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Why Bullock's baby is a public relations blessing
News of Sandra Bullock’s adoption of Louis Bardo Bullock, a black baby boy from New Orleans, may just be rolling out, but Bullock has had little Louis, named for Louis Armstrong, since January....
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Is being gay in hip-hop trapped in the closet?
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that female rapper Nicki Minaj, the “first lady” of incarcerated rapper Lil Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment, hip-hop’s latest mainstream success, has been hit with...
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Housing voucher hysteria in Atlanta highlights national crisis
“I thought Katrina had happened all over again,” began Lorraine Jacques-White for her popular Powertalk show on the black-oriented talk radio station WAOK in Atlanta this morning. Witnessing the mass...
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'Hobbit' film light skinned-only casting leaves black mark
News of the firing of a racially insensitive casting agent working on director Peter Jackson’s adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, the highly anticipated Lord of the Rings prequel set to be...
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'The Color Purple' 25 years later: From controversy to classic
“You told Harpo to beat me!” “I loves Harpo. God knows I do, but I’ll kill him dead fo’ I let him beat me” “You sho’ is ugly” These are just a few of the oft-quoted lines from film version of The Color...
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Chris Brown sabotages comeback with 'homophobic' tweets
Once again Twitter gets another celebrity in trouble. Chris Brown is the latest high profile name to make the Twitter outburst list. On Wednesday, Raz-B, a former member of the R&B group B2K,...
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Will Oprah's OWN gamble pay off?
Everyone is getting a new start for 2011 and Oprah is chief among them. Over the first weekend of the New Year, the undisputed king and queen of talk, upgraded to her very own network, OWN — the Oprah...
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Why there would be no ‘Sparkle’ without The Supremes
In an age where artists find it increasingly difficult to remain relevant for more than a year, the legacy of The Supremes is still alive over fifty years later. Their story of pioneering success —...
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Shirley Chisholm didn’t get her due at the DNC
Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir wasn’t the only one who missed any acknowledgment of the 40th anniversary of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm’s historic 1972 run for the president of the United States of America...
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Tempestt Bledsoe on why there will never be another ‘Cosby Show’
Twenty years after groundbreaking series The Cosby Show ended in 1992, Tempestt Bledsoe has returned to NBC in the Jimmy Fallon-produced sitcom Guys with Kids to play Marny, the working mother of four...
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Tawana Brawley 25 years later: Controversial NYC case still unsettled
Twenty five years ago, 15-year-old Tawana Brawley was reportedly found dazed and confused lying in a garbage bag with torn and burned clothing, feces smeared over her body and “KKK,” “ni**er,” and...
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Women’s History Month: Four unsung black women you should know
As with Black History Month, the focus on already well-known figures has been an ongoing criticism of Woman’s History Month. When it comes to black women, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells...
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The death of Martin Luther King Jr: James Earl Ray tapes raise more questions...
Two years after their re-discovery, restored video footage of Dr. King’s convicted assassin, James Earl Ray, in custody in Memphis as well as on trial, have been released just in time for the 45th...
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Has America historically shut its doors to African immigrants?
Immigration is largely deemed a Latino issue but it affects black immigrants as well. While their numbers are relatively low, their history in this country is layered. Of course, the largest migration...
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‘American Idol’ Candice Glover’s Gullah roots
African-Americans have won American Idol plenty of times, so Candice Glover’s win is not unique in that regard. Yet as a native of Beaufort, South Carolina, an area scholars generally deem to be among...
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Remembering Crispus Attucks and the forgotten black soldiers of the American...
Memorial Day may be more about barbecues and blowout sales than honoring our deceased veterans these days, but there are many reasons for African-Americans in particular to take pause. Starting with...
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Mariah Carey ‘slave’ scene from ‘The Butler’ stirs ‘house vs. field’ debate
Just weeks before the highly-anticipated August 16 release of Lee Daniels’s The Butler, which is based on the life of legendary White House service worker Eugene Allen, who served eight presidents from...
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Resurfaced literacy tests are a reminder of pre-Voting Rights Act era
Turning back the clock, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision on Shelby County v. Holder, struck down the key Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which originally required nine states (Texas,...
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Don’t call it a comeback — Belafonte has been here for years
Harry Belafonte’s support of the Dream Defenders, the bold student activists who have camped outside Governor Rick Scott’s office in Tallahassee for the past two weeks to force a review of Stand Your...
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Henrietta Lacks’ family deserves reparations
Some may be heralding the National Institutes of Health’s agreement with Henrietta Lacks’ family as a historic breakthrough for patient consent regarding scientific research, but troubling questions...
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