culture
-
Jay-Z's New Gig: Sports Agent
It’s not as if he needs a side job to pay the bills, but rapper, entrepreneur and professional sports team part owner Jay-Z has taken on yet another venture: His Roc Nation entertainment company is launching Roc Nation Sports, a sports-management company that is partnering with another leading agency, Creative Artists, to represent New York…
-
Rutgers Coach Fired After Video of Abusive Antics
A recently surfaced video showing Rutgers head coach Mike Rice being verbally and physically abusive elicited two main reactions: 1) That’s not OK, and 2) How does this guy still have a job? That question now has an answer: He doesn’t. Just one day after the practice footage was shown on the ESPN program Outside…
-
Louis Taylor Released After 40 Years
After he spent 40 years behind bars, today is Louis Taylor’s first full day of freedom. Although he was convicted of starting a fire in Tucson, Ariz., that killed 28 people, he had always maintained his innocence. Since then, advances in forensics have suggested that the fatal fire might not even have been caused by arson.…
-
In Haiti, UN Has Done More to Harm Than to Help
Writing at Ebony, France François says that the organization’s “occupation in the time of cholera” is “despicable” and has harmed residents. Despicable: United Nations peacekeepers from Nepal infected a quake-stricken Haiti with cholera by polluting the Artibonite River with fecal matter from a faulty septic tank in 2010. To date, the cholera epidemic has killed…
-
Is the Porn Industry Racist?
(The Root) — Porn star Aurora Snow surprised many with her candid confession to the Daily Beast regarding one of the last remaining taboos in the adult entertainment industry. According to Snow, while few sex acts are considered off the table today, sex acts with certain individuals can be. Snow spoke specifically of the fact…
-
What '42' Might Forget About Jackie Robinson
The Nation‘s Dave Zirin says that he’ll watch the Jackie Robinson film with an open mind, but he worries about the aspects of the legendary black baseball player’s life that might have been left on the cutting-room floor: … However, here in advance are five aspects of Jackie Robinson’s tumultuous, politically complicated life story I…
-
Moynihan Revisited and the Ongoing Black-Poverty Debate
African Americans are still impoverished nearly 30 years after a controversial report inspired the phrase “blaming the victim,” Kenneth Braswell writes at Ebony. A few weeks ago, Fathers Incorporated, Open Society Foundations Campaign for Black Male Achievement and the Urban Institute held a research forum to reexamine a controversial report by the Department of Labor’s…
-
White Man to Sisters: Bring Back the 'Fro!
(The Root) — Ladies, I know we haven’t had this conversation, but it’s time. We really need to talk about this. We really don’t talk about it as much as we should. We no longer have to conform to European standards of beauty. We don’t have to shellac wads of chemical straightening cream on our…
-
On Karen Finney and Why We Don't Take Race Polls on Twitter
(The Root) — Welcome to America, where we have a long and complicated history with race, racial mixing, racism and racial identity. Here, we understand that race is a social construct without a biological basis. But we also understand that that social construct has real-life relevance, and we let people make their own decisions about…