culture

(The Root) — Trayvon Martin’s senseless death and his killer George Zimmerman’s recent acquittal have roused the nation from its perpetual slumber regarding race matters, inspiring nonviolent protests that have run the gamut from old-fashioned street demonstrations to more technologically innovative dissent through social media. It has been an impressive show of unity, the marches…

It wasn’t racism that caused George Zimmerman to be suspicious of Trayvon Martin, says Richard Cohen in the the Washington Post. It was statistics showing that young black males commit a disproportionate number of crimes. I don’t like what George Zimmerman did, and I hate that Trayvon Martin is dead. But I also can understand why Zimmerman…

Adamantly rejecting a claim that blacks “shrug off” killings in our own community, at PostBourgie Gene Demby argues instead that people are simply tired from caring too much.  Over at The Root, Keith Harrison resurrects a tired trope. “Where is the outrage in our community about all of those slain blacks, most of whom were male…

Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh drew strong criticism from black journalists on Wednesday after he announced on the air that it’s acceptable for him to use the n-word because some African Americans use it as slang, according to Media Matters. Gregory Lee Jr., president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said Limbaugh should know…

Having experienced both sides of the gender issue, black transgender activist Laverne Cox, in a piece at Advocate.com, describes how people would tiptoe around her and clutch their purses when she was perceived as a man, and how some of that changed when she appeared as a woman. Reactions from black and white people on…

As Italy’s first black minister, Cecile Kyenge has had to put up with an avalanche of racist remarks from her fellow ministers since assuming the position in April. The latest came from Sen. Roberto Calderoli, a member of the anti-immigration Northern League Party. During a speech to supporters, he compared Kyenge to an orangutan, reports…

Following a vociferous backlash in response to her interview earlier this week with Anderson Cooper on CNN, alongside news of a possible book deal, now apparently quashed, the woman known as juror B37 on Wednesday released a statement pushing for new laws that she says would have helped avoid George Zimmerman’s not-guilty verdict, CNN reports. “My…

Speaking in fairly definitive terms, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said on Tuesday that he will not run for president in 2016, and he also suggested that he had no plans to become the next attorney general, the Washington Post reports. “I am not running for president in 2016,” Patrick told reporters at UMass Boston, according…

While speaking to the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Tuesday evening in Washington, D.C., former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke about the “heartache” of the Trayvon Martin case, Politico reports. “My prayers are with the Martin family and with every family who loves someone who is lost to violence,” she said in an almost 30-minute…

Including hip-hip in the curriculum is not a new thing at universities, but Harvard University is taking its collaboration with the art form a step further. MTV is reporting that the prestigious Ivy League school has partnered with the organization Hiphop Archive to create the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellowship in honor of legendary rapper Nas. …