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Celebrating 15 Years of Finding Forrester
How does a black kid from the Bronx come to possess the skill of writing? How does a black kid from the Bronx come to befriend a reclusive, older white man who turns out to be a celebrated author? It happens in the movie Finding Forrester, which celebrated its 15th anniversary Jan. 12. But this…
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No Matter How Long the Odds, UVA’s Coach Meets the Challenge
Her hair was falling out in clumps. And there was nothing he could do. As a former college football star, Mike London was accustomed to making a key tackle, snagging a momentum-changing interception, willing himself and his teammates toward victory. Now his only course of action was to fight back the salty puddles that spilled…
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The Unique and Parallel Paths of Serena Williams and Misty Copeland
Historically white activities. Nontraditional participants. Serena Williams and Misty Copeland are the faces of their respective professions in the United States. Williams is the face of American tennis (men’s and women’s), while Copeland is the face of American ballet. Both came from humble beginnings in California. Both took unique paths into their professions. Both faced…
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Love & Basketball: 15 Years Later, the Movie Still Plays for Your Heart
Culture is the very thing that paints the fingerprints we leave upon all that we touch in the universe. As a person of African descent living in America and growing up in the ’80s, I can recall a time when films featuring predominantly black casts and helmed by black directors would bring out the community…
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20 Years Later, Bad Boys Is Still a Must-See
The music, opening scene and skyline made you feel as if you were back in the ’80s, about to watch Axel Foley take down the gang responsible for the “alphabet crimes.” When you saw the Porsche and realized that its occupants weren’t Taggart and Rosewood but Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, and you saw that…
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She Got Game: ESPN’s Jemele Hill Is the Queen of Sports Talk
When people see ESPN personality Jemele Hill sitting among a sea of male prognosticators, effortlessly spewing her valued opinions on current and compelling sports topics, not everyone may agree with her—but you have to respect her gangsta. Although she was raised humbly in crime-ridden Detroit at a time when poverty was protocol, jobs were leaving…
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What Was That About Black People Not Being Able to Swim?
It was an unprecedented event for NCAA swimming. It was as symbolic as it was historic in that it provided a revealing reality concerning the sport of swimming and marked the official introduction of African-American women as a force in an arena that has failed to attract or embrace them in the past. It was…
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The Evolution of Seattle Seahawk Richard Sherman
The evolution of one Richard Sherman is an incredible phenomenon in the annals of sports and society alike. You see, Mr. Sherman is the quintessential African-American male, not the notion of the maladjusted version that is represented in all forms of media. From the moment that he first began garnering attention back in 2011, it was…
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Top Five Might Be Chris Rock’s Best Film Ever
What does it look like when you finally accomplish a thing that is more indicative of the total sum of your talents than anything you have done before in your life? For Chris Rock, it would look something like his new film, Top Five, which he stars in, directs and co-wrote along with Scott Rudin. …
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Ernie Cobb Still Fighting to Clear His Name in One of Sport’s Biggest Scandals
Thursday, March 22, 1984. At 11:05 a.m., U.S. District Judge Leonard Wexler completed his instructions to the jury in the Federal Court Building in Brooklyn as Ernie Cobb awaited his judgment. Thoughts continuously raced through Cobb’s mind: How had he arrived here, he wondered, of all places, charged with allegedly conspiring to commit sports bribery…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
