• What I Want Black People to Understand About Suicide and Depression

    The suicide of For Brown Girls creator Karyn Washington was a tragedy. From those who were her loyal YouTube followers to those who learned of her life only when it was over, it was easy for people to understand that. But some of the comments I read in reaction to the 22-year-old’s death reminded me…

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  • How to Make Sure a Helping Hand Doesn’t Make You Go Broke

    Editor’s note: This is part 1 in a five-part series on growing and maintaining wealth. When a university failed recently to award Marlon D. Cousin’s nephew thousands of dollars in anticipated financial aid, the managing partner of an Atlanta-based recruiting firm was happy to step in and close the financial gap. In fact, he had…

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  • Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter Dies at 76

    Prizefighter Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, whose career was cut short by a wrongful murder conviction in New Jersey, died Sunday at his home in Toronto, Canada, the New York Times reports. He was 76. The cause of death was prostate cancer, his friend and onetime co-defendant, John Artis, told the New York Times. He was being…

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  • KKK Leader Condemns Kansas City Hate-Crime Shooting

    A Ku Klux Klan Imperial Grand Wizard called last Sunday’s shooting spree by white supremacist Frazier Glenn Cross a setback for the organization, CNN reports. Frank Ancona, who leads the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and other self-professed hate group leaders, denounced the shootings at two Jewish institutions in suburban Kansas City,…

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  • Watch: ‘I Can’t Spend my Life in Prison,’ Gang Member Sobs at Sentencing

    A 21-year-old man, convicted of attempted murder for firing shots at a rival gang member at a University of Southern California campus party, sobbed and pleaded for leniency during his sentencing Friday, the Los Angeles Times reports. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Edmund W. Clarke Jr. sentenced Brandon Spencer to 40 years to life…

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  • Michelle Obama’s Kansas Graduation Speech Stirs Debate

    Days after drawing heavy criticism from Peta over the use of real eggs for the White House Easter egg roll, Michelle Obama is now under fire for a proposed graduation address in Topeka, Kan., the Associated Press reports. Some parents and students are in an uproar over the first lady’s plan to address a combined…

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  • Boondocks Set to Return Monday Without Aaron McGruder

    Nearly a month after controversy erupted over Aaron McGruder’s departure from The Boondocks, the award-winning animated show is slated to return Monday for its fourth and final season, the Associated Press reports. The show will return after a four-year hiatus, airing Mondays at 10:30 p.m. EDT on Adult Swim, the AP reports. And despite McGruder’s…

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  • Discovering an Enslaved Artist and His Masterpiece

    Many people are surprised to learn that a great painting from the 17th century was the work of a former slave of African descent. Not all the staff at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Fla., knew that the painting, The Flight Into Egypt (1658), depicting the perilous journey of Joseph and Mary with the baby…

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  • Chris Brown’s Assault Trial Set to Begin Monday

    Embattled hip-hop and R&B crooner Chris Brown is set to go on trial Monday on assault charges stemming from an altercation last year outside a hotel in Washington, D.C., according to Agence France-Presse. The 24-year-old Grammy Award-winning singer was dressed conservatively in a suit and tie Friday during an appearance before District of Columbia Superior…

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  • Report: Over 100 Hate-Crime Murders Linked to White Nationalist Website

    A new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center links people charged with the murders of almost 100 people to a single far-right website, according to the Guardian. The report, released Thursday, calls Stormfront.org the “largest hate site in the world” and “a magnet and breeding ground for the deadly and deranged,” the Guardian says.…

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