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Defense Claims Girl and Mother Falsified Rape Claims Against Jelani Maraj to ‘Shake Down’ Nicki Minaj for Money
The child-rape trial against Jelani Maraj drew to a close Monday with prosecutors and the defense presenting their closing arguments. While prosecutors emphasized the bravery of the two children who testified—Maraj’s 14-year-old stepdaughter and her younger brother—and the physical evidence against Maraj, defense attorney David Schwartz pressed the claim that the rape charges were all…
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Papa John’s: Now the Official ‘Pizza’ of Nazis, According to Nazis
After Papa John’s blamed the NFL players protests for its lagging pizza sales, the Daily Stormer quickly caped for its trash-ass “pizza.” (For the uninitiated, the Stormer is a site rife with neo-Nazis and white supremacists that, coincidentally, can’t keep The Root’s name out of its mouth.) Last week, Papa John’s founder John Schnatter told…
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Will White Identity Politics Prevail on Tuesday? Conservatives Use Racist, Anti-Immigrant Messages to Get Out the Vote
To paraphrase The Root’s editor-in-chief, Danielle Belton, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, rife with xenophobia, sexism and racism, made a cattle call of what previous conservative leaders had merely dog-whistled. Now, as select state and local races across the country draw to a close this Tuesday (among them, Virginia’s hotly contested gubernatorial race), conservatives around the…
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Video Shows Cop Punching Disorderly Female Fan After She Slaps Him at University of Miami Football Game
The Miami-Dade Police Department is currently reviewing video of a violent altercation between a disorderly University of Miami fan and a cop who was escorting her out of the stadium Saturday. Bridget Freitas, a 30-year-old nurse, has been charged with battery of a police officer after authorities say she backhand-slapped a male cop. Video footage…
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Babysitter Believed to Have Kidnapped 6-Year-Old Autistic Boy in Brooklyn, NY: Report
Updated Monday Nov. 6, 2017, 8:50 a.m. EST: Devin Monroe, a 6-year-old autistic boy from Brooklyn, N.Y, has been found safe and unharmed, authorities say. WPIX-TV reports that both he and his babysitter, Emmanuel Kolajo, who officials say is believed to have kidnapped the boy, were found Monday morning after they disappeared over the weekend.…
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‘Go Back’: Kan. Restaurant Fire May Be Eyed as a Hate Crime After Xenophobic Graffiti Is Found
A fire at a Jordanian restaurant in Wichita, Kan., could now be investigated as a hate crime after graffiti was discovered in the back of the restaurant with the warning, “Go Back.” Owners Ranya Taha and Bashar Mahanwe woke up to a phone call at 2:10 a.m. Wednesday alerting them to a two-alarm fire at…
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The Unsinkable Nikki Giovanni Reflects on a Life of Tears and Laughter in New Collection
You don’t have to wonder where Nikki Giovanni is on a Saturday night. The iconic poet, who just released her latest collection of poems last week, is a devout Saturday Night Live fan and is especially impressed by Alec Baldwin and his Donald Trump impersonations. “He has Trump nailed as the fool that he is,”…
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Papa John’s Sheds White Tears Over Lagging Pizza Sales, Blames NFL Protests
To hear Papa John’s founder John Schnatter tell it, better suppression of First Amendment rights make for better pizza sales. Schnatter told shareholders on a conference call that NFL players’ protests over racial injustice are killing his pizza business during the games, according to the New York Daily News. He also blamed NFL Commissioner Roger…
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Why Some Black and Brown People Can’t Trust Bernie Sanders, in 1 Quote
There are reasons that progressive black and brown folk have had their struggles with supporting Bernie Sanders—though no one does a better job of illustrating why than the Vermont senator and former presidential candidate himself. In an interview Monday night with Seth Meyers on Late Night, Sanders said that progressives shouldn’t pin too much of…
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Kaepernick’s Attorney Believes the Quarterback Could Be Signed ‘in the Next 10 Days’
Colin Kaepernick’s long wait to get back in an NFL uniform may be over soon, according to his lawyer Mark Geragos. Bleacher Report was the first to report the story. “I think within the next 10 days somebody will sign him,” Geragos said in an appearance on The Adam Carolla Show that was posted Tuesday.…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
