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Black Men: ‘I’m Tired of Feeling Like Someone’s Enemy’
Editor’s note: We began this summer with a commemoration of Freedom Summer 50 years after blood was shed on Southern soil to ensure our inalienable right to vote as citizens of these United States. We end this summer with renewed cries for freedom—the freedom to walk our neighborhood streets without dying, the freedom to pick…
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Why Did My Great-Granddad Change His Name?
My great-grandfather married my great-grandmother under the name “Roy Parker” and also served in World War I under that name. However, when he died, his brother Robert Hagen notified the coroner that “Roy Parker” was actually “Henry Hagen.” Roy Parker/Henry Hagen died in Missouri in 1935. How do I find out who he was, where…
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We Want a Future Without Fergusons
Since the tragic police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown, we have heard time and time again that his brutal death unearthed the pain of old wounds. But those wounds are anything but old. In Ferguson, Mo., and across the country, systemic racial profiling and nationwide police violence threaten the lives of African Americans—youths and adults—every…
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Black Owners Say Racist Graffiti Was Spray-Painted on Their Chicago Restaurant
According to the owners, Nouveau Tavern is the only black-owned restaurant in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. Because of that, they believe, they are being targeted for racially motivated harassment, reports CBS Chicago. Marketing executive Teddy Gilmore told CBS Chicago that the club was vandalized with racist graffiti using the n-word and saying “go home.” WGN…
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Philadelphia Cop Files Police-Brutality Lawsuit
Brandon Ruff, a police officer in Philadelphia, has filed a lawsuit against his own department for assault. According to Philly.com, Ruff says that he was assaulted by seven police officers after he attempted to anonymously turn in three weapons. An eight-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, Ruff is assigned to the 16th Precinct. The…
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Study: Whites Have 1 Black Friend; Blacks Have 8 White Friends
When Beverly Daniel Tatum published Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? back in 2003, she used some statistical evidence to explain why black and white students self-segregate and also relied on anecdotes from her experiences as a black student at predominantly white schools. Those people who asked, “Well, aren’t all the…
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Black American Fighting for ISIS in Syria Is Killed
There was the idea that if the jihadist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, was able “to turn” an American—that is, win over his or her support—it would then use the American to orchestrate a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. But 33-year-old Douglas McAuthur McCain, a black American, defied that expectation,…
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The Growing Movement to Make Attacks Against Homeless People a Hate Crime
Seven states are looking to stop attacks on homeless people who are being targeted because of their race, religion and sexual orientation. Alaska, California, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island and Washington have all tweaked their hate crime laws so that these kinds of attacks will earn perpetrators longer prison sentences, Al-Jazeera reports. The National Coalition…
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Watch: Debating ‘Black Female Privilege’
It struck some people as an oxymoron. They couldn’t wrap their minds around how the words “black women” and “privilege” were being used in the same sentence in this article, let alone how they were being used to describe anything having to do with the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. That I said Brown’s death made…
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Have Faith in Aaron McGruder’s Black Jesus
Just about everyone in Black Jesus is selfish. But Black Jesus still has faith. Jesus’ flawed, albeit loyal friends (disciples?)—ex-con Fish (Andra Fuller), slacker Jason (Antwon Tanner), gal-pal Maggie (Kali Hawk) and drunkard Boonie (Corey Holcomb)—his curmudgeonly neighbor Vic (Charlie Murphy); even Lloyd, the conniving and cantankerous homeless drunk played by John Witherspoon. They all…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
