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Sen. Kamala Harris Is a 54-Year-Old Black Woman, and Yes, She Dated Willie Brown. So What?
Listen up everyone because this will likely be the first, last and only time I will write these words: We have to talk about California Sen. Kamala Harris’ dating life. Why? Is it relevant to her qualifications to be president? No. Is it because her previous relationships were scandalous in some way that reflects on…
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Justin Fairfax, The King of Confederate Shade, Shuts Down 100-Year Tribute to American Traitors
Most politicians don’t really understand power. Oh, they may talk about power, they may use power, they may even think they are powerful. But from the local county auditor to even the president of the United States, the meaning of true power eludes them. Justin Fairfax, Lt. Governor of the blue state of Virginia, is…
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She's Running! Kamala Harris Announces Run for the Presidency on Good Morning America
Sitting calmly on the set of ABC’s Good Morning America with Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, Senator Kamala Harris announced she is running for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States this Monday. There was an audible cheer from someone behind the cameras the moment Harris said the words which caused the entire…
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No Check, Snowed In and No End in Sight: How Black D.C. Is Surviving Trump’s Government Shutdown
“He didn’t ask me!” yelled a heavy set 40-something-year-old guy sitting by the window in my barbershop. I had just asked everybody what they thought about President Trump’s claim that federal employees told him to keep the shutdown going. My barbershop is at the perfect demographic nexus of the D.C. metropolitan area. Nestled in a…
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From 'Big Daddy' Clyburn to Wakanda Salutes: The Biggest, Baddest Congressional Black Caucus Has Arrived
Nobody knows what to call them yet. For years it was just the Congressional Black Caucus, or the CBC. In the 1980s they were nicknamed the Conscience of the Congress. Several years ago contributor to The Root, Lauren Victoria Burke, launched a blog calling them Crew of 42. Of course that name didn’t fit for…
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Aquaman Wants to be Obama for the Seven Seas but the People Wanted Trump
Warning: light spoilers ahead but the movie kind of sucked so I think that’s fine. There have been a couple of variations of Aquaman that have existed in pop culture before DC Comic’s latest attempt at a blockbuster film. There’s the lame blonde guy from the Superfriends whose only power is talking to fish that…
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I Expected to Hate Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Then Marvel Made It Extra Black
You know that feeling you had when you finished watching Black Panther the first time? The credits were rolling and you sat there experiencing a mix of emotions—shock, happiness and validation, all while SZA and Kendrick Lamar’s “All the Stars” flowed throughout the theater? Imagine having all of those feelings again, except this time the…
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Nobody Should Be Talking About Beto and Gillum in 2020 Until We Understand Stacey Abrams in 2018
This past September at a Congressional Black Caucus party, I caught up with one of the main players of the “Stacey Abrams for Governor” campaign. I’d been covering the Georgia election from day one so I had a pretty honest relationship with most of the team. At that point, Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp had…
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Can You Be Black and Still be a Permit Patty or a BBQ Becky? The Story of How I Almost Became Plane Patrol Peter
“Would you just shut the fuck up and listen?” This is not going to be easy, I thought to myself. We’ve just landed on the tarmac and this obnoxious college kid, with the bad acne, sitting in front of me is yelling into his cell phone. I could just ignore him, or brush past him.…
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To Boldly Go Where White Men Have Always Been Going Anyway
Fifty years ago last week, the first interracial kiss on American network television occurred. Contextually, the entire situation was strange. The kiss occurred on the “Plato’s Stepchildren” episode of Star Trek. It was between all-American white guy Captain James T. Kirk and Communications Officer Lt. Nyota Uhura. Mind-controlling aliens, dressed like ancient Greeks, forced the…