culture
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Detroit's Emergency Financial Manager Takes Over: 'Dangerous Precedent'?
Monday is bankruptcy attorney Kevyn Orr’s first day on the job as emergency financial manager for Detroit, the largest city in the country to come under state oversight. He’s tasked with taking over the finances of the city and developing a plan to tackle its fiscal crisis. But not everyone is welcoming the “turnaround specialist.”…
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What's Bringing Out Racism in Gaming?
According to a study in the latest issue of the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, black gamers suffer racial abuse “on a daily basis” while using Microsoft’s online gaming platform, Xbox Live, the Guardian reports. Researchers followed a group of African Americans who made their race identifiable to other players, and found that their interactions were characterized…
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Despite Change in Cuba, Racism Still Looms Large
Economic and political changes are afoot in Cuba, but according to Roberto Zurbano in the New York Times, not enough has shifted for Afro Cubans. It’s true that Cubans still have a strong safety net: most do not pay rent, and education and health care are free. But the economic divergence created two contrasting realities…
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Kimani Gray's Funeral Highlights 'Stop and Frisk' Effects
On Saturday, the funeral of slain teenager Kimani Gray was held in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Janell Ross writes at the Huffington Post that his death is a reminder of the harmful effects of “stop and frisk.” No one talked about what it has done to alter the lives of the nearly 5 million people —…
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Not Like My Kind: One Man's Experience With Racism
Kiese Laymon remembers on Gawker the summer when he was a graduate student and he and his girlfriend lived below a poor white family. One day, the cash-strapped family patriarch asked Laymon for $10, and then told him that he wasn’t like his “kind.” After he answered all my questions, Kurt got really close to…
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Kimani Gray's Funeral Attracts Supporters
The funeral for Kimani Gray, the 16-year-old who was fatally shot by New York police officers on March 9, was held on Saturday, reports the Huffington Post. The teen’s funeral, at a Roman Catholic church not far from where he was killed, drew relatives, friends, and many mourners who had no connection to the teen…
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Bebo Valdés, Afro Cuban Music Pioneer, Dead at 94
Afro Cuban pianist, composer and pioneer Bebo Valdés passed away on Friday, March 22. He was 94, reports Billboard. His career took him from behind the piano at Havana’s famed Tropicana club to a hotel lounge in Stockholm, where he played for a living for twenty-five years, before returning to recording and touring when he…
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Radio Host Michael Baisden Locked Out of Studio?
Renegotiating contracts can be a tumultuous affair. That’s what syndicated radio host Michael Baisden learned after he and his staff were locked out of their radio studio, owned by Cumulus Media, this week, reports Politic365. According to a statement released by his publicist, Baisden, who “commands a daily audience of over seven million listeners,” states…
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On 'Stop and Frisk,' Guns and Rape Prevention
If you’re part of the American community that is regularly stopped and frisked, perhaps carrying a gun isn’t the best idea — even if it is supposed to protect you from lurking rapists, writes Akiba Solomon at Colorlines. First, writer, activist and political strategist Zerlina Maxwell appeared on Sean Hannity’s very fine, extremely objective FOX…