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NJ Teacher Fired for Allowing Students to Write ‘Get Well’ Letters to Mumia Abu-Jamal
A third-grade teacher at an Orange, N.J., elementary school was fired this week for allowing her class to write “get well” letters last month to Mumia Abu-Jamal, according to the Daily Mail. Orange Schools Superintendent Ronald Lee on Wednesday confirmed the board’s decision, taken during a heated board meeting Tuesday, to fire Marylin Zuniga, the…
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Watch: Baltimore Cop Sentenced in Attack on Unarmed Man During Arrest
A Baltimore police officer on Friday was sentenced to six months in jail for beating an unarmed man at a bus stop in June, an attack that was captured on surveillance video, reports the Baltimore Sun. The sentence comes just weeks after a national furor erupted over the death of Freddie Gray, 25, from spinal…
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WNBA Newlyweds Griner and Johnson Suspended Over Domestic Violence
Newlyweds Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson were suspended from the WNBA on Friday after their domestic violence arrests last month, according to the Associated Press. Each of them will miss seven games in the league’s longest suspensions in its 19-year history, the report says. The suspensions amount to more than one-fifth of the 34-game regular…
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Tom Brady and the Privilege of Whiteness
Editor’s note: This piece was first published at New Black Man (in Exile). Tom Brady demonstrates the unflinching power of whiteness in contemporary America. Black people are punished and demonized for cheating. White men like Tom Brady get to do all sorts of s—t for a competitive edge, and they are gaming the system. This…
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Keeping Tubman Off the $20 Bill Would Be Crazy
I watched in horror yesterday as the Internet began to be peppered with pushback on the idea of putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, an idea very nobly put forth through the recent Women on 20s campaign. Although thousands voted in an online poll to petition the Treasury Department to replace President Andrew Jackson…
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There’s Something Mighty Fishy About This Drama Over Kenya Moore’s Married Boyfriend
Technically, I’m on vacation. I’ve rented a (cheap) car, and woe is me (insert sarcasm) that there’s no way to connect my iPhone to the stereo to listen to my playlists. I’m forced to listen to the radio, which I rarely do at home. The talk of Miami’s Hot 105 this week has been…
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NY Mother Pleads Guilty to Killing 8-Year-Old Disabled Daughter
Veronica Cirella, from Plainview, N.Y., pleaded guilty to manslaughter Thursday for asphyxiating her 8-year-old disabled daughter in July 2011, the New York Daily News reports. Cirella’s daughter, Julie Cirella, had cerebral palsy and was supposed to be the flower girl in a wedding on the day she died. Her mother originally told authorities that Julie…
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Cops Pepper-Spray 10-Year-Old Boy During Protest in Minn.; Police Launch Investigation
Minneapolis police are investigating an incident in which an officer pepper-sprayed a 10-year-old boy during a protest Wednesday night, the Star Tribune reports. Approximately 100 people were protesting news that a white police officer who fatally shot Tony Robinson—an unarmed 19-year-old African American—would not be charged. According to the Star Tribune, the protest got “unruly”…
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A Segregated Prom, a Racially Charged Murder and Questions About Racism
In this extended season of slayings of black males—never for a good-enough reason—discussions about race have become common again. From students in school hallways and random pedestrians on the street to protesters in Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., and all over our country, the Black Lives Matter movement seems to be making a difference. When it…
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I’m Irish and Need Help Tracing Ancestors in Bermuda
I live in Ireland and I had a DNA test done by 23andMe to find out more about my great-granny on my dad’s side. She was born in Bermuda around 1882-1884, and may have been named Clarissa Bascome Darrell. I know my great-granddad was Joseph Luzero Ward, but he was married twice and my great-grandmother…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
