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Fresh Dressed: 10 Reasons You Should Watch This Stylish Hip-Hop Fashion Doc
After flipping through the September fall fashion issues of my favorite magazines with black “it” girls such as Beyoncé, Kerry Washington, Serena and Misty Copeland on their covers, I’m unusually interested in clothes. All that paging through magazines got me wondering: Where are all the black-owned fashion brands? Yes, of course well-known black brands still…
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Don Lemon Criticizes CNN, Suggests Its Coverage of the Va. Gunman Was Slightly Homophobic
CNN anchor Don Lemon says he doesn’t understand why it was necessary for CNN to keep bringing up that Vester Flanagan II—the gunman who killed two Virginia TV journalists Wednesday while they were conducting a live interview—reportedly was gay. CNN reported that Flanagan had registered domain names for several gay-porn websites. Throughout the day, a…
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Jazmine Sullivan Uses Instagram to Reflect on Past Abusive Relationship: ‘I Would Walk Around, Crying, Just to Get Out of the House’
Any and everything can trigger a memory. For R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan, being in the Pier 1 department store brings her back to sadder times. A time when she would walk up and down the aisles, crying, because she didn’t want to be home with an abusive boyfriend. Sullivan revealed all of this in an…
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Joseline and Her ‘Steebie Jay’ Are Getting Their Own Spin-Off Show on VH1
The breakout stars from VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta—music producer Stevie J and his ex-stripper boo Joseline Hernandez—are moving on up the reality-show ladder. According to the Alanta Journal-Constitution, the duo are getting their own spin-off show on VH1. It might be a good thing. In one of his last scenes, Stevie J wrote…
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Was My Ancestor Transracially Adopted Over a Century Ago?
My great-grandfather William Elijah Gantt was allegedly born in Charles County, Md., Feb. 4, 1886. He was a light-skinned black man who might have been called “mulatto” in his day. He only exists from the 1910 census to his death, married to my great-grandmother Ruth Folsom Jackson. The family story is that he was never…
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60 Years After Emmett Till, Families Still Fight for Justice
As long as there is breath in our bodies … I’m tired and I don’t want to write this, but unfortunately, the story of Emmett Till—a story of senseless brutality and murder, all for the sake of white supremacy—continues to need telling. On Aug. 24, 1955, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant kidnapped and killed Emmett…
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In War Room, Prayer Is the Weapon
Prayer is a strategy. That is the message of a new faith-based movie from the Kendrick Brothers, who are two of Hollywood’s most successful directors and producers in the religion-faith genre. Their past movies include Fireproof, Facing the Giants and Courageous. The Root was on-site for the red-carpet premiere of their latest film, War Room, in Dallas…
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The Napa Valley Wine Train, the Jim Crow Car and Who Has the Right to Ride
In the context of the past year’s tensions over police violence, the story of the Sistahs on the Reading Edge book club—11 women, 10 of them African American and one white, ranging in age from 39 to 85—whose members were ejected from the Napa Valley Wine Train for being “too loud,” may not evoke the same…
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Meeting Between Eminem and Minister Louis Farrakhan Was ‘10 Years in the Making’
At first glance, Minister Louis Farrakhan and Eminem may look like an odd pairing. But not so much, when you think about how Detroit is such a significant starting point for the Nation of Islam. Both men—Minister Louis Farrakhan and rapper Eminem—have strong ties to the city. The minister and Eminem met in Detroit earlier…
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Why We May Not Be Seeing Much of Terrence Howard on Empire This Season
The late, great Ray Charles could have seen this coming. Nothing has been confirmed by network executives or producers associated with the show, but a little birdie told the New York Post’s Page Six that Terrence Howard’s screen time on Empire this upcoming season has been drastically reduced because of all the messy details spilling out from his…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
