culture

This week was rough for Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska, who used the racial slur “wetback” while trying to identify with the working class, writes New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow.  The question must be asked: Why do so many insensitive comments come from these Republicans? One reason may well be their proximity…

For Huffington Post contributor Danielle Moodie-Mills, Time magazine’s recent cover, featuring two white gay couples kissing, is more than provocative; it’s regressive in the fight for legitimizing marriage equality.  For decades, our allies and those of us within the gay and transgender community have tried desperately to move the conversation about LGBT equality out of…

For a person of color, finding a job may be harder, thanks to white folks doing favors for each other, writes Janell Ross on the Huffington Post. The reality: racism and racial inequality aren’t just supported by old ideas, unfounded group esteem or intentional efforts to mistreat others, said Nancy DiTomaso, author of the new…

Beverly L. Hall, a retired Atlanta superintendent, was among a group of educators indicted on Friday as part of a testing scandal, in which police say teachers were changing the test answers of their students, reports the New York Times. In the two and a half years since, the state’s investigation reached from Ms. Parks’s…

The tensions between North Korea and the United States are increasing, reports the Washington Post. Following blustery warnings by Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s 30-year-old leader, and videos depicting North Korean attacks on the United States, the Obama administration took the unprecedented step this week of sending two stealth bombers to South Korea as part…

According to Lil Wayne, his recent health scare was overblown, because he’s had a number of seizures in the past, reports the Daily News.  “This wasn’t my first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh … I have had a bunch of seizures, you just never hear about them,” he reveals on his medical condition in…

Nelson Mandela is doing better, according to South African President Jacob Zuma, reports BBC News. Mandela, 94, re-entered a hospital for the third time in four months earlier this week for a lung infection. It said Mr Mandela had developed a pleural effusion – excess fluid in the lungs which had been drained to enable…

Christiana Mbakwe, writing at xoJane, says that the idea of being “colorblind” is fundamentally problematic and does more harm than good. In an interview with BET, Kim Kardashian said, “I have a lot of friends that are all different nationalities, and their children are bi-racial. So they have kind of talked to me a little…

Colorlines‘ Brentin Mock presents his own research to challenge the claim by The Root’s Keli Goff that voting-rights and affirmative action coverage suffered because of journalists’ focus on marriage equality.  … Keli Goff, a columnist for The Root, argued that voting rights and affirmative action was suffering a “media shutout” at the expense of marriage…