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Quote of the Day: Bob Marley on the Power of Music
You can read this lyric from the song “Trenchtown Rock” (1971) by Bob Marley, and additional quotes from Marley, in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Listen to the song here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the…
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Father Wishes This Picture of Him and His Kids Wasn’t That Big a Deal
Daddy Doin’ Work blog founder Doyin Richards was shocked to learn that this photo he posted to his Twitter and Facebook pages was going viral. At Jezebel, Richards writes: At last check, the photo was shared over 4,800 times, received over 3,000 comments, and was liked over 190,000 times. The photo was also ‘borrowed’ by…
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Calm Down, Gabrielle Union Didn’t ‘Blame Herself’ for Anything
In a recent interview with Glamour, actress Gabrielle Union opened up about the lead-up to the split during which she says her now-fiance, Dwyane Wade, impregnated his ex-girlfriend, Aja Metoyer. “[When Dwyane and I broke up briefly in 2013], it was because of distance and scheduling,” she told the magazine. ”I finished filming the show…
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Searching for LeRoi Jones, Finding Amiri Baraka
The fact that his name was LeRoi signified something to me. There was no Norton Anthology of African American Literature in the world yet; Toni Morrison had not yet won her Nobel Prize for literature. All we got in an early-1980s freshman composition class was “Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note.” And the only reason I knew…
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Spike Lee Looks Like Somebody’s Mama
Spike Lee went to last night’s Knicks game looking and acting like somebody’s mama. This morning, @BigBlurr astutely pointed out Spike’s striking resemblance to Fresh Prince’s mom. You remember her from the opening theme song: Exactly. Spot on, and hilarious. And with all of that black-mama irritation in Spike’s wrists and elbows, Twitter couldn’t help…
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I Expected African DNA Results. Why Are Mine Chinese?
“I used AfricanAncestry.com to trace my matrilineal and patrilineal DNA. Through my brother, Keiffer Mitchell, Jr., the patrilineal results were traced to the people of China. We were amused by the result, and somewhat disappointed, given that we expected results from Africa. I took the maternal DNA test and it traced to the Ibo of…
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Quote of the Day: Bob Herbert on the Limits of Fantasy
You can read this quote from an op-ed by Bob Herbert in the New York Times, titled “From Dream to Nightmare” (2004), in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read the quote in its full context here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at…
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‘And the Winner Is … ’ Black Stars Who Have Won Golden Globes
Here’s a look at the black actors, actresses and singers who have scored big on the movie-award season’s first major stop. Goldberg is the only African American—male or female—to have won the EGOT, the slate of four major American entertainment awards: the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. She is currently the only African-American Golden Globe winner…
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2014’s Golden Globes Spotlight the Spectrum of Black Films
The critically lauded 12 Years a Slave has been nominated in several prestigious categories in this Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards—and the conspicuous presence of black directors, actors and films this awards season offers a chance to reflect on Hollywood’s tortured racial past and hopeful future. The Golden Globes, which are dominated by the more liberal…
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Black, Brown, Natural and Relaxed: Women Talk Color and Role Models
Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal sits down with creator-director Chaunesti Webb and actress Lakeisha Coffey to talk about their upcoming play I Love My Hair: The Remix and how women of color must learn to be comfortable in their own skin. Later, Duke University professor Claudia Milian discusses her new book, Latining America:…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
