culture
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DOMA: 'I Still Can't Marry My Girlfriend'
The Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage is good for the LGBT community, but it doesn’t lower the unemployment rate or provide health care for gay people of color, Jasmyne A. Cannick writes at The Advocate. Cannick uses bits and pieces of her own story to describe how the right to marry is not a…
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Why Section 3 Could Save the Voting Rights Act
MSNBC‘s Adam Serwer writes that Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act could save the law because it allows the federal government to require jurisdictions with recent records of discrimination to submit their election-law changes for clearance. Voting rights advocates are testing whether a little-used provision of the Voting Rights Act could limit the damage of…
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Is Empathy for Zimmerman Racist?
(The Root) — In her third Reddit Ask Me Anything, our Race Manners columnist, Jenée Desmond-Harris, opened herself up to more of your burning questions about race. Check out the conversation here. jdaniels2002: Growing up, I always heard my dad say, “NOTHING in America happens where race isn’t a factor.” My dad is 60 now,…
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Mariah Carey Rushed to the Hospital
The New York Post is reporting that Mariah Carey was rushed to the hospital late Monday after dislocating her shoulder while filming her latest video. The superstar was rushed to New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery on the Upper East Side late last night to have her shoulder reset after she fell while filming a…
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Johnny Depp's African-American Roots
While Johnny Depp’s latest effort in The Lone Ranger as Tonto may be a box office flop, the actor has a great personal story to tell. New research from Ancestry.com reveals that he is a direct descendant of Elizabeth Key, a former slave who worked within the law to win her freedom on July 21, 1656. Before there was…
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Racism Can Make You Sick
As if people of color didn’t already have enough to worry about, now Harvard sociologist David Williams says that racial minorities who live in race-conscious societies get sick at younger ages, have more severe illnesses and die sooner than whites, according to Psychology Today. Williams was one of several presenters at a conference last week…
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Zimmerman Trial: Trayvon's Tox Report Allowed
(The Root) — Jurors on Tuesday could hear evidence that Florida teen Trayvon Martin may have been under the influence of marijuana on the night he was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, possibly making him hostile. Attorneys for Zimmerman, who is on trial for second-degree murder, are expected to call an expert to testify that…
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Female Inmates Sterilized Without Consent in California
From 2006 to 2010, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 women without getting the proper state approval, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting. The procedure, known as a tubal ligation, was performed by doctors under contract with the CDCR. The doctors were given state funds to perform the procedure, which…
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Who Was David Livingstone?
(The Root) — This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black in Western Art Archive at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Since his “rediscovery” by Stanley in 1871, David Livingstone, the legendary missionary, explorer and abolitionist, has remained one of…
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We Need to Get Over Blue Ivy's Hair
(The Root) — Over the weekend, a popular gossip site posted a cutesy picture of Beyoncé and her daughter, Blue Ivy, having a playdate at a park. Bey was dressed in her casual ’90s best, her preferred look when she’s not preening for the cameras or performing (as she did Sunday night at the Essence…