culture
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Keep Up the Fight Against Child Sex Trafficking
In a piece for the Huffington Post, White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett says that we’ve made great progress on this issue, but we still have a long way to go. Yesterday, I was honored to attend the 7th Annual Pearls of Purpose Gala hosted by FAIRgirls. FAIR stands for Free, Aware, Inspired, and Restored,…
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Unlikely News-Making Black Heroes
(The Root) — When Charles Ramsey heroically saved three missing women who were held captive in a Cleveland home this week, the Internet erupted: How could Amanda Berry, Georgina DeJesus and Michelle Knight be trapped for a decade without being noticed? How was Ramsey so brave that he was the one person who heard Berry’s…
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Happy Mother's Day! Your Daughter Is Gay
Clutch magazine‘s Kimberley McLeod chronicles a revelation about her sexual orientation and an evolving relationship with her mother. My relationship with my mother has evolved over the last few decades. We have grown close to grow apart again to become best friends. As our relationship has morphed and matured, so have her views on me…
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Teacher Made Student Lick Desk Clean?
Note to educators: This is not how to get on your students’ good side during Teacher Appreciation Week. On a serious note, the claims of George and Latonia Spencer, who say that their 10-year-old son was caught doodling on his desk and directed to lick the marks until he gagged, raise real concerns about how…
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Why Black People Don't Care About Royalty
(The Root) — It’s rarely a good idea to make a sweeping racial generalization — ever. But I’m taking a risk and making one now: Most black Americans don’t care about royalty. To be more specific, most don’t care about the British royal family — from Queen Elizabeth to Kate Middleton, and certainly not the…
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Kimani Gray's Parents to Sue NYC
The parents of 16-year-old Kimani Gray, whose March shooting death by two plainclothes New York City Police Department officers set off multiple protests and demonstrations, are planning to file a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city, the Daily News reports. They claim that officers used excessive force in the fatal shooting and that their son didn’t…
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Malcolm Shabazz on 'Formula for a Public Assassination'
Malcolm Shabazz, the 28-year-old grandson of Malcolm X, was reported dead in Mexico by U.S. authorities on Thursday. As news of his death and reports about its circumstances circulate (some reports state that he was shot, and others claim that he died from injuries caused by being thrown off a building during a robbery attempt),…
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We Shall Not Be Moved on Economic Justice
(Special to The Root) — “To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.” Those were the words of W.E.B. Du Bois in 1903, six years before he co-founded the NAACP to ensure the “political, educational, social and economic equality…
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A Brief History of the FBI’s Most Wanted Lists
Assata Shakur is just the latest in a long list of black revolutionaries who have been among the FBI’s most sought-after criminal suspects, Jamilah King writes at Colorlines. History of the Lists To understand how the FBI’s Most Wanted lists work, it’s important to know how they were developed. At their core, the lists are…
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Racism in 2013: Just Get Over It?
Writing at the Huffington Post, Theodore Johnson says that “move on” is the most ridiculous of propositions when it comes to concerns about African-American stereotypes. In a recent article written about the African-American-watermelon stereotype for Huffington Post/TEDWeekends, I wrote that its deep iconography persists years after it should have spoiled and died on the vine.…