News
One Muslim Teen Is Challenging America’s Idea of a Superhero, One Hijab at a Time
from Mic.com
"Seventeen-year-old artist Nour Saleh spoke to Mic about her project. The story behind the uniquely drawn cartoons, which depict everyone from Spider-Man and Wonder Woman to Katniss Everdeen, began on Tumblr, where Saleh participated in the site's Draw Yourself Challenge."
The Greatest Black Women in Superhero Comics (Who Aren't Storm)
from i09
"Whenever anybody asks about black women in comics, the immediate response is to bring up Storm. But Storm isn't the only black woman to rock superpowers and a costume. Here are 20 other black female characters in superhero comics who deserve more love and attention."
Nigga? Please.
from Medium
"I am not making the argument that we should encourage the use of the word nigger. Words do indeed have power and to ignore that is to be a fool. I am only concerned with strategy. Blacks will stop using the world nigger when the world stops treating us like niggers, not the other way around. It’s self-serving to blame a victim for what the victim chooses to call itself."
Image Credit: BillCosby.com
Bill Cosby Challenges Twitter To Meme Him and Loses Big Time
from Clutch
"Since Cosby is back under the spotlight for his previous rape allegations, people used this opportunity to remind him of that and that he can’t escape the judge and jury that is Twitter. Check out a few of the memes that were created"
Has the N-Word’s Persistent Presence in Pop, Hip Hop and Youth Culture Lessened the Slur’s Impact?
from Atlanta Blackstar
"On Twitter, a social media platform where more than 30 percent of its users are between the ages of 18 and 31, the N-word is used more than 500,000 times every day, according to social media analytics site Topsy.com."
40 Powerful Photos Show Why Bansky Is the Spokesman of Our Generation
from Mic
"Banksy has become a culture icon with his signature street art and supreme anonymity. His creations are often effortlessly detailed or poignantly simple, appearing overnight and turning the side of a building into a canvas for personal, political and social messages. "
The Addictive Curse of ‘Let’s Plays’
from The Daily Beast
"How did the “watching us watching them” simplicity of ‘Let’s Play’ videos, in which viewers watch other people playing video games, become so all-conquering—including with our correspondent’s children? "
With Overwatch, Blizzard Is Trying To Do Women Characters Better
from Kotaku
"Chris Metzon, of Blizzard, says that Blizzard is trying to represent a more diverse, less overly sexualized group of characters than they did in the past."
Think Twice Before Choosing Your Driving Music
from Music.Mic
"Everybody knows what "driving music" is. But it turns out that the music most of us think of as perfect for driving is exactly the music you should never drive to."
‘Selfish’ or ‘Leader’? Black Athletes Face Racial Double Standard
from Atlanta Blackstar
"LeBron James had to dispute reports that he and Cleveland Cavalier point guard Kyrie Irving got into an argument after a recent loss, as if them yelling at each other it meant something sinister."
35 Black Women Hitmakers Who Make Us Miss the 90s
from The Culture
"This is a reminder of how talented and diversified Black women music artists can be."
Things I Wish I'd Known Growing Up As A Black Girl Nerd
from Afropunk
"Growing up is always tough. But there’s something unique about the black girl nerd experience. There’s no prototype for the black girl nerd; no famous fictional adolescents whose path we could mirror and cling to. I think many of us had to go our own way, figuring everything out as we went along because it felt like we were the only ones."
Black Belts on Black Folks
from www.ozy.com
“My mother told me the very first time I got shoved and beaten around by some other kid and came inside crying, that if I didn’t go back outside and stand up for myself, she was going to beat me, too,” said traditional martial artist Kevin Byas. “So, in a way, my mother was my first teacher.”
America Could Learn a Lot From How Japan Listens to Music
from Mic
"Ask anyone who follows music and they'll tell you that nobody buys music anymore — that artists are starving and art is dying, that not a single album released in 2014 went platinum as of Nov. 1. Everywhere, you'll find pessimism.
But contrary to popular belief, this isn't a universal trend: Japanese fans still buy music."
Apple and Google Introducing Ethnic Emojis
from Black Enterprise
"Apple and Google are working to make the dream of a diverse cast of emoji characters a reality. The Unicode Consortium, the organization responsible for making sure different languages and characters (including emoji characters) are readable on multiple platforms, has released a proposed draft for Unicode 8.0, the next iteration of the Unicode standard."
Go Ahead, End With a Preposition: Grammar Rules We All Can Live With
from The Daily Beast
"It would surprise many writers and editors to learn that Strunk and White, authors of the most famous style manual of the 20th century, had only “a tenuous grasp of grammar.” Errors and groundless advice from the pages of George Orwell, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage might also seem unlikely. But Steven Pinker’s new book, The Sense of Style, unearths errors and contradictory advice in unexpected spots, including many venerable authorities on the English language."
Pokémon's Famous Missingno Glitch, Explained
from Kotaku
"Let me explain. As Pokémon veterans and gaming history buffs know, Missingno is a glitch that players can find in Pokémon Red and Blue. I thought I'd take this opportunity to break down the many reasons why Missingno stands as one one of the coolest, most notorious glitches in gaming."
The Art Of Being Verbally Persuasive: What We Can Learn From Olivia Pope and Annalise Keating
from Clutch Magazine Online
"The addictive nature of both shows comes from watching these characters take charge by effectively communicating their demands with a firm sense of urgency. Both women skillfully navigate their high-powered jobs and produce results for their clients because of their keen ability to convince the players on their team that whatever they need done has to be effortlessly carried out or else there will be consequences."
It's Not Just You: Your Internet Really Is Getting Slower
from Mic
"The news: Have constant buffering problems been ruining your dates with Netflix recently? You're not the only one: Americans are increasingly paying more money for slower Internet access than the rest of the world."
Well-Traveled, Intelligent Black Man, 34, Seeks ‘Sista’ OK With Him Making Less Money
from The Root
"For them it’s bemusing to fathom that a man who is well-traveled, gainfully employed, bilingual, degreed, childless, not living in his mother’s basement and debt-free could go 16 years without being in a relationship and years at a time without having sex. What people don’t understand is that my income isn’t as high as many would expect, and it makes me feel insecure about how women may view my current professional station in life."