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The Death of Sandra Bland Isn’t Helping My Fear of Driving While Black
For most of my adult life I’ve struggled with anxiety—whether mild or serious—and it’s done everything from make me cancel events to lose my train of thought midsentence. It’s caused me to hide in my house for days on end, and about six years ago it came for my ability to drive anywhere without having…
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‘This Is Our Selma’: NC’s Fight for Voting Rights
Monday marks the start of a pivotal voting-rights trial in North Carolina. On the line? Access to the ballot box for tens of thousands of African-American voters. Calling the trial its “Selma,” referencing the Selma-to-Montgomery marches of 1964 in Alabama, the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP is taking Gov. Pat McCrory to court…
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Black America Knows What Real Patriotism Looks Like
It used to happen every Fourth of July. Our homeowners association would place little, cheap American flags on each lawn, and every year, ours ended up in the trash. Every. Year. My parents—born in America, raised in America, the only country they’ve ever known and will know, who had no desire to leave and will…
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The Inevitable but Predictable Backlash Over #BlackLivesMatter
When Black Lives Matter activist Bree Newsome climbed the pole on the South Carolina Statehouse grounds and took down the Confederate flag, I had one of two thoughts. Thought No. 1: That was amazing. Thought No. 2: I hope people wait at least a few hours before they start their backlash. A few hours. That’s…
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Waiting for the Worst: Bobbi Kristina Moved to Hospice Care
It may be time to finally say goodbye. Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only child from the marriage of the late music icon Whitney Houston and R&B singer Bobby Brown, has been moved to hospice care, according to the Associated Press. Eerily mirroring how her mother died, Bobbi Kristina, 22, was discovered unresponsive and facedown in…
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‘Southern Pride’ or Jim Crow’s Death Rattle? Everything You Need to Know About the Confederate Flag
For a flag said to represent “Southern pride,” it sure shows up a lot as a representative of Southern hate. Countless white supremacist groups use the flag often, and the 21-year-old white man who confessed Friday to killing nine black people at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., rocked the “rebel flag” on his…
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Slain SC Pastor Was ‘All-Around Good Guy’
He served the people, both in the church and as a state senator, and he was tragically killed in his own church during a shooting Wednesday that also took the lives of six women and two other men. He was South Carolina pastor and state Sen. Clementa C. Pinckney, one of the victims of a…
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Movie Review: Dope Is Actually Pretty Dope
First, let’s get this out of the way. Dope is a good movie. It is enjoyable, watchable and sweet. But it is also so sweet that if it were a drink, it would be a hipster, artisan rum punch drowning in simple syrup. And it ties up so neatly—despite all of its early wit and…
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Marilyn Mosby and Nick Mosby to Be Guest ‘Ringmasters’ at Upcoming UniverSoul Circus Performance in Baltimore
If you’ve become enamored in recent weeks with the work of Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and, by association, her husband, City Councilman Nick Mosby, since the indictments of six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, then you’re about to see a little bit more of them both. But not in the…
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From Relaxed to All Natural: Johnny Wright, the Man Behind Michelle Obama’s Hair
Michelle Obama with an Afro? Michelle Obama with an Afro! It could happen! And celebrity stylist Johnny Wright—the stylist to the first lady—is the man who would make that happen if it did. Wright, who says Michelle Obama has been completely natural for years now (he straightens her hair with a flat iron), says it is…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
