culture
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Meet Compton's New Black Female Mayor
Aja Brown, 31, was just named the mayor of Compton, Calif., in a special runoff election on Tuesday, June 4. The Los Angeles Times reports that Brown, an African-American urban planner and graduate of the University of South Carolina, was up against Omar Bradley, a former two-term mayor and leading political figure in Compton. Analysts…
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Butt Slap Derails Chad Johnson's Plea Deal
So, “just stop touching any parts of women’s bodies with any parts of your body” probably isn’t a feasible long-term plan for Chad Ochocinco Johnson, but it would have certainly helped the negotiations in his domestic violence case (yeah, the old head-butting one) go a little more smoothly. At a hearing on a probation violation…
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'Pregnant' Boys in Ads Aimed at Reducing Teen Births
When it comes to public service announcements related to things like teen pregnancy, people love to be controversial. Love it. And we can’t blame them; if you want people riding a bus to digest your message, you’d better get their attention first. (Sometimes, of course, it works out better than others: New York City’s recent…
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'Unspeakable Abuse' in Mississippi Prisons
A New York Times editorial sheds light on the allegations behind a lawsuit that’s just the latest in a series of challenges to what plaintiffs say are horrendous conditions in Mississippi prisons. And “horrendous” is no exaggeration. The complaint, filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, says that abuses…
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Trayvon's Dad: 'My Kid Was Perfect to Me'
(The Root) — Today, Monday, is the beginning of jury selection for the second-degree-murder trial of 29-year-old George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old high school student Trayvon Martin. The trial comes just ahead of Father’s Day, and The Root spoke with Tracy Martin, Trayvon’s father, to ask him about the son he knew…
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Blacks Dominate the 2013 Tony Awards
(The Root) — Having never won one in her legendary career, Cicely Tyson was a sentimental favorite to take home a Tony, American theater’s highest honor, this year for her critically acclaimed performance in The Trip to Bountiful. So when Tyson’s name was announced for best actress in a play, it was not a total…
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Trayvon Martin Case: 'Trial of the Century'?
(The Root) — The Trayvon Martin case doesn’t involve a white-Bronco car chase, an NFL legend and a pretty blonde — just a black, unarmed teenage boy in a hoodie and a neighborhood-watch captain with a gun named George Zimmerman. But the second-degree-murder case against Zimmerman — who says he killed Trayvon in a gated…
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What Will George Zimmerman's Jury Look Like?
Earl Ofari Hutchinson writes at the Huffington Post that based on census records, the jury pool for George Zimmerman’s trial, which starts on Monday, will likely consist largely of older, white Republicans. The type of jury that George Zimmerman will get in Seminole County, Fla., has been a hot item of speculation and debate. But…
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Clarence Thomas: Still a Mystery
Arguing that Clarence Thomas has benefited from two pillars of the civil rights movement — the Voting Rights Act and affirmative action — CNN‘s John Blake asks why the justice is poised to help the Supreme Court bury them. He wore a black beret and army fatigues, warned people that a revolution was coming and…
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First Lady Wise Not to Meet With 'Michelle Obama of China'?
New York magazine‘s Maureen O’Connor says that Michelle Obama may be smart in not meeting with China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan, who is visiting the U.S. this week with her husband, Xi Jinping. The military-propaganda singer reportedly sang in praise of the Chinese army after its crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989. “Michelle Obama of…