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Students Seek to Ban R-Word From Publication; Board Members Say No
Students at a Philadelphia-area high school are being punished for not using the word “redskin.” Like the Washington, D.C., NFL team that just lost its trademark, Neshaminy High School has as its mascot a brown man’s face wearing a headdress—and the mascot is called “Redskin,” a term that is offensive to Native Americans. When the editors at the…
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Chicago Teen Killed Two Days Before College Orientation
There were 82 people shot in Chicago over the weekend. One of them was 17-year-old Marcel Pearson, who was set to begin his freshman year at Western Illinois University. Instead he was shot down by a gunman in his South Side neighborhood. The shooting happened around 10 p.m. as Marcel walked around his neighborhood park,…
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How Wall Street Can Make Money on Black Progress in America
In May the NAACP announced that Cornell Brooks, a 53-year old lawyer, minister and civil rights activist, would become its 18th president. Somehow, that news did not cause a ripple on the Dow Jones industrial average, the Nasdaq or the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. Imagine Wall Street’s reaction if the NAACP had announced a…
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13 Heroes of #HuskyTwitter You Shouldn’t Overlook
Prince Fielder’s ESPN the Magazine cover showed us a different—and more revealing—side of men who have a little extra to love when he posed nude for the Body Issue of the magazine. Whether it’s his style, smile or sense of humor, there’s something special about an extra-large man whom many admire. Fans using the #HuskyTwitter hashtag…
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What the Book Place, Not Race Doesn’t Get: There’s Still a Place for Race-Based Affirmative Action
I vividly remember the affirmative action debates that raged on my campus when I was a college student in the early ’90s. Many of our debates centered on Stephen L. Carter’s Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby. To me, Carter was a person who had benefited from his inclusion in formerly all-white spaces who had…
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Surprised? Even Poor Whites Have It Better Than Blacks
From birth, practically, we’re told—again and again—that education is the golden ticket to the American dream. This is a meritocracy! Study diligently, put the work in and you, too, can get ahead, leapfrogging over your parents on the social strata. All you have to do is grab those bootstraps and pull. Hard. Or not. For…
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You Want President Obama Impeached, Sarah Palin? For What?
If you’re familiar with the oeuvre of the late conservative Internet provocateur Andrew Breitbart, you’ll know that he’s remembered among his admirers for the cri de coeur that he offered right before his death: “Apologize for WHAT?” It’s become as much a part of Tea Party lore as Rick Santelli’s CNBC rant or South Carolina…
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Yes, Immigrant Kids Are Fleeing Violence, but So Were Kids in Chicago Last Weekend
Incensed by President Barack Obama’s plan to deport thousands of immigrant children who have arrived in the U.S. illegally in recent months, activists have taken to the streets to chide the president. Many protests have included children. At one, a young boy can be seen carrying a sign that reads, “No deportation of children fleeing…
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It’s Time to Stop Asking Whether Women Can Have It All
Can women have it all? If you’re a working woman, you’ve read your fair share of inconclusive articles that seek to answer this sphinxlike mystery. This topic comes up as a national discussion with only slightly less frequency than those “why women—never men—are soooo single” articles. This time the question of women having it all…
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Calling a Black Girl’s Hair Cotton Candy: Not Cool, Right?
Hopefully you can help me. My daughters are African American and attend a predominantly Caucasian-Hispanic school. Their friends touch their hair and comment on their hair and tell them their hair looks like cotton candy. My daughter came home and told me and said, “Everyone loves cotton candy; that’s so cool.” But is it really? How do I address issues like…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
