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Is My 4-Year-Old Racist?
“Brown people,” my daughter told me, “drive old cars.” I looked at Ken with a raised eyebrow; he was not surprised because Simone, our 4-year-old, had shared her sudden insight with him a few weeks earlier. When he told me about the exchange, it stoked one of my biggest fears—that some day Simone will identify…
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Loving in Alabama
It started with his ties: Beetle Bailey, Star Trek, Looney Tunes. They were not fashion forward, to put it mildly, but I wanted to know who would wear such kitsch. I would stop by his desk, ask about the tie of the day, and we’d chat about whatever. This went on for months. He told…
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Enough With the Princesses!
There was Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas and Mulan. Tiana arrives this fall in the first Disney film featuring a black American princess. Set in 1920s New Orleans, The Princess and the Frog tells the story of a young waitress and gifted chef who dreams of following her father’s lead and owning…
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Kitchen Beauticians
Last month, the world was all a Twitter when Oprah started to tweet. Folks, seeing their first line into her personal world, asked about her weave. Oprah set the record straight: She does not have a weave; she has a press and curl. How, in all these years on television and movie sets, has no…
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Deamonte’s Toothache
Two black boys died in the span of a week in 2007 because their mothers didn’t have health insurance. Deamonte Driver, 12, died of a toothache because his mother couldn’t afford to pay $80 to have a tooth extracted; the tooth abscessed and bacteria spread to his brain. After two surgeries and six weeks in…
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Why I Don’t Work on King Day
I don’t work on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. A few years ago, I just stopped doing it and decided to take a personal day instead. The federal holiday occasionally falls near my birthday or sometimes, like this year, on my birthday. It took years for me to arrive at my decision. As a journalist,…
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Waking Simone
I remember the day in January 1981 when the Americans held hostage in Iran arrived at Andrews Air Force Base. I sat on a school bus, waiting for what seemed like years, as heightened security slowed our entry onto the base. I remember the yellow ribbon tied to the antenna of my dad’s car and…
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Where are the Folk in Folk Art?
Each year, Steve Hessler and Dolly Vehlow make a pilgrimage from their home in Washington, D.C., to the Kentuck Festival of the Arts in Northport, Ala., to chat with old friends and buy art. Since the 1990s, the couple has purchased pieces from Mose Tolliver, Charlie Lucas, Yvonne Wells and Betty Sue Matthews, a cadre…
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Black Like Mommy, White Like Me
Simone snuggled up beside me and pointed to my face. “Mommy,” she said, “is a black girl.” How observant, I thought, for a 3-year-old to make such a distinction. “Yes,” I said, “Mommy is a black girl.” “Simone,” she continued, “is a white girl.” In all the time I had dreamed about being a mother…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
