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Black Theater Success Is Reshaping One of America’s Whitest Fields
The theater world has long been considered one of the most elite—and least diverse—in American culture. And as I’ve previously covered for The Root, at present there are only a handful of African-American Broadway producers, despite the fact that 46 new shows opened last season. Over the years, though, there have been occasional African-American playwriting…
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Social Media Helps Break the Silence Around Domestic Violence
When aspiring model Mori Montgomery posted photos of the horrific injuries she allegedly sustained at the hands of her boyfriend, she shocked cyberspace. But she may have done more than that. Her courage may play a role in ending the stigma that often silences survivors of domestic violence. Besides actual violence, the silence that accompanies…
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Jim Brown Says Slavery Wasn’t So Bad. And That’s Bad News for the GOP
It’s been well-documented that the GOP is in the middle of an aggressive rebranding campaign intended to woo African-American voters, and in the midst of this, yet another Republican congressional candidate has provoked cries of racial insensitivity. In a post on his Facebook page that was—in theory, anyway—about federal spending, Jim Brown, who’s running in…
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Rejection of Obama’s DOJ Nominee Means Trouble for Black Defendants
Debo Adegbile’s contentious confirmation hearings and failure to be confirmed as assistant attorney general for civil rights led one senior Democratic Senate aide to say that racial bias has cast a permanent pall over the confirmation process for black Obama nominees. But the treatment Adegbile faced, which the aide called a “smear campaign” and President…
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Senate Aide: It’s ‘Impossible’ to Get Obama’s Black Nominees Past Senate Republicans
On Wednesday the U.S. Senate voted 47-52 to reject President Barack Obama’s nomination of former NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorney Debo Adegbile to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division—with seven Democrats joining Republicans to prevent the president’s pick from moving forward. Obama called it a “travesty based on wildly unfair character attacks.”…
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Seriously, Chelsea Handler? You’re Going With the ‘Black Boyfriend’ Defense?
Though Chelsea Handler’s real sin may be the fact that she’s painfully unfunny, she managed to offend this week for another reason. While guest live-tweeting for the Huffington Post during Sunday’s Academy Awards broadcast, she provoked cries of racism at worst and racial insensitivity at best when, after Lupita Nyong’o was named the winner of…
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Will 12 Years a Slave Change Hollywood’s Race Problem?
Admirers of 12 Years a Slave are still basking in the Academy Awards’ afterglow. The fact that a film by a black screenwriter and black director—depicting a black man’s painful but ultimately triumphant true life story—won several Oscars, including the top prize for best picture, is a dream come true, particularly for moviegoers of color.…
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Why an African-American Director Wouldn’t Have Cast Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years a Slave
If there was any doubt left that Lupita Nyong’o is the Cinderella of this award season, it was erased by Vanity Fair’s Hollywood issue. Not only did she land a slot on the issue’s coveted cover (she was one of six black actors included this year), but an article about Hollywood’s most powerful stylists dubbed…
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Racist Emails Create New Headaches for GOP
The Republican National Committee has spent much of February highlighting the party’s efforts to be more inclusive. Earlier this month the organization hosted its second annual Trailblazer Awards Luncheon honoring black Republicans such as former Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan. The party also launched its first-ever Black History Month ad campaign, with…
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The Cast of A Raisin in the Sun Talks Class, Race and Michael Dunn
Fifty-five years ago, Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark play A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway. At the time, it was considered groundbreaking for its realistic portrayal of race and racism on the stage. Now, more than a half-century after its debut, America has elected a black president. But recent high-profile cases, such as the acquittal…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
