Racial tensions on college campuses may not be much different for today’s students from what they were even 36 years ago, argues associate professor of history at University of Oklahoma.
Ma Rainey was one of Paramount Records’ most popular artists.
JP Jazz Archive/Redferns
In the 1920s, many black musicians were exploited by record companies, and faded into anonymity. Here are some of their stories.
Respected scientists within the recently formed National Research Council proposed building orphanages to study nature vs nurture with respect to racial differences.
Library of Congress
The history of race science is a history of racist science, as epitomized by this proposed but never carried-out experiment from the early 20th century.
Alejandro G. Inarritu’s Birdman took home four awards, including Best Picture.
Mike Blake/Reuters
Indies to the rescue, the quiet power of foreign language films, Gen-X’s crowning moment. All – and more – are covered by our experts, who weigh in on this year’s Oscars.
Willie O'Ree, the first black NHL player, debuted for the Boston Bruins in 1958.
The Root
Last week’s release of Black Ice – the memoir of Val James, the first African American to play in the NHL – brought me back to when I was a teenager living in Boston. It was the winter of 1978 – the year…
A still shot from DW Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915).
The Hollywood Reporter
Last month President Obama welcomed the film Selma into the White House – a first-family showing that, as it happens, occurred a century after the first-ever screening of a movie inside the White House…
At first glance, Benedict Cumberbatch’s recent faux pas – using the word “coloured” to refer to racially minoritised groups – may appear to have absolutely nothing to do with the world of UK higher education…
All people have prejudices, but learning more about them could help keep them in check.
Crowd image via www.shutterstock.com.
Humans are highly social creatures. Our brains have evolved to allow us to survive and thrive in complex social environments. Accordingly, the behaviors and emotions that help us navigate our social sphere…
Hollywood films have long depicted Arabs in a negative light. Pictured is the movie poster from 1921’s The Sheik.
Wikimedia Commons
The first Iraqis to appear in Clint Eastwood’s Iraq War drama, American Sniper, are a young mother and boy of maybe 12. They are seen from the point of view of the man who will kill them: Chris Kyle, the…
A happy place, for everyone.
Brunel University London
Universities have a long way to go before they become exemplars of ethnic equality and diversity. That’s the thrust of a new report published by race equality think-tank, the Runnymede Trust. As David…
How does feeling you inhabit a body different than your own affect your racial biases?
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Maister et al.
In 1959, John Howard Griffin, a white American writer, underwent medical treatments to change his skin appearance and present himself as a black man. He then traveled through the segregated US south to…
Mixed-income developments replace Chicago’s Cabrini-Green Homes: Old Town Village West townhouses rise in front of the last remaining towers (since demolished) in this 2009 photograph.
Lawrence Vale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Shomon Shamsuddin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
For decades, public housing stood as the most architecturally visible and politically stigmatized reminder of urban poverty in many American cities. Originally built to accommodate an upwardly mobile segment…
Racial disparities in tip size can’t be explained by discriminatory service.
Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock
Within the US restaurant industry, blacks are generally considered comparatively poor tippers. One recent survey of roughly 1,000 restaurant servers from across the nation found that 34% thought blacks…
Selma director and co-writer Ava DuVernay has crafted a new and important vision of an oft-examined era in our nation’s history.
Stanley Wolfson/Library of Congress
Hollywood films that depict American history deeply influence our sense of national identity. Films that portray Civil Rights and Black Freedom history are particularly important. Beyond entertaining moviegoers…
Directors Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee don’t see eye-to-eye on much of anything.
With Spike Lee’s Da Sweet Blood of Jesus in the news for the film’s straight-to-Vimeo release, and Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight currently in production (see Samuel L. Jackson’s Camera+ page for…
The movie Selma takes King – best known to Americans as an orator – and turns him into an organizer.
Wikimedia Commons
It’s been almost 60 years since Martin Luther King, Jr. became a household name during the 1955-1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott, and some may find it astonishing that, until the recent release of Selma, he’s…
Howard-era Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski is the new chairman of the revamped Australian Multicultural Council.
AAP/Matthias Engesser
Late in December, I took a phone call from a young woman working for the Department of Social Services. She had called, she said, because the department was checking its database of contacts, so that the…
Whether Bond can be black or not is a debate that has rumbled on past the pre-Christmas Sony hack revelations that Idris Elba was proposed as the next Bond. Kanye West waded in just before the new year…
Ridley Scott’s casting choices for Exodus: Gods and Kings are emblematic of a larger, systemic problem in the entertainment industry.
Movie Pilot
Director Ridley Scott recently set off a firestorm when he dismissed those who criticized him for casting white actors as every major character in the recently released Exodus: Gods and Kings, while reserving…