culture

Longevity is tough for most rappers, but Jay-Z makes it look easy. Still, Kris Ex writes in L.A. Weekly that no one is paying much attention to the rapper-cum-businessman’s music anymore, including his next album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, which fans will be able to download through a Samsung phone app in July, and Jay couldn’t…

(Special to The Root) — It seems like a lot of women — women with the time for these things — are talking about Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In” project. It’s a book, a website, some kind of social network and, for all I know, probably an upcoming movie. But color me underwhelmed. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Sandberg…

Discovering the bigger racist, Kathleen Parker writes at the Washington Post, seems to be the real goal at the heart of the George Zimmerman trial. When Rachel Jeantel, friend of the late Trayvon Martin, told the jury this week that Trayvon said a “creepy-ass cracker” was following him, her words played into that very discussion.…

Citing Paula Deen’s admission of racism as evidence that the former Food Network star is simply from a certain era, Medgar Evers College educator Robin R. Ford writes at Salon that she won’t hold Deen’s words against her.  Still, I can’t bring myself to dislike her. Of course I’m disappointed that the N-word passed her…

(The Root) — “I am first-generation American born to fifth-generation Honduran parents. Specifically, we are Garifuna (labeled Black Caribs by the British). Before Garifuna settled into the Latin American country, they were in St. Vincent. The complex part is that we are mixed with African and Amerindian people. Still, I can’t trace the lineage back…

Celebrations have begun for many in the gay community as couples head to their local courthouses in cities like Los Angeles. The two women who were the plaintiffs in California’s Prop 8 case married on Friday in San Francisco, in a ceremony officiated by Kamala Harris, reports the Associated Press. Attorney General Kamala Harris presided…

In the office, some single women find themselves fighting their married-with-kids co-workers for a decent time to clock-out. In a Marie Claire article, one woman says that when she began her job at a law firm, she had plenty of free time after work, but just several weeks later her schedule drastically changed.  Instead, she’s…

More and more the country appears to be returning to its racist past, with incidents of political and social unrest and injustice surfacing almost daily, Michael D’Antuono argues in a piece at Global Grind. America is returning to what it once was. Unfortunately, I’m not referring to its dominance as the world’s only super power…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson contends in a piece at the Huffington Post that while the Grand Old Party helped pass the immigration-reform bill, Republicans still have a long way to go toward winning votes in the Hispanic community because they have not historically been viewed as supportive. President Obama, Democratic Senate leaders, and immigration rights groups…