culture

In a piece at Clutch magazine, Evette Dionne takes Zoe Saldana to task for saying, “There’s no such thing as people of color,” and suggests that she enroll in a Critical Race Theory class. Actress Zoe Saldana has been inserting the proverbial foot in her mouth in recent weeks. The “Colombiana” starlet has been media…

Black America Web‘s Michael H. Cottman asks in an insightful piece about an impending Oxygen Network reality show about black pastors: Should they sanctify the foolishness of reality TV? Would you really want your pastor – and your congregation – to star in a reality television show? I’m not knocking the six black pastors who…

Earl Ofari Hutchinson argues in a piece at EURweb that the four alleged scandals faced by the administration don’t pass the smell test for a public flogging of the president because there is no clear cut evidence that he had any knowledge or hand in the missteps. *The mostly media driven scandal talk involving President…

According to Deadspin, Billboard and Miguel have said the women who were the victims of this midperformance mishap are fine, so it’s safe to call the moment one of the highlights of Sunday night’s Billboard Awards. If nothing else, it will go down in awards-show (and clumsiness) history. Here’s the two women who bore the…

Boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. was named the highest-paid U.S. athlete for the second year in a row, and Nike does not endorse him; nor does he own a clothing line, ABC reports. Mayweather, 36, was paid $90 million in the last year, none of it coming from endorsements, according to Sports Illustrated. “I earn…

First lady Michelle Obama just keeps us guessing with her indelible fashion sense. New York magazine duly notes that on Friday she sported a new look for her commencement address at Bowie State University in College Park, Md.: side-swept bangs. Gone are the blunt midlife crisis bangs she debuted in February, leaving behind only a…

The Associated Press is reporting that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Friday encouraged Detroit’s religious leaders and residents to join him in an effort to buy dilapidated and neglected properties and take other steps to help revitalize the beleaguered city. The fiery orator offered few specifics in a speech to the Detroit City…

Saying that we are witnessing the resegregation of the American media, Farai Chideya delivers an incisive piece at the Nation about the face of journalism today. When I was a kid, my family loved watching science fiction films and television shows. Some of them, from Star Trek to Soylent Green, featured a multiracial band of…

(The Root) — Genealogical DNA testing can yield very surprising results, as The Root’s deputy editor just found out. “My mother, who is Creole from Louisiana and identifies as black, had her DNA tested recently. The test results came back as positive for a region in India. She was very shocked and confused, because she…