The Season 4 premiere of “Black-Ish”, a sitcom about a modern African American family, sets the record straight about colonialism and brings to life “Juneteenth”, the celebration of the end of slavery in America on June 19th, 1865. In the episode, Dre, the family patriarch, is frustrated by the heroism attributed to the 1492 discovery…
(Photo credit: Open Road Films) In 1940, as the chief litigation officer of the NAACP, Marshall served as the defense for a young black man wrongfully accused of rape in a small Connecticut town. The highly publicized trial, which became tabloid fodder, spread falsehoods about black males as a threat to communities and resulted in…
The mere existence of the show – not to mention its widespread popularity – is groundbreaking. “Insecure” features a black woman (played by Issa Rae) as the main character and creator of a premium cable series, among an all-black cast. The show presents social issues, overlooked by most television series, from the perspective of black…
In a surprise cameo, Chance the Rapper challenged audiences: “I love television, it’s a pleasant distraction/But just imagine taking action…” At AndACTION, this is exactly what we aim to achieve: to challenge activists and organizers to use Emmy-winning stories to reach new audiences and advance their campaign goals. As each winner took to the stage…
There’s no escaping “Game of Thrones.” Even if you don’t watch the monumentally popular HBO series, which brought in a record-breaking 10 million viewers for its Season 7 premiere, it’s impossible to miss the buzz. This is great news for organizations and causes that want more attention for their issue. When a TV show or…
Shows like Samantha Bee’s Full Frontal and John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight use humor to reframe complex policies and uncover the essential outrageousness, hypocrisy and injustice in today’s political circus. Plus, with talk show hosts like Jimmy Fallon bringing in guests like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Stephen Colbert hosting Black Lives Matter activists on The Late Show, pointed political conversations – on issues from…
Protestors around the world have adopted a new uniform as a symbol of defiance – red robes and white bonnets based on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, now a series on Hulu. The show’s premiere is the most-watched debut of any show on the streaming service. The shows haunting, dystopian future seems to…
You’re a 40-year-old woman whose marriage just ended and you need to get back into the workforce after raising your daughter, but that’s easier said than done. Especially if you want a job in the publishing industry, which idolizes the young. So what do you do? You lie about your age, of course. At least…
In a TV galaxy not so long ago and far away, “May sweeps” meant one thing: Every TV show worth watching was wrapping up for the season and networks pulled out all the stops to boost ratings and ad dollars. That’s still true, to a point, but today’s multi-platform media landscape has made this time…
Picture this: The FBI assembles a task force to investigate rumors of Russian spies living as suburban Americans, who have seamlessly infiltrated our country. In fact, an FBI counter-intelligence agent has suspicions about the family that lives next door, whose car is similar to one spotted at the scene of the kidnapping of a high-level…