culture

Writer Jamilah Lemieux would prefer not to see your pants sagging off your behind. Writing at Clutch magazine, Lemieux complains about grown men who do not seem to have wardrobes that correspond with their age.  There’s no universal standard of style that all men or women can be held to, nor do I advocate for…

Shaun Ossei-Owusu at the Huffington Post parses Bill Cosby’s tough love toward the black community and finds areas of his argument that need improvement. Ossei-Owusu urges Cosby and others to distinguish between structural racism (prison industrial complex, underfunded public school schools, etc.) and the “cultural explanations” of inequality.   Critics are right when they point…

Imara Jones wants black and Latino people to pay close attention to reports about the government’s surveillance activities as of late. Writing at Colorlines, Jones describes a program called Prism that targets social media, which is used disproportionately by people of color. But particularly troubling for people of color is the program called Prism. With…

(The Root) — Early last week I breathed a sigh of relief when I stumbled across several black sites offering commentary on the findings of a report from the United Negro College Fund stating that black women were enrolling in college in record numbers — more so, in fact, than any other race, ethnic group…

(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 art of the Italian Renaissance embraced a wondrously varied range of imagery and subjects. One of the most…

Actress Jurnee Smollett-Bell jumped into action when she found out she was being considered for a role on the hit HBO series True Blood. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Smollett-Bell said that she and her husband shot an impromptu audition video in her in-laws’ basement to convince producers that she had what it takes…

In the ongoing saga that is Allen Iverson’s life, his ex-wife, Tawanna Iverson, has filed papers accusing the former Philadelphia 76er of abducting their children. He has yet to return them to her after taking them on vacation on May 22, according to Sports Illustrated. Tawanna Iverson filed papers that said Allen asked for permission…

Privacy is a controversial concept these days, especially since the recent Supreme Court decision allowing DNA samples to be taken during certain arrests. Andrew Cohen writes at The Atlantic that not all personal property is equal. He disagrees with former SCOTUS Justice John Paul Stevens, who recently spoke about the case. John Paul Stevens, the…