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What 'Uncle Tom' Really Means
It’s funny how black strength can express itself. This is my ultimate take on something I know I’m a tad late out of the gate on: this business of basketball player Jalen Rose referring to fellow black players who grew up in two-parent homes as Uncle Toms in the ESPN documentary about the Fab Five…
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The Origin of the Term 'Baby Mama'
Over the past 10 years, the terms “baby mama” and “baby daddy” have jumped the fence, as it were, and become mainstream American terms, albeit usually in an ironic sense. Rap group Outkast’s megahit “Ms. Jackson,” dedicated to “all the baby mamas’ mamas,” seems to have made “baby mama” officially American in 2000. By 2008,…
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No More Forums About a Black Agenda
I said I’d wait a year, and as of this week, I have. Last March, there was an Event, with prominent participants, the theme of which was to call on President Barack Obama to put forth a black agenda. Holding his “feet to the fire” was a metaphor that came up here and there. I…
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It's Time to Cut Tyler Perry Some Slack
Find more Tyler Perry news and commentary on The Root here. I just don’t get all the hating on Tyler Perry. When the NAACP Image Awards last week for both television and film can go to the work of the same man (for House of Payne and For Colored Girls), it looks like progress to…
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Black History Month Is Over. So Over
So February is over. Does America feel more informed about black history since 28 days ago? Does it ever at this time of year? Or, to the extent that America is informed about the history of black people this week, is it any more so than it was last September, or last Thanksgiving or last,…
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Apologies for Racism?
New Brunswick, N.J., spring 1984. I was in a bar during an open-mike stand-up show. A white Rutgers student got onstage and opened with, “What do you call 100,000 black people at the bottom of the ocean? A good start.” She didn’t see me; I was over in a dark corner. I should note, for…
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Good News About Black Progress
It is perhaps inevitable that the kind of news that sticks with us most is the kind that makes you go, “Now it’s on!” or “Wouldn’t you know?” But the good news is important, too, and not just because it’s sweet to look on the bright side, but because good news teaches us crucial things…
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Egyptians Are Not My Brothers
Only now am I becoming able to make peace with something that has nagged at me lately: I don’t think of the protesters in Egypt as my brothers and sisters. There, I said it. I am heartened daily by their victories. If someone asked me to help in some way, I would do all I…
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Missing the Point on MLK
During this time of year, we in the media are given to expounding on what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have counseled in our era, especially about poverty and war. But there is an aspect of what King was all about that we tend to miss, because time passes, and technology preserves and highlights…
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Who Are We Protecting by Censoring 'Huck Finn'?
“So, class, this was written a long time ago, and there are people in it using a word we don’t like to hear. Open up to page ___ and see what word it is. “Now, when you start this book, you might think it’s just about a white kid and a black guy and some…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
