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Officer Who Fatally Shot Rekia Boyd to Stand Trial
The Chicago police detective responsible for the death of Rekia Boyd is set to stand trial next month, reports the Chicago Tribune. Dante Servin claimed that he feared for his life the night he shot into a crowd of four people, killing Boyd. Cook County prosecutors disagreed and argued that Servin acted recklessly when he…
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Actor Malik Yoba Shares the Roots of His Social Consciousness
The Root Live: Bring It the Table returns Wednesday, Sept. 17, with a dynamic discussion about the cost of social activism. The Root Live, sponsored by Prudential, is a weekly video series tackling financial concerns in the African-American community. In the second episode of the series, The Root contributing editor and host Harriette Cole is joined…
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CoverGirl Photo Altered With Bruised Eye to Blast NFL’s Response to Ray Rice
People who think the NFL did a poor job investigating and punishing former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice are circulating a photo on the Internet that is turning the NFL’s partnership with CoverGirl on its head. One of the photos from the Get Your Game Face On campaign, which originally showed a female model’s face with…
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Climate Activists Warn Obama About His Pro-Gas Views
Even though President Barack Obama has been getting tough on power plants to push them to cut back on their carbon dioxide emissions, his administration supports the extraction of natural gas, and environmental groups are warning him to fix that blemish on his climate legacy, Al-Jazeera reports. Climate experts are saying that contrary to the Obama administration’s…
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In a Vision of the Apocalypse, What Fate Awaits the People of Africa?
This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Tucked away at the base of a distant mountain, a tightly knit group of black figures await their destiny as the…
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Bill Cosby Has Tried to Teach Whites About Blacks
Bill Cosby came under fire during his early professional years for not addressing race in his comedy routines. Journalist Mark Whitaker reveals in his new book, Cosby: His Life and Times, how the entertainer refused to label himself a black comedian, but he spent the bulk of his career fighting for civil rights and racial…
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Dems Roll Out New 7-Figure Ad Campaign Ahead of Midterms
Reminding people to vote costs money. And to that end, the Democratic National Committee is spending a pretty penny—seven figures’ worth—on a national media campaign to get the word out that there is indeed a midterm election coming up and that blacks, Latinos, women, Asians and young Americans—all of whom show up to vote much…
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Don’t Rush to Judge Parents Who Use a Switch to Discipline Kids
On Thursday the Minnesota Vikings’ star running back, Adrian Peterson, was indicted (pdf) on charges of “injury to a child” for striking his 4-year-old son with a tree branch—what many African Americans would call a whipping with a “switch.” CBS Houston reports that the boy’s pediatrician reported his injuries to police; TMZ has published photos that it…
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Congressman Suggests ‘Sexting’ as Political Tool
It was clearly a mistake, but nevertheless, one congressman’s gaffe is a good reminder of the importance of staying up-to-date on the latest tech terms. Jezebel reports that during a C-SPAN interview at the 2014 National Book Festival in late August on the topic of Ferguson, Mo., and political change, South Carolina Democratic Rep. James…
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New Book Says Bill Cosby’s Jokes Masked Pain
Journalist Mark Whitaker, author of the new book Cosby: His Life and Times, talks with The Root Editor-in-Chief Henry Louis Gates Jr. in a wide-ranging interview. Whitaker says comedian Bill Cosby became an accidental role model for him at a critical point in his childhood after his father left his family. He recalls embarking on a…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
