culture

While tennis star Serena Williams is busy apologizing for her comments around the Steubenville, Ohio, rape case, it seems she also targeted her old rival Maria Sharapova during a recent Rolling Stone interview. In response to Williams calling her boring, Sharapova released a few jabs of her own during a pre-Wimbledon press conference on Saturday, according to the…

Rena Price, a South Los Angeles woman whose arrest with her son, Marquette Frye, ignited the Watts Riots, has died. She was 97, according the Los Angeles Times. On August 11, 1965, Price went to check on Frye, who’d been pulled over by police on Avalon Boulevard in South Los Angeles, and a fight between…

Preparing for an upcoming exhibit at London’s Jewish Museum entitled Amy Winehouse: a Family Portrait, the late singer’s brother, Alex Winehouse, spoke to the Observer about what he feels ended his sister’s life. Alex has had time to reflect on what triggered Amy’s spiral into drink and drugs, but hasn’t come to any clear conclusion other…

It’s been a whirlwind of a week for former Food Network star Paula Deen, who recently admitted to using the n-word with ease. In a matter of days, she’s been publicly lambasted by black Twitter hashtags, fired from the Food Network and sparked a racial firestorm on the channel’s Facebook page. At Ebony, Jamilah Lemieux…

In the New York Times, columnist Charles M. Blow parses John McCain’s statement regarding the latest immigration bill, saying the senator was really discussing the meeting of race and politics. Senator John McCain, a member of the Gang of Eight that drafted the original legislation, spoke of his support of the amendment to Fox News…

The title of Kanye West’s newest album, Yeezus, isn’t blasphemous, writes Ebony A. Utley on the Huffington Post; it’s creative. Yeezus is not blasphemous. Oppressed people, including many rappers, have a historical affinity for the Jesus, who was misunderstood much like they are. Jesus had haters. Jesus was unfairly judged. Jesus was under state surveillance.…

After Food Network announced that they would not renew Paula Deen’s television contract at the end of the month following her n-word firestorm, the chef’s fans took to Facebook in defense of their star, writes the Huffington Post. Some even began a Facebook page of their own, called “We Support Paula Deen,” but their comments were…

If your mind was blown by Food Network star Paula Deen’s admission that the n-word is a big part of her vocabulary, then The Daily Show offered some much-needed jokes. On Thursday, lifestyle correspondent Jessica Williams suggested that Deen’s racist outbursts could be countered with a new drug. Watch below: Watch more at The Daily Show.

Whitney Teal, writing in Clutch magazine, urges women of all sizes to rock a bikini this summer. In a list of five reasons, she addresses issues such as body image and ignoring haters.  2) Because Even If You Don’t Believe #1, You Don’t Owe Us Beauty. Let’s say, theoretically, that I’m wrong: Your body is not beautiful.…

E.W. Jackson’s recent controversial comments against his own race and government programs are a ploy to gain white voters, writes Jamelle Bouie in the Daily Beast. His most recent statement concerns his disdain for the anti-poverty programs passed by President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s. During a rally in Newport News, Virginia—just a few miles…