culture

Deadline Hollywood has obtained a moving letter that director Lee Daniels wrote to Warner Bros. Entertainment CEO Kevin Tsujihara urging him to screen The Butler. Daniels explains that he has spent four years working on the film, which tells the dark and beautiful story of our nation’s racial history. It’s a last-ditch appeal to retain…

(The Root) — The prosecution did not meet its goal of resting the case against George Zimmerman on Wednesday. That may be a good thing for the state because prosecutors arguably have not met their burden of proving that Zimmerman murdered Florida teen Trayvon Martin. On the eighth day of testimony, the state presented the…

Arguing that the last thing African Americans need is for one of their own to speak down to them, Ebony‘s Michael Arceneaux checks CNN’s Don Lemon for urging blacks to stop using the n-word, describing it as a cultural term of affection. … Also, for the millionth time, even if you don’t agree with the…

(The Root) — You can read this essay in its entirety — plus the thoughts of 40 other prominent African Americans from the worlds of the arts, medicine, religion and academia — in the anthology Where Did Our Love Go: Love and Relationships in the African American Community, available online and wherever books are sold.…

The Washington Post‘s Jonathan Capehart says it’s despicable that people are circulating a photo of tattooed Los Angeles rapper The Game and saying it’s Trayvon Martin. He’s says it a vicious attempt to defame the slain teen by portraying him as a thug. People! Listen, and listen closely. The photo you’re still passing around via…

(The Root) — A lot has changed since 1903, when W.E.B. Du Bois described black Americans as possessing what he called a “double consciousness,” caught between a self-conception as Americans and as people of African descent. As he put it in The Souls of Black Folk: “The Negro ever feels his two-ness-an American, a Negro;…

(The Root) — “This is a weird question, but how do I get better at sex? My boyfriend is much older than me and way more experienced. I don’t have any complaints about him, and no one’s said I’m bad at it before. He hasn’t said anything, but I get the feeling that it’s just…

Pointing out that Rachel Jeantel lost her friend Trayvon Martin, who was one of the few people who showed her love and support, Clutch magazine’s Evette Dionne reprimands critics for attacking the teen’s testimony during George Zimmerman’s second-degree-murder trial. The media and intraracial respectability-nazis have crucified Rachel Jeantel for daring to exist outside of the…

Kerry Washington married San Francisco 49ers cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha on June 24 in Blaine County, Idaho, according to E News. Who knew they were dating? Well, according to sports gossip site TerezOwens.com, which was first to get wind of the happy news, Asomugha has been dating Vanity Fair’s August 2013 cover girl since last summer. The 31-year-old three-time Pro Bowl star…

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has been removed from power by the military, which also suspended the constitution, in an effort to resolve the country’s debilitating political crisis, the Washington Post reports. In a televised address to the nation after a meeting with a group of civilian political and religious leaders, the head of the powerful…