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Racism? No, It's Just a 'Misunderstanding'
(The Root) — The instructions, relayed by an editor on a Friday afternoon, detonated like a bomb over the telephone: “I don’t think a black person should write the review for this book.” The book in question looked at legal cases during the civil rights era; the black person being considered to review it was…
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Romney: What a Drag It Is Being White
Boston.com‘s Francie Latour questions the GOP candidate’s claim that being white is a disadvantage in the presidential race. These days, if you are running for the office of President of the United States, it is a real drag to be white. So says Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who has taken on the distinct color of…
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America's Racist Past Is Not Dead and Gone
At Boston.com, Francie Latour responds with expert commentary, statistics and personal anecdotes to this recent headline: “Stain of Racism Is Finally Fading in America.” We’ve been breathlessly forecasting the arrival of a post-racial society going on four years. Now, according to Jacoby, it’s Jubilee time. “America’s racist past is dead and gone,” he proclaimed, and…
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Joel Ward Teaches NHL Fans to Denounce Hate
Francie Latour tackles the racist attacks on NHL player Joel Ward at her Hyphenated Life blog. She says that Ward’s Jackie Robinson-like stoicism should serve as a lesson for us all. I know absolutely nothing about the game of ice hockey, and even less about the National Hockey League. But I learned two important things…
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Lena Dunham's 'Girls': Where Are the Black Friends?
Boston Globe columnist Francie Latour has a bone to pick with Lena Dunham, creator of HBO’s new series Girls. She says that despite having had the perseverance to incorporate female characters who don’t reflect Hollywood’s beauty ideal, Dunham, when asked about the lack of color on her show, responds as if she’s not the show’s…
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A More Perfect Union for Trayvon Martin
Boston.com blogger Francie Latour uses President Barack Obama’s poignant remarks on Friday about the brutal death of Trayvon Martin as a much-needed jumping-off point for an important conversation about race in America. “We can tackle race only as spectacle,” the candidate and then-Senator Barack Obama said exactly four years ago this week, riveting the nation…
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Beyoncé's Incredible, Miraculous Pregnancy
Does Beyoncé realize that women have been carrying and birthing babies for thousands of years? More to the point, do we? I get the fact that by now, all bets are off when it comes to celebrity motherhood — what with Erykah Badu live-tweeting her home birth and “it” girls introducing their Havens and Sparrows…
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'The Latino List': Reshaping the 'Other' America
In a blog entry at Boston.com, Francie Latour reviews The Latino List, a new HBO documentary that explores what it means to be Latino at a time when anti-immigration sentiment is sweeping across the country and is a rallying call for the Tea Party. The backdrops are gray and monochrome. But the stories, told one…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
