Party, likening members to whites in the South who fought to preserve segregation during the civil rights movement. He also hit Republicans, accusing the party of sabotaging American competitiveness. There is little question that Rangel is nearing…
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Strong Black Women Do Cry
Danielle C. Belton, writing at Clutch magazine, details her own emotional history in a fresh and revealing piece about, well, crying. She argues that it’s not just for white girls or something that black women do out of anger. Black women deal with a lot of “expectations” about our behavior and what we should or should…
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New Jersey's Poor Living in Tent Cities
Tent cities have sprung up in Camden, N.J., one of the poorest cities in the nation, and other parts of the state as residents struggle to make ends meet, according to My9NJ. A chef at a nearby kitchen that feeds the poor in Camden told My9NJ that some of the people have lost their jobs…
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How Do I Research My Gullah Heritage?
(The Root) — “I have an insatiable appetite for history and so does my father. He was born on Cherokee Plantation in Yemassee, S.C. (the Lowcountry), and that area still has a very rich Gullah heritage. “I have been able to go back to the 1880 census, but a lot of records in South Carolina…
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Hacker Prompts Colin Powell to Deny Affair
Former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell has released a strong statement of denial after a hacker known as Guccifer threatened to distribute “very personal” emails sent to him by a female Romanian diplomat, the Smoking Gun reports. In a statement addressing his relationship with Corina Cretu, a member of the European Parliament who previously held a…
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July Jobs Numbers: Black Unemployment Down
(The Root) — The Labor Department released its July jobs report today, showing that the economy added 162,000 jobs last month, and the overall unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent from 7.6 percent in June, according to the U.S. Labor Department. More good news: The overall unemployment rate for African Americans edged down to 12.6…
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Diddy Taps Keith Clinkscales to Run Revolt TV
(The Root) — Keith Clinkscales, a former ESPN executive, has been tapped to lead Revolt TV. Sean “Diddy” Combs named Clinkscales chief executive officer of his music-oriented channel, Revolt TV, according to a news release. Combs also announced that industry veteran Andy Schuon will serve as president, and Val Boreland as executive vice president of programming…
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Jay-Z's HBO Documentary Strives to Reunite Hip-Hop and the Arts
(The Root) — When Jay Z performed “Picasso Baby” in a swanky New York City art gallery last month, he looked polished in a crisp white button-up, and he wore one of hip-hop’s most iconic symbols: a gold chain. Just one week prior, exhibits ranging in price from $10,000 to half-a-million dollars filled the same…
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The Strange Career of the N-Word
(The Root) — Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper’s recent apology for using the n-word during a confrontation with a black security guard at a country music concert last month exemplifies the power of a word rooted in racial slavery, Jim Crow segregation and racism. Cooper, a Kenny Chesney fan, presumably did not learn this…
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'Fruitvale Station': Too Difficult to Watch?
(The Root) — “I just don’t think I’m ready,” explained a friend as we discussed possible plans to go see Fruitvale Station, the critically acclaimed film that depicts the final 24 hours of 22-year-old Oscar Grant’s life. On New Year’s Day 2009, the unarmed and handcuffed Grant was shot and killed by a transit-police officer…