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Happy Birthday, Mr. President!
This year, Barack Obama celebrates his birthday in the White House as president of the United States. But, Michelle Obama and the first kids will be hard-pressed to find the right present for the commander in chief who has everything. The Root readers recommend a few gift ideas for the POTUS as he turns the…
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The Gates Case Roundup
Mistaken identity? The woman’s statement — corroborated by the police commissioner — means that much of the media commentary over the last week about the incident has been based on a faulty premise: that the police report is accurate. Moreover, tapes of the 911 call were released midday Monday. “One thing the tapes didn’t show:…
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'Unknown on Race'
Listen here. The Transcript Dispatcher: Respond to 17 Ware Street for a possible B and E in progress. Two SPs (suspicious persons) barged their way into the home, they have suitcases. R-P 5 – SP. Stand by, trying to get further. Officer 52 (Crowley): 52. Ware Street right now, 17? Dispatcher: 17 Ware Street ……
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Gates Says 'Yes' to Beer With Crowley
Statement from Henry Louis Gates, Jr. “It was very kind of the President to phone me today. Vernon Jordan is absolutely correct: my unfortunate experience will only have a larger meaning if we can all use this to diminish racial profiling and to enhance fairness and equity in the criminal justice system for poor people and…
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President Obama's Statement on the Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrest
THE PRESIDENT: Hey, it’s a cameo appearance. Sit down, sit down. I need to help Gibbs out a little bit here. Q Are you the new press secretary? THE PRESIDENT: If you got to do a job, do it yourself. (Laughter.) I wanted to address you guys directly because over the last day and a…
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Obama Calls Sgt. Crowley
WASHINGTON (AP) — Knocked off stride by a racial uproar he helped stoke, President Barack Obama hastened Friday to tamp down the controversy. Obama, who had said Cambridge, Mass., police “acted stupidly” in arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., declared the white arresting officer was a good man and invited him and the professor…
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If Words Could Heal, Obamacare Would Be Done
It’s a truism that health care reform is so hard in large part because so few people actually understand the stuff. Well, President Obama is working mightily to frame this year’s debate simply: It’s a tug-of-war between those who want to fix a self-evident problem and a few flat-Earthers who thrive off its dysfunction. So…
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'Black in America 2' in Review
What does being black in America mean today? Does CNN’s ambitious program break the surface in explaining the black experience? Join The Root staff and readers as we partner with Black Web 2.0 to discuss “Black in America 2” with a panel of young professionals and academics. The second segment of “Black in America 2”…
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Notes of an Uppity Negro
Franz Fanon, the famed French psychologist, suggested racism was a psychosis internalized by both oppressors and oppressed peoples manifest by persistent paternalism and entitlement on one side and perceived inferiority and acquiesence on the other. People that know me know that I don’t believe in racism per se, but I do believe that Fanon was…
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Beige in America
Come on, Soledad. We’re about to see our second “Black in America” series in two years, and it’s only fair to surmise that after the way Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings went down, plans for “Brown in America” will soon be underway. But before you start production on “Brown” or start making plans for “Black…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
