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Dear NBC: A Slave Cannot Be a ‘Mistress’
There are times when black America’s feathers are ruffled, and our reaction does not come from anger or aggravation but from wonder. Even though many of our bruises have calloused over, every now and then someone will stick us in the exact right spot, and when we feel the pinprick, instead of getting mad, we…
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A Comprehensive Guide to Sending and Receiving Nudes
“Love is blind, but just in case, send nudes.” —ancient African proverb I may have added that last part, but we now live in a world where pictures are worth a thousand texts, and apparently people can send and receive nude photographs on their phones. (I know using the word “photographs” makes me sound ancient,…
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Everything You Wanted to Know About the Umar Johnson Memes but Were Afraid to Ask
Umar Johnson is back in the news again, blowing up black Twitter after his recent appearance on Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club with DJ Envy, Angela Yee and Charlamagne tha God. During a wide-ranging interview, the king of the “ankh-right” (because the word “Hotep” deserves better) railed against interracial marriage while dropping some jewels (pronounced…
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2 Men—1 Black, 1 White—Commit Same Crime. Guess Which One Ended Up Dead?
Police aren’t racist. Critics of the Black Lives Matter movement believe this despite data from police departments in New York, Kansas City and San Francisco (pdf) showing that cops are more likely to stop black citizens. Those who make deities of anyone in uniform believe in the infallibility of the badge despite the numbers that…
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How Much Is a Black Life Worth? We Calculated It
This week, Philando Castile’s family was awarded $3 million to settle a civil wrongful death lawsuit against the tiny township of St. Anthony, Minn. A week earlier, CNN reports, the family of Mike Brown reportedly received $1.5 million from the city of Ferguson, Mo., in the 2015 death of the 18-year old. It seems like…
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Morehouse Names Harold Martin Jr. Interim President
Morehouse College’s board of trustees voted unanimously to appoint Harold Martin Jr. as its new interim president, the school announced in a Thursday press conference. Martin, a 2002 alumnus of Morehouse who later earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a law degree from Yale, is the school’s third president in as many months.…
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Jay-Z’s 4:44 Is the 1st Grown-Ass Hip-Hop Album
I’m a grown-ass, 40-year-old dad, so there are certain things I cannot do. I will never again eat at Chuck E. Cheese unless I want to end up on an episode of To Catch a Predator, but I’m also not old enough to eat at the Golden Corral. I can’t spend $200 on Jordans or wear…
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Stupid or Liars? James O’Keefe’s Van Jones Hoax Raises an Important Question
Have you ever played the game “stupid or liar”? It was created by podcaster Adam Corolla. The premise is that whenever someone says something that is blatantly false, you must figure out if he or she is either incredibly stupid or a bald-faced liar. Like when your boyfriend tells you he has no idea who…
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Becky of the Year Candidate: White Woman Says Sexism in Hollywood Is Like Racism
May I present to you the latest nominee for The Root’s annual Wypipo Awards, in the category of Becky of the Year: Emilia Clarke. Please don’t hate me for reducing a human being to the title of “white woman.” This story is about the woman who plays Daenerys Targaryen. Even though I am the biggest…
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Black Man Takes Miss. Flag to Supreme Court Because … Look at It
A black Mississippi man who argues that the state’s flag is a symbol of white supremacy is taking his fight to the Supreme Court of the United States, setting the stage for the possibility that SCOTUS could ban all official use of Confederate imagery. According to an Associated Press report, in February 2016, Carlos Moore…
