culture

Dr. Ben Carson and Alaska’s Rep. Don Young are two examples of how out of touch the GOP is with a country that has moved well beyond the casual acceptance of bigotry, Jonathan Capehart writes in a blog post at the Washington Post. The Republican Party and some of its acolytes on the right have…

In a piece inspired by Adria Richards, the black technologist who was fired for tweeting a photo of two white male colleagues she overheard making lewd jokes during a conference co-sponsored by her employer, Colorlines‘ Channing Kennedy explains the tactics that cause similar tragedies to happen to black women from all walks of life. Step 1:…

Clutch magazine‘s Zettler Clay argues that “unless there is heightened demand for artistic honesty in dealing with life’s issues, particularly qualms with the opposite sex, hip-hop will plateau and thus fall far short of its rich potential.” Misogyny is bigger than hip hop. The word literally means “woman hater” and society’s marginalization of women came…

(The Root) — By now, surely you’ve been privy to the many discussions, petitions and open complaining over the image of black women on reality TV. There’s been an ongoing discussion about this topic ever since Omarosa Manigault stiletto-heel-clicked into Donald Trump’s boardroom for The Apprentice in 2004. Either she, the producers or both milked…

(The Root) — Federal mediators and public school administrators in Meridian, Miss., have reached a landmark agreement to launch a rewards-based disciplinary plan, aimed at keeping in the classroom more black students who routinely received harsher disciplinary action when accused of relatively minor infractions. The March 22 consent decree outlined by the U.S. Department of…

A week after he was locked out of his WDAS-FM station after failed contract negotiations, and days after he bid fans goodbye in a Facebook post, talk-radio host Michael Baisden’s departure from the airwaves is still causing a buzz.   That announcement he posted on the program’s last day on the air has nearly 1,000…

(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. The Deposition of Christ is a theme often commissioned for altars, and one that is especially appropriate for Easter…

(The Root) — Who would have thunk it? Set It Off — the 1996 heist film starring Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, Jada Pinkett Smith and Kimberly Elise — beat out Dead Presidents, Superfly and Django Unchained in our March Movie Madness bracket. Color us clueless, but in our office pool, we had no idea…