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A Daughter Only
I’m not sure exactly when it happened. I’m referring, of course, to that moment in my mother’s mind when I shifted from being her prized only daughter to her only hope for grandchildren. The woman’s got a crazy case of “the grandbabies.” Maybe it was last fall, when I turned 28 and spent a stimulus…
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SBF Seeking Her Own Barack
When searching for those adjectives that best capture the inauguration of the nation’s first black president, old standards come to mind—“historic!” “momentous!” “unprecedented!” Add to that venerable list “intellectual Freaknik” and “meet market for buppies,” because among the millions attending this weekend’s revelry are plenty of single, young black men and women looking to hook…
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My First Thanksgiving
Martha Stewart terrifies me, and Rachael Ray makes my teeth hurt. I don’t ever plan on attempting Stewart’s cranberry ginger jelly or shouting “Yum-o!” like Ray. I am a Turkey Day first-timer. And at 28, I thought it was time to bite the drummette and finally do a grown-up Thanksgiving. Something that goes beyond the…
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What Hope Can't Fix
As Jennifer Hudson closed her eyes, holding that last note of the national anthem at the Democratic National Convention in August, one can only imagine what she was dreaming in that brief moment. Certainly not about the nightmares October would bring.As much of the country is brimming with promise, poised for hopeful discussions about how…
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Keep 'Gossip Girl' White
Months ago I got a message from an old schoolyard chum, “It’s our 10-year anniversary. Can you believe it?” The thought of a reunion had me super excited. We could flip through our high-school memories like flash cards. The time Ms. Dumoski taught an entire period of trig with her skirt tucked into her control…
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The Beautiful 'Black List'
HBO’s newest documentary The Black List is a lot like the imagined coffee table book that inspired it—super-sized with lots of pictures meant to incite conversation. The film’s images rotate like a Who’s Who in Black America. Did you know that Slash from Guns N’ Roses was black? Or that the former president of Planned…
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Over the Rainbow: Angie and Jo
Okay, so there’s Maddox from Cambodia, Pax from Vietnam, Zahara from Ethiopia, Shiloh from Namibia (well, born there, anyway), and now, new additions, twins Vivienne and Knox, born in France. In less time than it takes to get an undergraduate degree, Angelina Jolie, with some help from partner Brad Pitt, has earned a way more…
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Beef 2.0
*Sayin’ yo momma black, his momma this, his momma that/Then he get mad and wanna scrap/We stay mad about 10 minutes then it’s like back on the bike… — “Back in the Day” by Ahmad —In middle school, battles for respect weren’t decided on dodge ball courts or black asphalt. Back then folks lived or…
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What My Father Could Learn From Usher
On my desk, in my office, is a picture of my mother and me. I might be 2 weeks old. She’s cradling me with one arm against her chest, her slender fingers smoothing down my baby hair. She’s got a close-cropped afro, and we’re in somebody’s kitchen—maybe ours, but probably my Grandmommy’s. There’s a bag…
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One of the Girls: BBF in the City
When the prophesies finally turned out to be true—that they are making a movie, that all four girls are in and that there is going to be a wedding—scores of the devout laid in wait, salivating for more manna to rain down from the Sex and the City: The Movie mountaintop. But one particular crumb…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
