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Finding Creative Tools to Reach Black Girls
Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal speaks to Ruth Nicole Brown about her new book, Hear Our Truths: The Creative Potential of Black Girlhood. Brown is an assistant professor in the departments of gender and women’s studies and African studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Watch:
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Not Even a ‘Jenious’ Can Trace My Family Name. Help!
I have a rather unique last name: “Jenious.” My paternal grandfather’s name was Otto Jenious. I have found some census, death and military records of my grandfather and some of his siblings; however, the trail seems to disappear after that. I would like to find out where the name might come from and how far…
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RNC Chair Priebus Denounces Rancher Bundy’s ‘Negro’ Rant, but GOP’s Race Problems Continue
On Thursday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus forcefully denounced Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s controversial comments about slavery. In a statement to CNN, Priebus said, “Bundy’s comments are completely beyond the pale. Both highly offensive and 100 percent wrong on race.” Bundy, who in recent weeks has become a hero on the political right for…
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Haters Need to Stop Criticizing Beyoncé’s Time Magazine Cover
Evidently it’s the “list” time of year, and so far black girls are winning. On Tuesday, People magazine debuted its 50 Most Beautiful issue, starring none other than media (and fan) darling Lupita Nyong’o on the cover. Not to be outdone, this morning, Time released its annual 100 Most Influential People issue, featuring singer Beyoncé…
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School Daze: White Privilege Still Trumps Affirmative Action
The News: Leaders in higher education and civil rights are regrouping after the Supreme Court’s decision upholding Michigan’s ban on the use of race in college admissions at public universities. The ruling cleared the way for more states, through legislation or voter initiatives, to prohibit affirmative action. California in 1996 was the first to approve…
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Guess What, Cliven Bundy? Your Nevada Ranch Is Also Getting a ‘Government Subsidy’
Nowadays, we get treated to someone’s half-baked revisionist take on slavery so regularly that it’s hard to get worked up anymore when, let’s say, Arizona Republican congressional candidate Jim Brown writes on his Facebook page that “Basically slave owners took pretty good care of their slaves,” or when potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson…
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The KKK’s Recent Comeback Means That They Think They’re Losing
Last week CNN sparked a backlash with its headline, “Can the Klan Rebrand?” Their story was a look at the Ku Klux Klan’s efforts to distance itself from its reputation as a violence-inciting hate group in the wake of former Klan Grand Dragon Frazier Glenn Miller being charged in a shooting spree that left three…
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Black CEO: Do More Than Save if You Want to Be Wealthy
Editor’s note: This is part 4 in a five-part series on growing and maintaining wealth. Read part 1, part 2 and part 3. Most people think the road to wealth involves just saving. But 62-year-old Kermit Payne, the successful founder and chief executive officer of a strategic communications, marketing and association management company, says that…
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RHOA Smackdown Should Serve as a Wake-Up Call
Hand me a late pass. I finally watched a clip of The Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion episode. (Sorry, since starring on reality TV, I stopped watching it.) Yes, the one where cast member Porsha Williams hit her co-star Kenya Moore over the head and dragged her across the floor by her hair like the…
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No, After the Schuette Case, Affirmative Action Isn’t Going to Be OK
Above the Law’s Elie Mystal doesn’t think that affirmative action supporters need to hyperventilate over Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action—which upheld Michigan’s ban on race-conscious admissions policies at state colleges—because, he writes, the justices, in fact, “didn’t rule that affirmative action is unconstitutional.” And indeed, they didn’t—not this…

