culture
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Black Moors: A Complicated Portrayal
(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. The history of black people in Spain forms a unique part of the diasporic…
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Are Unpaid Internships Worth It?
(The Root) — A debate is raging right now about internships, the lifeblood of many small businesses, and also a lifeline for many young people trying to break into difficult-to-access industries. A big question being contemplated in courtrooms as well as in the court of public opinion concerns the legality and fairness of countless unpaid…
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Liberian President: Give Money to Global Health Fund
Writing at the Huffington Post, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf urges donors to support the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, saying that it has helped her nation care for its sick and strengthen preventive health care measures. It would have been impossible to make these strides towards defeating these diseases without the international…
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Do Black Dolls Matter?
(The Root) — Last week the girlfriend of rapper Ludacris, Eudoxie Agnan, posted what I’m sure she believed was a harmless picture on Instagram. She was prepping for a trip to her native country of Gabon, and she and her sister decided to do a good deed during their visit: distribute dolls to impoverished African…
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So What Just Happened to Affirmative Action?
(The Root) — By now everyone has heard that the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Abigail Fisher v. University of Texas, the long-awaited case challenging the university’s consideration of race as one admissions factor to create a diverse student body. In a 7-1 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, SCOTUS sent the case back…
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Texas GOP Approves Tough New Abortion Restrictions
The Associated Press is reporting that the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature on Monday pushed to enact wide-ranging restrictions that would effectively shutter all abortion clinics in the nation’s second most-populous state. Democrats are planning to launch a filibuster to halt the final vote. After the House easily approved it Monday morning, the wide-ranging package of anti-abortion…
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Can Income Help Integrate US Campuses?
In light of Monday’s Supreme Court decision, ProPublica‘s Nikole Hannah-Jones examines what some people think could be a more acceptable way of ensuring diversity on America’s campuses: affirmative action based on class. The latest chapter in this national struggle was supposed to come with the U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration of an affirmative action case involving…
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Man Arrested After Waving Confederate Flag at Residents
A 33-year-old man was arrested on Saturday in New Jersey after he reportedly left a Toby Keith concert, climbed over a fence into a nearby housing complex and began waving a Confederate flag and shouting racial slurs at residents, according to the Associated Press. [Thirty-three]-year-old Darren Walp of Ridley Park, Pa., was arrested in Camden…
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Nelson Mandela in Critical Condition for 2nd Day
Updated Monday, June 24, 11 a.m. EDT: President Jacob Zuma said on Monday that Nelson Mandela remains in critical condition for a second day in a hospital in Pretoria, where he is being treated for a lung infection, the New York Times reports. Earlier: Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who was hospitalized on June 8…
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Mississippi Man Killed in Fight Over Pastor Firing
A peaceful Mississippi church sanctuary turned chaotic on Sunday morning after police fatally shot the son of the deacon, the Associated Press reports. The police were called to break up a fight that began when members argued over the firing of the pastor. Cacedrick White, 26, arrived with a shotgun and fired it once in…