culture

Nine-year-old Asean Johnson, who made a splash earlier this summer when he criticized the Chicago Board of Education for massive school closures, returned on Wednesday to appeal to officials to save teachers, the Huffington Post reports. The emotional plea came after the board announced thousands of teacher layoffs last week. The Marcus Garvey Elementary student…

In an interview with MTV’s Hive, actor Tristan “Mack” Wilds was asked about the possibility of there being a movie version of The Wire. Wilds played the likable bad guy Michael Lee in the fourth and fifth seasons of the groundbreaking HBO drama and is currently promoting his music debut, in which he’s rapping under the…

Texas Gov. Rick Perry expressed outrage at the Department of Justice on Thursday, after the attorney general announced plans to try to persuade a federal court to subject his state to election-law scrutiny in order to protect minority voters, MSNBC reports. Thursday morning, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department would try to persuade a…

(The Root) — Few theatrical productions are the talk of the town as much as the National Theatre’s Othello currently is. Make no mistake: Shakespearean tragedy comes no better than this. Nicholas Hytner’s swan song production after a decade as artistic director at the National is nothing short of masterful. This is Hytner’s Sistine Chapel,…

(The Root) — There was a time long, long ago (OK, decades ago) when the dance everyone was doing at every party actually required a partner. The Hustle craze took off following the release of Van McCoy’s song of the same name, which hit No. 1 on the charts 39 years ago, on July 26,…

More than a dozen Caribbean countries are organizing an effort to seek compensation from Britain, France and the Netherlands to pay for what they call the lasting legacy of the Atlantic slave trade, the Associated Press reports. The Caribbean Community, a regional organization that typically focuses on rather dry issues such as economic integration, has…

The Rev. Rodney Francis of St. Louis is urging parents to stop buying toy guns for their children in an effort to stanch the number of shooting deaths in the community and change the culture of violence. Michael H. Cottman, at BlackAmericaWeb.com, says that’s not such a bad idea, but parents need to help, especially…

Mother Jones‘ Lauren Williams examines the North Carolina GOP Legislature’s recent revisions to a photo-ID bill. She explains why it just may be the nation’s most onerous and restrictive voter-ID law in recent history.  For decades, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 required cities, counties and states with histories of discriminatory voting laws to seek…

As Paula Deen’s right-hand woman, Dora Charles says that she and the celebrity chef were “soul sisters” long before Deen became a national cooking sensation. Working in Deen’s kitchens for 22 years, Charles helped Deen train cooks, develop recipes and launch her first Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah, Ga. But in a piece in…

(The Root) — “Why don’t nice guys ever win? I’m tired of being overlooked and unappreciated.” —W.N. There are women who wouldn’t be able to spot a good man, or even a man who is good for them (there’s a difference), if every guy wore a list on his forehead that included his character traits,…