culture

(The Root) — Moments after the jury acquitted George Zimmerman, a friend of a colleague described how his 10-year-old African-American son looked at him and said, “Daddy, I’m scared.” These three words gave him chills, he said, and illustrate a collective fear among young black boys about the value of their lives. It also brings into…

(The Root) — 2013 has been a banner year for high-profile public displays of racism. Whether it was Paula Deen wishing for an antebellum wedding or Brad Paisley crooning about being an “Accidental Racist,” the first seven months of 2013 have been full of racist missteps. But sometimes the apologies are even worse than the…

In nearly 100 cities across the nation on Saturday, scores of demonstrators gathered to support Trayvon Martin, the unarmed 17-year-old whose shooting death in Florida last year underscored racial tensions in America and propelled a fiery debate about the profiling of young black males. The point of the rallies, which took place in cities including New…

At the Washington Post’s “She The People” blog, Mary C. Curtis argues that if President Barack Obama nominates New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly as head of Homeland Security, they should both expect pointed questions about the department’s massively aggressive stop-and-frisk program and his record in general. But while the president was not asked, nor did…

Roxane Gay, in a trenchant piece at Salon, breaks down the varying ways in which Trayvon Martin, a victim, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, an alleged terrorist, have been racially profiled by the media and Americans in general. She points out that the light reflects a kinder glow on Tsarnaev, who is white, than on Martin, who was…

Michael W. Waters, founding pastor of Joy Tabernacle A.M.E. in Dallas, Texas, writes at the Huffington Post that it is incumbent upon churches, among others, to help turn the tide of youth gang violence before it eliminates an entire generation. He says it’s a problem for all of America to tackle, not just cities such…

While President Barack Obama has garnered mostly praise for his remarks on race and George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the death of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Tavis Smiley, talk show host and frequent critic of the president, offered a different take. He criticized the president for taking too long to address the verdict, tweeting, “Took POTUS…

During a brief segment on her MSNBC show on Saturday, Melissa Harris-Perry and reporter Kristen Welker paid tribute to longtime White House journalist Helen Thomas, who passed away at the age 92. Thomas began covering the White House in 1961 when John F. Kennedy was president and served until her retirement in 2010. Before her…

A Michigan county circuit judge on Friday ordered that Detroit’s federal bankruptcy filing be withdrawn because the governor and the city’s emergency manager violated the state constitution, according to the Detroit News. The state has appealed the order.  Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemary Aquilina urged Gov. Rick Snyder to read certain sections of Michigan’s constitution,…

Iran’s foreign ministry entered the growing debate surrounding George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of the unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Friday, criticizing the verdict and America for widespread racial discrimination, the Washington Times reports. “The acquittal of the murderer of the teenage African American once again clearly demonstrated the unwritten, but systematic racial…