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Bill Urges Schools to Teach Racial Import of Obama Election
Saying that Barack Obama’s election marked a “historic step in the effort towards equality in the United States,” California lawmakers last week passed a bill to encourage schools to teach students about the racial significance of his presidency, the Associated Press reports. The California Assembly, with unanimous bipartisan support, passed the measure Thursday. It now…
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Chicago Anti-Violence Advocate Fatally Gunned Down
Leonore Draper spent hours working to end violence on the streets of Chicago. But Friday, she became a victim of it herself when she was fatally gunned down outside of her home, NBC News reports. The 32-year-old was shot in the arm and chest while returning home to her West Pullman neighborhood from a fundraiser…
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LA Clippers Owner Apologizes After Backlash
Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling issued an apology Saturday for a racist rant that is being attributed to him, TMZ Sports reports. The move follows a backlash over the comments from civil rights leaders, social media users, and current and former NBA players. In a statement released by the Clippers to TMZ, Sterling says…
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There Is No Room in America for Donald Sterling
Damn, I was pissed at LeBron James when he took his “talents to South Beach.” And I write this from a hotel in South Beach watching the Miami Heat compete in the playoffs on television, as my beloved New York Knicks are finished for the season. At the time, I was pissed because I had…
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LA Clippers Owner Allegedly on Tape in Racist Rant
Updated Saturday, April 26, 4:30 p.m. EDT: The NBA announced Saturday that it is conducting a “full investigation” into Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling after TMZ released a recording of a man alleged to be him going on a racist rant, Buzzfeed reports. Updated Saturday, April 26, 12:20 p.m. EDT: Civil rights leaders Saturday…
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Holder to Stay in Office Through Midterms
Attorney General Eric Holder—one of President Barack Obama’s closest advisers—plans to remain in office through November’s midterm elections, a Justice Department official told Reuters. Beyond the elections, the official could not confirm any plans that Holder, 63, might have, the news site reports. Holder has been attorney general since shortly after President Obama took office…
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New Date for First Lady’s Kansas Graduation Speech
After an uproar by students and parents in Topeka, Kan., over seating arrangements, Michelle Obama will now address a high school graduation class a day earlier, according to the Associated Press. As The Root reported last week, the Topeka Public School District had invited the first lady to speak May 17 at a combined ceremony…
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Teacher Accused of Performing Lap Dance for 15-Year-old Student
A 42-year-old middle school teacher in Houston, Texas, was arrested last week for allegedly performing a seductive lap dance for a 15-year-old boy in front of a class two months ago, KHOU 11 reports. The teacher, Felicia Smith, 42, was charged with improper relationship with a student, according to a statement from the Aldine Independent…
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Photographer George Hallett Captures the ‘Dignity’ of Apartheid
Beauty, humanity and dignity are, sadly, not the first words that spring to mind when you think of apartheid-era South Africa, with its pernicious brutality and the callous, systematic dehumanization of its nonwhite citizens. And yet the joyful, aesthetically sensitive and uplifting images taken by George Hallett—a Coloured Capetonian and arguably the most talented photographer…
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The Ultimate Performance-Enhancing Drug? Sleep
Editor’s note: Arianna Huffington has spent years building a media empire that includes the popular website Huffington Post, and she is, by any measure, a success. But in 2007 she collapsed at her desk from stress and exhaustion, breaking a bone in her face and injuring an eye. That trauma was the beginning of a…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
