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#IStandWithGayle Is Trending…But If We Really Believed in What Kobe Tried to Stand For, It Wouldn't Be Necessary
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done—or been implicated in? What’s the worst mistake you ever made? Were you entirely innocent, or at least, in some minor way, culpable? If innocent, did you let the anger at the injustice define you, or allow your goodness to speak for itself? If not, do you consider yourself…
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Forget the Awards. Everyone Knows We're Really Here for the Afterparty
Real talk? No shade—okay, maybe just a little—but if we had a choice between being invited to the Oscars and being invited to the legendary Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty, well…we’re disco-napping and will see y’all after the Best Picture is announced. And apparently, much of Hollywood feels the same way, since the silver carpet at…
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Stand Up! The Oscars May Not Give Cynthia Erivo Her Flowers (Yet), But We Will
Did you watch the 2020 Academy Awards? No? Was it because the #OscarsSoWhite? I mean, they were (and accordingly, we’re going to have our lightest Oscars slideshow ever today), but in a year that denied both people of color and women their nomination shine (shoutout to Natalie Portman for having the names of this year’s…
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Because Nobody Asked for It, Erykah Badu Is Giving Us Incense That Smells Like Her…Badussy
Have you ever wondered what the black version of Goop’s infamous (but nevertheless sold-out) “This Smells Like My Vagina” candle would be? No? Well, too bad for you, because the artistic and ethereal entity known as Erykah Badu is making her own entry into the growing market of undercarriage-inspired scents. In a recent cover story…
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Where Misplaced Loyalty and Misogynoir Collide: On Snoop, Cosby, and Why Protecting Black Women Always Seems the Last Priority
It was another ritualistic dragging on social media this week, as Black Twitter read Gayle King for filth for daring to ask WNBA veteran Lisa Leslie about the darker side of Kobe Bryant’s legacy (his 2003 sexual assault charge, which was subsequently dismissed and settled out of court) during an interview on CBS This Morning.…
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So Fresh and So Clean: An Empowered Ayanna Pressley Claps Back at Alopecia-Shaming Trolls
It was only last month that Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) revealed her alopecia diagnosis here at The Glow Up, and just last week when she proudly stood on the floor of the House of Representatives with her bald head on display for the first time. For a rising political figure who was already a force…
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Sorry to Those Brands: Keke Palmer Is the New Face of Olay, Okay?
Real talk? While I’m a longtime lover of Olay, it’s not a brand I automatically associate with the younger set. My Gen-X self inherited a love for the brand (then more commonly known as Oil of Olay) from my mother, who was taught by her mother and…well, you get it. But while it’s an enduring…
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Game, ‘Scarfs’: Our Favorite NBA Face-Off of the Season Might Be Serge Ibaka and OG Anunoby’s Fashion Feud
“I put you on how to dress,” OG Anunoby told fellow Toronto Raptor and avowed fashion-lover Serge Ibaka in a recent episode of Canadian retailer Holt Renfrew’s Avec Classe—a fashion web series hosted by Ibaka. “You put me on?” Ibaka asked, with an incredulous laugh. After all, we’ve been checking Ibaka’s style game (and cheekbones,…
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An Immigrant’s Story: Acclaimed Author Edwidge Danticat Wins $100,000 Prize for Her ‘Genre-Spanning Work’
Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat (Breath, Eyes, Memory; The Farming of Bones; Brother, I’m Dying, etc.) has long been considered one of the most gifted voices in the diaspora, garnering a National Book Critics Circle Award, an American Book Award, and a MacArthur Genius grant, among her many honors. This week, the writer and activist can…
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A Year After Its Blackface Scandal, Prada Agrees to Longterm Structural Changes
“When I spoke out about Prada’s blackface line one year ago, I feared that racism in fashion was a just bitter pill we collectively had to swallow,” said Chinyere Ezie, a civil rights attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, on Wednesday. “Now I know that speaking truth to power can lead to meaningful change.”…




