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Lisa, Angela, Pamela, Renee.
An ode to the all of the girls from ‘around the way.’
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How the Legacy and Influence of Combat Jack Lives On in These Black Podcasts
On Dec. 20, 2017, Reggie “Combat Jack” Ossé died of colon cancer. It’s difficult, and also feels unfair, to give him a single title. He was so many things to so many people. Not only was he a prolific entertainment attorney, but he was also the founding partner of the Loud Speakers Podcast Network and…
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Hip-Hop, Mental Health and Telling Our Stories: Combat Jack Talks the Life and Death of Chris Lighty
“Powerful black men like Chris Lighty don’t shoot themselves. It makes no sense, but somehow there he was, lying in the casket with a bullet in his skull.” This statement, shared by Reggie Ossé, captured many of our original thoughts when learning that hip-hop mogul Chris Lighty died from an apparent suicide in 2012. Even…
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Your 4.0 GPA Won’t Protect You From Systemic Racism
Being “twice as good” won’t save you from becoming a target. Just ask 18-year-old Andrew Jones of Amite, La., who was denied the opportunity to serve as his class valedictorian. Despite earning a 4.0 grade point average, Jones was not permitted to participate in his high school graduation. According to reports, the student was stopped…
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A Dream Deferred? Will Prison Reform Be Prioritized if Hillary Clinton Is Elected?
What happens to lofty campaign promises after the candidate is no longer a front-runner? Do they dry up like a raisin in the sun? I imagine that the supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders who believe in his promises about prison reform have the same question. As former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues to…
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#NeverTrump Is Losing the War Against America’s True Face
When I was young and naive, I loved a man so hard that his flaws disappeared when he smiled. Human nature assured me that he wasn’t perfect, but damn it, you couldn’t tell me he wasn’t one of the greatest men in the world. To my surprise, not everyone shared this opinion of him. When…
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On Saartjie Baartman and the Ownership of Black Women’s Bodies
The perceived ownership of a black woman’s body is an issue deeply woven into the fabric of the ugliest pieces of history. This poisonous thinking has not been quarantined to one section of the globe. In the United States, it was this idea of “ownership” that dominated the thinking of plantation owners and allowed them…
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The Paradox of Being a Black, Christian, Social Justice Advocate
I’m a black woman who loves hip-hop. And I don’t mean that in an “I have a gym playlist that includes a little Hov” kind of way. I mean it in the “At least once a day I use rap lyrics or their song titles to express myself” kind of way. Like when Hillary Clinton…
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How Police Violence Broke My Boyfriend and Ruined Our Relationship
Few things in life are harder than witnessing a person you love die a little each day and knowing you don’t have a cure. That’s exactly what it felt like to be in a relationship with a man who physically survived a violent attack from a police officer but never fully recovered emotionally. The relationship…
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17 Unsung Heroes of Black Lives Matter
In 2013, after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the U.S. justice system sent a message to the black community: You don’t matter. The black community responded to that message by organizing a powerful movement that is forcing the world to acknowledge that black lives do matter. Black Lives Matter…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
