culture

The Huffington Post is reporting that a 911 operator in Texas has been fired after allegedly making a series of racist remarks on her Facebook page. In Facebook posts that only her friends could see, 911 operator April Sims, 23, apparently compared black people to “animals” and said she could “count on one hand” those…

Serena Williams has handily defeated Maria Sharapova to secure her second French Open title, 11 years to the day after she beat her older sister, Venus, to win her first in 2002, USA Today reports. Top-seeded Williams beat No. 2 Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-4 to secure her second French Open title, 11 years to the…

The Associated Press is reporting that prosecutors have recommended to a judge that former Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. serve four years in prison, following his guilty plea earlier this year on criminal charges that he engaged in a scheme to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items. The government suggested an 18-month sentence…

In a piece for xoJane, S.E. Smith breaks down why the actions of Ellen Sturtz — the woman now infamously known as the first lady’s heckler — were uncouth. You don’t interrupt while the adults are talking, folks. You just don’t. You do not attend an event with the express intent of interrupting it, being…

Writing at the Huffington Post, Dr. Gail Christopher discusses what the Fisher v. University of Texas Supreme Court case truly implies for students of color in America. Before the court recesses at the end of June, it will issue a decision in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. At immediate stake in the case…

(The Root) — The other night I went to see Race, by Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright David Mamet at London’s Hampstead Theatre. The play is a profoundly intelligent, visceral and highly incendiary legal drama that deftly skewers, mercilessly punctures and audaciously lacerates its audience with a crushingly pessimistic assessment of the place of race in…

Colorlines‘ Imara Jones explains why the sequester — which is affecting millions of Americans, including thousands of young children — is unnecessary and even counterproductive. There are the big trends: Economic growth last quarter was lower than forecast in part because of sequestration. Unemployment remains high and job growth held back by the newly imposed…