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The Root's Holiday Playlist
I still believe in Christmas. It is the one time of the year that I believe the world will stay upright, that people are inherently good and kind, and that slow drivers aren’t out to deter me from getting to my destination as fast as possible. I believe in the Christmas spirit, the idea that…
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You Barack It, You Buy It
The day after America elected a black man president, a bundle of Washington Post newspapers were going for $400 on eBay. The L.A. Times made a cool 600K in Barack Obama merchandise. The ailing newspaper industry briefly got its swagger back when people realized that they couldn’t frame their computer. Unfortunately, that is not where…
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Why Black Comics Must Get Barack
Fade back to 1983. Reaganomics has black America in a stranglehold, unemployment is running rampant, and my sisters and I have snuck into the basement after lights out to watch Eddie Murphy, clad in a skintight red leather outfit, tell dirty jokes. Eddie says he saw Jesse Jackson working out at the gym now that…
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Deep, Dark Chocolate
Hollywood drove Dave Chappelle out of his gourd. He bounced on a multi-million-dollar contract, went to Africa, got his mind right and realized that at the end of the day, hamming it up for The Man wasn’t what he wanted to do. Here’s the problem: Although it was great for Dave’s state of mind, it…
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So Long, O.J.
With the conviction and likely long-term incarceration of O.J. Simpson, the United States penal system is putting together one heck of a football squad. The team behind bars could rival the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC West on any given Sunday. Imagine Michael Vick at quarterback, Rae Carruth at wide receiver, Lawrence Phillips and Maurice…
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No One Saw a Thing
The South is the bathroom of American history. Saturating the otherwise picturesque rolling landscapes is the oppressive stench of a history of lynching, bloodcurdling beatings and African-American bodies burned and ruthlessly mutilated. This is the room that America doesn’t want visitors to see. Keep this door shut because if opened, threatening to spill out is…
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Trading O.J.
On the day of his induction into Pro-Football Hall Of Fame in 1985, O.J. Simpson should have said to the crowd in Canton, Ohio: “Thank you guys so much….This is great,” then turned, taken one last look at his old life, draped his yellow blazer across his broad shoulders, hopped on his spaceship and flew…
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Grae's Anatomy
Sometimes when the planets align and all the stars have found their height, there is a second when the world slows to a crawl and your ears stand at attention, and in that moment it all makes sense. Jean Grae caught that second like a firefly and stuck it a Mason jar when she hooked…
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When Thugs Cry
It is time to pull this car over and give you gangsta rappers something to cry about. Cry about genocide in Darfur. Cry about the lack of support for the people in Burma. Cry about the displaced New Orleans folks that got gutted and uprooted like seaweed. Cry about poverty, teen-pregnancy rates and joblessness. But,…
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Summer Groovin'
Damn the iPod. It will not now and nor will it ever be the cassette tape. Sure, it’s fancy and plays music with a clarity that has yet to be surpassed. But a pod-mix just doesn’t sound right. There is an art to making a mixtape, an ebb and flow. The beauty of it is…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
