Is mainstream hip-hop a grave threat to our children?
This is part five of a theGrio series on hip-hop and its cultural impact on black America. Click here for part one of the series. Sometimes I think rappers are deliberately trying to get kids killed out here. The influx of negative imagery in music increasingly has absolutely no socially redeeming value and resembles ancient Sodom [...]
Confessions of a Black Education Reformer
Writing for The Root DC, Natalie Hopkinson explores Andre M. Perry’s take on school discipline, which she calls “one of the realest, toughest calls reforming schools have to make.” “We can’t teach every child because Clarence is a terror,” he pleaded to the discipline committee. “He disrupts the environment.” But the CEO of the [...]
Mother of Teen Slain by NYPD Already Lost Eldest Son in Car Accident, Still ‘Waiting For Kimani to Come Home’
The mother of a Brooklyn teen who was gunned down by NYPD cops last week has spoken out for the first time since her son’s murder. “I’m still waiting for Kimani to come home, and today I’m asking for justice, and I’m asking why,” Carol Gray said. “I just buried my eldest son two years [...]
Moms: Taking charge of your health, a head-to-toe guide
Children. Family. Friends. Errands. Work. Church. Dinner. Karate lessons. Bake sales… Moms routinely juggle long lists of to-dos from all facets of their lives, except the most important: themselves. Moms will drive their kids, and even other people’s kids, to regular pediatrician appointments. They take sick relatives to the emergency room late at [...]
10 Things Everyone Should Know by Now About Black Women
Responding in a piece for Clutch magazine to recent headlines highlighting disrespect toward black women, The Root‘s contributing editor Demetria L. Lucas offers some remedial guidelines for potential line-crossers. Humbly, I submit a basic list, my Rules of Engagement, and ask you NOT to do the following (and encourage Black women to add to [...]
White Woman Takes “Baby Photos” Of 13-Year Old Black Son, Photos Go Viral
By Darron Smith Kelli Higgins is a white woman, a photographer, who adopted 13-year old Latrell as a teenager. Latrell is a young African American boy transracially adopted by Kelli and her husband. When Kelli decided to take pictures of her son, she had no idea the reactions that they would evoke. “I put them [...]
Rodney Stearns, helping locate missing kids with Text No More
Who is Rodney Stearns? Rodney Stearns is an iPhone app developer from Portland, Oregon who designed the Text No More app to prevent users from texting while driving. His inspiration for creating the app was his son, Devyn, who in 2010 was close to earning his driver’s license. Stearns was in the U.S. [...]
How to Talk to Your Kids About Their Online Life
With 1.6 million children running away from their homes each year, it’s crucial that parents understand the critical need to monitor their children’s social media use, keeping track of who they are talking to online, what they are sharing and when. For many parents, the main barrier to monitoring their children’s online life is [...]
What Not to Say to a Working Mom
Recently, Amy Shearn shared a list of things not to say to stay-at-home moms. She could have just cited anythingElizabeth Wurtzel has written in the past year, but that would have been too easy. Instead, Shearn came up with a list that was funny and clever and pointed in all the right ways. Which got [...]
Can a Hungry Child Learn Well? Probably Not
Imagine how hunger affects your progress at work; now imagine being 7 years old, hungry every day and haunted by the fact that how you do on a math test could determine whether your family gets dinner next week. Legislation proposed by two congressmen last week would make such a scenario all too [...]
April 14, 20131 CommentRead More