culture

(The Root) — When Jason Collins announced to the world that he was gay on the cover of the May 6 issue of Sports Illustrated, the announcement took the media by storm. As the first athlete in America’s four major professional team sports to come out, Collins was quickly crowned a hero by many people.…

Calling it “a little gross” to make a spectacle of a lower-income black man talking about a horrible crime, Atlantic Wire blogger Connor Simpson excoriates the Internet’s instant meme-ification of Cleveland kidnapping hero Charles Ramsey. No one is saying that Charles Ramsey isn’t worthy of the “hero” mantle. He helped save three women who were held captive…

For Harriett blogger Kimberly N. Foster agrees with author Jamaica Kincaid’s rejection of the “angry black woman” label that critics try to stamp on her work, saying that it wouldn’t be an issue if she had “blond hair and blue eyes.” Jamaica Kincaid is one of the preeminent literary voices of our time. That’s why…

UPDATED Tuesday, May 7, 5:07 p.m. EDT: The Mississippi State Supreme Court has granted a stay of execution for death row inmate Willie Jerome Manning, according to the Jackson Free Press. He had been scheduled to be put to death today at 6 p.m. at Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. Earlier: The state of Mississippi…

Prominent scholars such as Michelle Alexander, Charles Ogletree and Imani Perry are just a few of the big names who will appear alongside anti-racist author and educator Tim Wise in the film White Like Me. It will be an exploration of race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of whiteness and white privilege,…

TMZ has obtained a video of Kris Kross rapper Chris Kelly just hours before his untimely death. Recorded at his Atlanta home, it shows eerie footage of the artist trying to rap and spit rhymes about a room “full of dead bodies.” TMZ says the disturbing lyrics were part of a track he had been…

Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who amused the nation with his political gaffes during the presidential race, is at it again. While speaking on the Family Research Council’s Stand With Scouts Sunday program, he injected slavery into a discussion about the Boy Scouts’ ban on gays, The Advocate reports. He said that Americans must resist…

Cleveland resident Charles Ramsey is being hailed as a hero after his dramatic recounting of the rescue of two women in a kidnapping case that goes back 10 years, CNN reports. Videos of his interviews have gone viral because of his colorful storytelling ability and his accidental and not-so-subtle commentary about the state of race…

(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 scene of suffering answered by charity takes place in a crude dwelling, engendering a moving tableau between the…