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Single-Minded: On Willow Smith and Whipping It
“It’s very, very, very overwhelming for a 9-year-old,” admitted Willow Smith earlier this month in a radio interview with Ryan Seacrest. Then, somewhere between learning her multiplication tables and attending Milan Fashion Week, the fifth-grader found the time to become a pop sensation with her single “Whip My Hair.” Jay-Z, who signed her with his label…
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The Root Interview: Boris Kodjoe on Black-on-Black Love
So let’s say Boris Kodjoe asks you to run away with him. How long would it take you to pack your bags? Would you even pack? The new star of NBC’s Undercovers — a “sex-pionage” story created by Lost’s J.J. Abrams — is asking audiences to do just that this fall. The show, says Kodjoe,…
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Single-Minded: For Colored Girls When Tyler Perry Isn't Enough
It’s scary what Tyler Perry can do in just two minutes. When it was announced last year that he would write and direct an adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s 1975 choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, the first thought that ran through the minds of most little brown girls-turned-grown…
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What I Did During CBC Weekend
These days, “CBC” is more of an adjective than an acronym. Loosely translated, it means something like “being of the professional and black.” So consider the receptions, galas, mixers, after parties and after-after parties with the sobriquet “CBC” to have been vetted. Sort of like Facebook five years ago, those .pdf evites with the Capitol…
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Single-Minded: When the Weapon of Choice Is a Snarl
There’s a guy who lives on my corner I call Homeless Jesus. He talks with a slur and every day advises me to “smile more,” regardless of the fact that I thought I was smiling. And I mean actually smiling, like with my mouth and with my eyes. But none of that matters to Homeless…
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Single-Minded: Arguing for the Sake of Arguing
A while back, a friend of mine said she doesn’t want to be seen as someone who likes to argue. She’s black, hilarious, a professional, opinionated, owns a home and two dogs. Because of some or all of those character bullet points, there could be a misperception among men that she (or women like her)…
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Single-Minded: True Blood's Tara, the BBF
No one is as beautifully broken on HBO’s True Blood as Tara. The girl was so insanely screwed up from jump that, as I watched the first two seasons, it made me sad that she represents 50 percent of the black population on a series set in the backwoods of Louisiana (the other 50 percent,…
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Single-Minded: 'White Girl Problems'
Sitting through Eat Pray Love, the movie in three parts based on the best-selling book in three verbs, the same three words kept coming to mind: white-girl problems. Earlier that day, Twitter suggested I follow an entire feed, @whitegrlproblem, dedicated most hilariously to the pretend crisis of #whitegirlproblems. Each new tweet is a punch line…
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Single-Minded: Montana Fishburne's Daddy Issues
Montana Fishburne clearly has some serious daddy issues. On Thursday it was reported that the 19-year-old daughter of actor Laurence Fishburne has been pimped out by her boyfriend J Pipes. Oh, and then, of course, there was last week’s announcement that the young Ms. Fishburne (porn name: Chip-D) will be co-starring with Mr. Pipes in…
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Single-Minded: The President and the Ladies of 'The View'
Why is a man among women considered brave? There are greater acts of courage to be accomplished — like, say, running for president at a time of crisis. Still, when President Barack Obama decided to make daytime talk-show history and show up for a sitdown with the ladies of The View, the first punch line was…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
