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The Color Precious
Given its celebrity fanfare and feminist themes, is Lee Daniels’ Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, a 21st-century The Color Purple? Or is it Native Son in drag? Lee Daniels’ second film, Precious, fared quite well last weekend. Despite its soft release in only 18 theaters, Precious pulled in a remarkable $1.8 million,…
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Black Silence and the Abortion Debate
During the 2008 presidential campaign, it seemed—for a whimsical, idealistic, brief moment in time—that abortion had become a non-issue. Among the most riveting exchanges on the topic came when Barack Obama responded coyly to mega-church pastor Rick Warren that it was above his “pay grade” to answer a question about when a fetus is entitled…
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Kobe’s Beautiful Game
I’ve never been a Kobe Bryant fan. Maybe it’s because I’m still getting over the Lakers 4-1 deafening defeat of my mainstay, the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2001 NBA finals. Maybe I just don’t like his particular blue-chip swagger. Of his generation of athletes, I have always appreciated Serena Williams’ extroverted braininess, Donovan McNabb’s self-composure,…
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Marion Jones, Role Model?
The silences in Marion Jones first public speech since she was released from prison last fall were as percussive as the words she actually spoke. Since serving six months for perjury after being convicted of fraud and the use of performance enhancing drugs, the disgraced Olympian has been interviewed by Oprah and Good Morning America’s…
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Why White Comics Don't Get Barack
A black president. Now that’s funny! So why are so many political satirists crying about how unamusing the Obama presidency will be? The standard reasoning is that, unlike Bush, McCain, Palin, the Clintons or even Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama is “too perfect” and does not provide material for good jokes. But the inability of “Saturday…
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The Grand Old Bait and Switch
John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as the GOP vice presidential nominee has re-inserted the “woman” question into the presidential debate. By choosing the second white female vice presidential candidate, McCain is trying to fashion himself, Sarah Palin, and, by extension, the entire Republican Party as more committed feminists than the Democrats. But what is…
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Obama and the 'Women Question'
Hillary Clinton’s decision to end her campaign and endorse Barack Obama this weekend means that Obama is now assured of the Democratic nomination for president, and that Clinton’s historic bid to become the first woman to win the White House will end in disappointment. But the “women question” that has dogged Obama at times during…
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It's A Crisis
Perhaps one of the truest and most tragic lines in American film is spoken by the character Yellow Mary in Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust(1991) when she sadly declares that “the rape of the colored woman is as common as fish in the sea.” As a rape survivor, I speak on behalf of the…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
