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Girls of All Shades, You’re Going to Want to Hear How Dark Girls Has a New Life
I knew very early on that my strand of black wasn’t exactly preferred or exalted. I’m chocolate-complexioned—or, to use the term that is most frequently used to describe my hue (much to my chagrin), dark-skinned. Colorism. It’s arguably one of the most painful vestiges of slavery: society’s disproportionate preference for caramel-complexioned black women, and the insecurities that it…
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Oprah Boosts Effort to Support Homeless Female Veterans
Oprah Winfrey’s The Life You Want Weekend 2014 tour is wrapping up this weekend in San Jose, Calif. The eight-city self-improvement tour features Winfrey and a host of special guests inspiring and empowering thousands of attendees through personal tales of triumph over tragedy, on-site activities (journaling and exercise breaks) and keepsakes (fluorescent armbands) that symbolize…
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: College Athletes Should Be Paid
NBA icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar put pen to paper and made a case for why college athletes should be paid. In a 1,300-word essay published in Jacobin magazine, Abdul-Jabbar spoke firsthand about his experiences as a basketball player at UCLA and described how he could barely rub two pennies together on most days. “Despite the hours…
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Historic Head Nod: 100 Women Now Serve in Congress
Lost in all the bickering among Democrats and Republicans about the midterm elections—the latter rejoicing and the former reminding everyone that approximately two-thirds of the electorate didn’t vote—is the historic makeup of Congress with regard to its female members. On Wednesday Rep. Alma Adams, who now represents North Carolina’s 12th Congressional District, was sworn into office…
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Beyond the Lights Review: A Love Story With a Deeper Message
Beyond the Lights, opening in theaters Friday, is the third feature film from writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood, whose other works include The Secret Life of Bees (2008), the TV movie Disappearing Acts (2000) and the classic love story Love and Basketball (2000). If the success of Love and Basketball helped propel Prince-Bythewood into the Hollywood stratosphere, along…
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The Other Thing the Lincoln University President Got Wrong About Women Who Have Sex
Lincoln University President Robert R. Jennings stirred up a lot of trouble for himself when remarks he made in September to female students insinuating that women lied about rape went viral this week. After much public outrage, he apologized on Tuesday. “My message was intended to emphasize personal responsibility and mutual respect,” Jennings wrote. “I…
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Michael Brown’s Parents Pour Their Hearts Out to the UN
Michael Brown’s parents, Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr., spoke before a United Nations committee in Geneva on Tuesday to urge the panel to “recommend the immediate arrest” of the police officer who shot their unarmed son, a CNN report explains. They also told the committee to recommend that Ferguson, Mo., police officers put an…
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Mo. National Guard on Standby as Darren Wilson Grand Jury Verdict Nears
Soon the nation will learn if a grand jury in Missouri has decided to bring charges against police Officer Darren Wilson, the cop who fatally shot the unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown. The state’s governor, Jay Nixon, thought it would be smart to place the state’s National Guard on standby just in case a verdict is…
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Senate GOP Now Has a Majority. It Shouldn’t Stand in the Way of Judicial Diversity
After a hugely consequential election, the Senate returns today to complete the work of the 113th Congress. With more than 90 vacancies in the federal judiciary, confirmations of federal judicial nominees should be a top priority. And it’s important to note that of the 34 nominees pending before the Senate, nine are African American. The Senate…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
