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Hey, PWIs! Diversity Is Great, but Inclusion Is Better
In Lawrence Ross’ new book, Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America’s Campuses, he highlights America’s little mythology problem. “For the past 400 years, African Americans tried to assist white Americans in recording a memory of racism, often to no avail,” Ross writes. “White America clings stubbornly to a collective narrative, what Gore…
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The Real Housewives of Potomac Is a Show That ‘Bravely’ Asks, ‘Who Is Black in America?’
A long time ago, back when everyone I knew personally was black and my world was much smaller, everyone was embarrassingly blunt about their colorism because they were 9 years old and had no filters. I knew the girls who were bullied because they were dark. I knew the girls who were bullied because they…
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Exposed: How Keanu Reeves’ Newest Film Got Whitewashed
In a world where people are taking to the streets, saying “Black lives matter”—where TV shows and films like Empire, Selma, Jane the Virgin, Straight Outta Compton, Fresh Off the Boat and Black-ish are getting high ratings and winning awards—one movie studio allegedly said no to all that diversity and instead chose to take us…
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New White House Initiatives Are Great for Girls but Don’t Compare to My Brother’s Keeper
Blink and you would have missed it. Lost in much of the coverage of the Paris attacks, student protests and police shootings, more than a week ago, the White House announced a new series of initiatives meant to help women and girls of color. There was a daylong forum for it, a forum focused on…
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The 10 Things Black People Can’t Do
When I was 21, a police officer at the scene of a fire cursed me out. It didn’t matter that I was there with a camera crew and working for a TV station in St. Louis. It didn’t matter that I was absolutely nowhere near the fire (I was standing across the street). He thought…
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Shaun King, Trolling Conservatives and the Reverse Paper-Bag Test
It’s hard to write about something you know is stupid. You try to come up with words. Something fancy or deep. Profundity, be mine! But the only thing you want to say is, “This is dumb, so dumb.” Right now, on the Internet, some conservatives are trying to digitally relitigate Plessy v. Ferguson because it…
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The 5 Biggest Challenges Facing #BlackLivesMatter
Editor’s note: When it comes to keeping a movement going, you have to have a good understanding of what is getting in your way. In the final installment of the series After the Fire, The Root looks at what challenges this current social-justice movement is facing and what the future may hold. After the Fire was…
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Leaderless or Leader-ful?
Editor’s note: In the second installment of the four-part series After the Fire, The Root looks at the structure of this current movement, a movement where anyone can be the boss, yet nobody is the boss. After the Fire was reported and written by Associate Editor Danielle C. Belton. Illustration by Jada Prather. Read Part 1.…
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How to Burn What Can’t Catch Fire
Editor’s note: In the four-part series After the Fire, The Root looks at the growing social-justice movement, from traditional players to #BlackLivesMatter, examining where the movement has been, where it is now and where it’s going. After the Fire was reported and written by Associate Editor Danielle C. Belton. Illustration by Jada Prather. Something every…
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Bobbi Kristina Brown: 1993-2015
She lived her life, and now has died, in the spotlight, regardless of whether she wanted to be in it. Bobbi Kristina Brown, 22, the only child from the marriage of music legend Whitney Houston and R&B singer Bobby Brown, has died. According to Entertainment Tonight, Bobbi Kristina passed away surrounded by family at the…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
