culture

The ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project is fighting a law that allows landlords to evict victims of domestic violence if they’ve asked for police help in Norristown, Pa., writes Sandra Park on the Huffington Post. The police threatened Ms. [Lakisha] Briggs with eviction because she had received their assistance for domestic violence. Under Norristown’s “disorderly behavior…

The press attention about Lauryn Hill’s tax troubles has revealed one bright spot: She’s preparing new music. But Aisha Harris wonders on Slate if 15 years after her debut album, will Hill be able to recreate the magic? Referring to the “old conflict between art and commerce,” she wrote: This is about inequity, and the…

The night shift, hovering bosses, poor work evaluations — officer Pedro Serrano told the Washington Post that he’s suffered all of these things for speaking out against the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policies.  Serrano claims he’s been harassed, micromanaged and eventually transferred to a different precinct and put on the overnight shift. “It hasn’t…

For Clinton Brown, life was better for his son, Chris Brown, when he was not dating on-again, off-again girlfriend Rihanna, according to the Daily News.  “I personally really didn’t want him and Rihanna back together,” said Clinton Brown, 48. “You have to have a balance in a relationship. You have to have someone who is…

In the shadows of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, many black folks have wondered, “Who’s to be our next leader?” On the Black Youth Project, Jonathan Lykes asks that question of his own generation. As we move further away from the 1960’s civil rights movements I think it is important for individuals in the…

Adoption can be grueling for hopeful parents, writes Shonda Rhimes in the Daily Beast. Yet the process, says the creator of Scandal, brought her a deep understanding of the meaning of surrender. I’ve never wanted to be pregnant, never suffered through the infertility that devastates some of my friends. Since I was 9 years old,…

(The Root) — On June 4, the New York State Writers Hall of Fame will induct five outstanding authors, including Calvin Trillin, Alice McDermott, Walter Mosley, Marilyn Hacker and the late Countee Cullen.  2012’s honorees included E.L. Doctorow, Pete Hamill, Joyce Carol Oates and Toni Morrison, as well as John Cheever, Hart Crane, Edna Ferber,…

The two women shot while delivering newspapers in front of a LAPD officer’s home during the manhunt for fugitive former cop Christopher Dorner have reached a settlement for $4.2 million, reports the Los Angeles Times.  The Los Angeles City Council must still ratify the agreement, announced Tuesday by Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich and…

Authorities arrested 41-year-old James Everett Dutschke in connection to the ricin-laced mail to President Obama, reports NBC News. A Tupelo, Miss. man has been arrested in connection with the ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama and a U.S. senator, police said Saturday. Everett Dutschke was arrested in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday morning by federal…

For some, Kerry Washington’s portrayal of Olivia Pope on Scandal is a coup because it dismisses the idea that black women are unattractive in mainstream society, writes the New York Times. It’s clear that “Scandal” has touched a nerve: Twitter regularly blows up with “Scandal”-related tweets when the show is on, and the flood of cyberspace…