So there was a big concert in support of women this past weekend in London. The Sound of Change concert, a charitable event promoting education, health and justice for women, was headlined by Beyonce’ and Jennifer Lopez, and a whole bunch of big names — Madonna, Mary J. Blige, Gloria Steinem, Jay-Z. It was a […]
Much has been said and debated about Will Smith’s recent comments involving parenting. In a Haute Living interview, he made a now famous—or infamous comment depending on who you talk to— where he said quote-unquote: “I think that, specifically in African-American households, the idea coming out of slavery, there’s a concept of your children being […]
Well, if you listened to all of the hoopla coming from the field of genetics this past week you know there’s been a major breakthrough in the area of cloning. A group of scientists published in the journal, Cell, that they created embryonic stem cells using human skin cells, wow. Of course, cloning of animals […]
Well, on May 19, we’ll mark what would have been the 88th birthday of Malcolm X. Unfortunately, this year’s celebration of his extraordinary life will be tempered by the recent murder of his 28 year-old grandson Malcolm Shabazz, who was killed last week in Mexico in an apparent beating. Terrible. Will this family’s pain cease? […]
A couple of months ago I talked about a theory suggesting that African American youth equate academic success with “acting white” Now, we’ve all heard the term “acting white” tossed around in our community, and may even remember when a younger Chris Rock took Bryant Gumbel to task for allegedly acting ‘too white” or when […]
America is often called the “Land of the Free” We hear this phrase almost from the time we’re born, in our anthems and our sacred constitutional documents. This weekend, I came across two news items that caused me to ask: “What is the cost of freedom?” First, as most of you know, Lauryn Hill announced […]
A few years back, on the ninth anniversary of 9-ll, I talked about fear… Well given the horrific events of the past week ―events that literally hit close to home for me since I live here in the Boston area ―I want to return to that topic. And as I do I am reminded of […]
Stephanie Robinson calls in from Cambridge, Ma where she is currently amidst a city-wide shut down as local officials search for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is one of the men responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings.
Last week, there was a fascinating story on CNN about forgiveness. I’ll recap for you. On June 13, 1992, in the East River Projects in Manhattan, three drug dealers went looking for 17 year-old Wilfredo Colón, a rival crack dealer. When they found their target, they shot him 13 times. Eight months later, the police […]
Okay folks, I am going to go ahead and just ask a question that apparently is on a lot of folks’ minds these days. And that is this: What’s the deal with this whole skin lightening stuff, especially in Hollywood…? And who is actually responsible for turning the beautiful copper and chocolate brown tones of […]
Back in the early 1940s, a pre-teen named Mike decided to sneak out of his house and attend a parade against his parents’ wishes. Now this was not good. In addition to disobeying his parents, he was supposed to be home watching his six-year old little brother. Unfortunately, for Mike and his family, the story […]
Well guys, Women’s History Month is about over. So I’m going to celebrate it one more time by talking about one lady who’s been getting a lot of press lately. Let me start by telling some of her unique and compelling story and I’m sure you’ll figure out who she is… In August of 1970, […]
