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For the Love of God? Evangelical Drug Traffickers Are Terrorizing Practitioners of Afro-Brazilian Religions
Candomblé priestess Carmen Flores was leaving her house three months ago when seven armed men confronted her. They demanded that she destroy the sacred contents of her house, a spiritual home for more than 125 followers of the Candomblé Afro-Brazilian religion. “Since my orisha is Oxum, our house was all about love,” said Flores, 66,…
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Brazilian Toilet Paper Brand Takes a Slogan for Black Empowerment and Wipes Its Ass With It
A few weeks ago, Dove captured the prize for the dumbest marketing campaign, and this week, a Brazilian brand of luxury toilet paper is trying to wrestle it away. The “Black is beautiful” slogan has been applied to various campaigns over the years to inspire black people across the world to have self-confidence in their…
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March for Black Women Organizers Want to Put Our Issues Front and Center During March for Racial Justice
There’s another social justice march this weekend, and black women are refusing to be left behind. The March for Black Women will take place Saturday in Washington, D.C.—smack in the middle of the March for Racial Justice. While the March for Racial Justice is billed as a “black and indigenous led multi-community movement” that 30,000…
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The Rape of Recy Taylor Looks Back at a Horrific but Largely Forgotten Case From the Jim Crow South
Say her name: Recy Taylor. In 1944, 24-year-old Recy Taylor and two friends were walking back from a late-night church service in Abbeville, Ala., when seven young white men in a car stopped them and threatened them with a gun. Taylor was forced to enter the car, and the men drove off with her into…
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Look at All These Monuments From Around the World That Honor Those Who Fought Against Slavery
When Haiti unveiled Le Negré Marron statue in 1967, it became a symbol for freedom of black people across the world. The sculpture is a reminder of the rebellion against the French that set the Haitians free. The bust depicts a bronze man kneeling on one knee, torso arched, while holding a conch shell at…
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Ser Negro Es Hermoso Campaign Seeks to Teach Afro-Colombians That Black Is Beautiful
When foreigners think of the country of Colombia, usually visions of drug-cartel bosses and Latin beauty queens with olive skin come to mind. Few foreigners know just how multicultural, and black, the country is. Colombia has the second-largest population of people of African descent in the Americas after Brazil—at least 5 million, according to the…
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How Rio’s Olympics Destroyed a Favela, but Not the Spirit of a Candomblé Priestess
Two years ago, a simple Candomblé religious rite revealed to Heloisa Helena Costa Berto her future in Rio de Janeiro. When the mãe de santo (mother of the spirit) threw her cowrie shells onto a table, Berto saw a vision of her house through the formation of the shells. It didn’t look good. “I saw that…
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Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles Are ‘Sisters’ in Competition
Four years ago a petite, timid Gabby Douglas made her national media debut in front of hundreds of reporters at the Olympic Media Summit. At the time, she was unknown to everyone except gymnastics insiders, but that changed when, two months later, she captured the all-around gold medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games. “Before,…
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Why Successful Black Men in Brazil Won’t Marry Black Women
In 1965, Ebony magazine published a 10-page spread about Brazil with the headline, “Does Amalgamation Work in Brazil: Absorbing Negro Through Interracial Marriage Is Their Answer to the Race Problem.” The top image in the article showed a black woman walking hand in hand down the street with a white man. “Interracial couple walking hand…
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Fighting a Black ‘Genocide’ in Brazil
For African-American tourists, Salvador is a city in Brazil where Brazilians maintain the strongest ties to Africa through music, food and religion. It’s Brazil’s blackest city. Eighty percent of the population is of African descent. But for the Afro-Brazilians who live there, Salvador is a place where black men are constantly harassed by an intimidating…
