culture

  • Forget Child Support, Dads; Your Kids Just Want You

    A man’s role as provider is ingrained into American society, but Columbia University doctoral student Eva Haldane writes at Parlour magazine that, whether or not they receive child support, kids usually just want to hang out with their dads. To all the fathers who don’t live with their kids; your kids don’t care if you…

  • Obama to Back NSA Surveillance, Says White House Chief of Staff

    As more information emerges about the National Security Agency’s leak, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday that President Obama will soon come out in support of the surveillance activities. President Obama does not believe his administration has violated the privacy of any American in light of…

  • 2 Harvard Sociologists Challenge 'Deadbeat Dad' Stereotype

    The stereotype of a father deserting the mother of their children to bear the burden of child rearing alone is being turned on its ear by Harvard sociologists Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson, who wrote the book Doing the Best I Can: Fatherhood in the Inner City. The pair interviewed numerous men in New…

  • 'No Father's Day' Campaign Targets Gun Violence

    While many celebrate the bond between fathers and their children on Sunday, those who lost their little ones to gun violence during the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Conn., are using their energy this Father’s Day to raise awareness about gun violence through the e-card campaign No Father’s Day, the Huffington Post reports. Begun by…

  • Kanye West and Kim Kardashian Welcome Baby Girl

    Just in time for Father’s Day, Kanye West and girlfriend Kim Kardashian welcomed their first child together, a daughter, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in West Hollywood, Calif., on Saturday, according to US Weekly. “Kim had her baby,” a hospital source tells Us exclusively. “She’s five weeks early. Kim got sick last night and had the…

  • My Father Was a Good Dad but a Bad Husband

    Adult relationships are complicated and tough to understand as a child, and Black Ink admits at PostBourgie that he misjudged his father for most of his life, until now. By the time I had moved on to college, I fooled myself into believing I didn’t really need a father figure anymore. I was tired of…

  • Single Black Dad: You Can't Take My Child

    (The Root) — Within the span of three weeks, two public officials went above and beyond their immediate duties to help Chad Milner gain custody of his 9-month-old daughter. An officer in a Virginia sheriff’s department gave Milner (then 26, and a recent Morehouse College graduate) off-the-record advice about what he needed to do to…

  • When Whites Attend HBCUs, Is That Progress?

    Racial integration has long been a symbol of American progress, but Stephen Crockett Jr. wonders at the Washington Post whether white students attending predominantly black educational institutions will be remembered as a step forward or an odd joke. In the last few weeks, two white women have come out about their experiences as Howard University…

  • Don't Be Fooled; America Needs Affirmative Action

    As the Supreme Court deliberates over whether America still needs affirmative action in the case of Fisher v. University of Texas, Sherrilyn A. Ifill writes at the New York Times that many in the liberal media have already decided that we don’t. Ifill argues that they are all mistaken. No, the Supreme Court has not…

  • Is 'Yeezus' Still Hip-Hop? Producer Rick Rubin Explains

    If you’re one of the many listening to Kanye West’s newest album, Yeezus, right now, you should probably learn about producer Rick Rubin. Embedded in hip-hop’s story since the early days of Def Jam, Rubin has produced records for everyone from LL Cool J to Johnny Cash, but it was his minimalist creativity that pushed…