culture

(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. A black archer, carrying a short bow and wearing a quiver of arrows on…

Food stamps are on the chopping block again. This time Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana has presented an amendment to permanently drop ex-violent offenders from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, reports Colorlines. Does this remind anyone else of that other proposal to cut food stamps to families with children underperforming in school? According to…

(The Root) — Sometimes DNA testing can yield results that will leave you scratching your head, as was the case with the reader below. “I recently did a DNA test using Family Tree DNA’s service, and the results are 10.53 percent European (specifically Finnish, French, Orcadian, Romanian, Russian, with a margin of error of +0.08 percent)…

Petrona Smith, a New York educator, has filed a lawsuit claiming that she was fired from a Bronx school in March 2012 after she used the word “negro” in class, reports Yahoo. Officials at P.S. 211 have not responded to the charges. The non-tenured teacher, 65-year-old Petrona Smith, maintains that she was instructing her class about…

Despite what many doctors advise, 114-year-old Jeralean Talley of Inkster, Mich., America’s oldest living person, says her secret to a long life is to be nice, worship God — and eat pigs’ feet, Time reveals.  In a phone conversation on the eve of her 114th birthday, Talley told TIME, “I feel okay.” These days, the…

Ever thought of looking at poor families in line for a food bank as entertainment? Well, Real Bronx Tours did. The New York tour-bus company offered, until earlier this week, a sightseeing jaunt featuring “a ride through a real New York City ‘GHETTO,’ ” where tourists could gawk at poor families in line for food banks. But…

Although the Boy Scouts of America organization voted on Thursday to allow gay youths into its ranks — starting Jan. 1, 2014 — the deciding members didn’t amend the rule to include lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender Scout leaders. So once a Scout turns 18 years old, he is no longer welcome or able to…

(The Root) — I will never forget my father calling out to my sisters and me, “Turn off the lights,” as we went from one room to another in our ranch-style Baltimore home, leaving on all the lights in our wake. His next line pretty consistently was, “Do you think I’m made of money?!” We…

Lauryn Hill is controversial and problematic, and not just to the Internal Revenue Service. The embattled former Fugee besmirches the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in her newest song, “Neurotic Society (Compulsory Mix),” Monica Miller writes on BET.com. Miller says you can’t purport to tear down one social injustice while perpetuating another. Hill’s new…

When high schooler Kiera Wilmot was arrested and expelled from her school for a failed, explosive science experiment, she was afraid. But now she’s speaking out about her ordeal on the ACLU’s blog. I don’t think police should have been involved because I’m a good student for one. And two, it was a big deal,…