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DSK Heads Back to France
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has left the United States. The former IMF chief boarded an Air France flight Saturday night for Paris, where he faces an uncertain welcome. Once considered the front-runner for the Socialist Party’s presidential nomination, DSK’s political ambitions took a hit from the sexual-assault case involving a West African hotel maid. Although the Manhattan…
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High-Level Departures at Columbia Cast Doubt on Diversity
For a short while, it seemed that Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, an ardent defender of affirmative action and diversity, had backed his beliefs with action. He could boast of having African Americans in two key positions: Claude Steele was provost and Michelle Moody-Adams was undergraduate dean. Then Steele resigned in June to take a…
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Obama Blinks and Moves Job Speech
President Obama and Congress seemed headed for another confrontation with Republicans even before the summer glow had worn off. The White House announced Wednesday that the president wanted to present his jobs plan to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 7 at 8 p.m. That turned out to be the same date and time as the Republican presidential…
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Black Winemakers: No Longer So Rare
Ntsiki Biyela is an oddity in South Africa: She is a winemaker. She stands out not for her profession in this winemaking country but for her color. She is one of a handful of black South Africans — and surely the best known — making wine. Her story is especially unusual because she had never tasted wine…
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Blacks Trek South: Isabel Wilkerson's Take
The news from the 2010 census that African Americans are moving south in significant numbers prompted The Root to call Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, a work that has been called “magisterial.” She spent a decade on the book, which documents the massive movement…
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UK's Caribbean Carnival Under Way
The Notting Hill Carnival, which celebrates the United Kingdom’s Caribbean heritage, got under way Sunday with all of the colorful costumes, spicy food and loud music that distinguish this annual event. The difference this year is that it comes just weeks after the violent riots that erupted in London and spread to other major cities in…
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Michelle Rhee Would Do It Again
When Michelle Rhee joined a panel of experts on Martha’s Vineyard to discuss the achievement gap in public education, there was no doubt that she would be a lightning rod in the discussion. She shared the stage with education historian Diane Ravitch, Harvard sociologist Lawrence Bobo, Yale psychiatrist James Comer and Princeton sociologist Angel Harris,…
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Nick Ashford Dead at 69
Nick Ashford, who teamed up with Valerie Simpson to write some of the seminal hits of the 1960s, has died at age 69. Ashford’s death was announced late Monday night. He had suffered from throat cancer and died in a New York hospital. Ashford and Simpson were not just a songwriting duo; they had a marriage…
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Will DSK Get Off Scot-Free?
The charmed life of former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is set to resume. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office filed a motion Monday to dismiss all charges in the sexual assault case it previously filed againt Strauss-Kahn. The recommendation was expected after the DA’s office expressed grave doubts this summer about the credibility of…
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Rebels Overrun Tripoli: End of Days for Qaddafi?
Muammar Qaddafi’s 42 years of bizarre rule appear to be coming to an abrupt end. Rebels overran Libya’s capital Sunday, setting off celebrations, and arrested two of his sons. World leaders called on Qaddafi, whose whereabouts were unknown, to relinquish power. The Washington Post reported: Gaddafi loyalists were still holed up in and around the Bab al-Aziziya headquarters where…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
