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Christie Scandal Could Cost GOP Its Great Black Hope
2014 is barely a week old, and yet the year has already given us its first political scandal—one that potentially has ramifications for years to come. A string of emails published Wednesday by the Bergen Country Record suggest that staffers in the office of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie coaxed a Port Authority staffer to…
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Remembrances Pour In for Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka, the legendary poet, playwright, activist, music critic and author, died on Thursday in New Jersey. He was 79 years old. Last month Baraka had suffered complications from surgery and was placed in intensive care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New Jersey. A spokesman for his son—Newark, N.J., South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka—said…
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Bob Gates’ Obama ‘Bombshell’ Doesn’t Tell Us That Much
MSNBC’s foreign policy maven, Andrea Mitchell, calls it a “bombshell,” and Tuesday’s headline, from Robert Gates’ own Wall Street Journal op-ed, touts the former defense secretary’s “quiet fury.” But if excerpts from his new memoir, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, hold true for the rest of his book, then—net-net—Gates’ account of Obama’s White…
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Quote of the Day: John Edgar Wideman on Stories
You can read the full quote from the book Damballah (1981), and others by John Edgar Wideman, 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 Harvard…
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My Man’s BFF Is a Woman, and They Seem a Little Too Close
“My boyfriend has a woman friend who knows every move we make. They talk constantly, and she knows everything he does before I get an update. They grew up together and are super close. Is this just friends being friends or suspect?” —B.A. I can’t give you a definitive answer based on the information given.…
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Meet 15 Amazing Kids With Exceptional Talent
What were you doing as a child? Probably not running your own company or taking classes at the local college. We’ve gathered a list of some of the most exceptional black children in the United States and abroad. Prepare to be amazed. 1. Adam Kirby, prodigy At 23 months, Adam potty-trained himself after reading a…
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Notable Members of Phi Beta Sigma
On Jan. 9, 1914, three African-American men founded Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity at Howard University. Since then the frat has produced many notable members. Here are 12 of them. 1. A. Philip Randolph Iota Sigma chapter Union organizer, civil rights leader 2. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) Lambda Sigma chapter U.S. congressman, Georgia’s 5th District 3.…
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Meet Riley, 3-Year-Old Natural-Hair Tutor
If you spend any time in any natural-hair community anywhere on the Internet, then you’ve seen this photo of Riley from Houston. Basically, she’s an icon: She’s 3 years old now, and just as an enterprising person would do, she’s adding to her skill set. She’s no longer just a perfect baby model; she’s also…
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Tina Turner Was and Always Will Be the Baddest
The Huffington Post dug up @tinaturnerblog, an account that tweets the latest news and vintage photos of Tina Turner. And it’s amazing. Here’s a autographed photo of Tina with Mike: Here she is with David Bowie: Photos from her role in 1986’s Mad Max: Tina and Cher: And of course, the obligatory yet awe-inspiring leg collage:…
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That Study Saying Nearly Half of Black Males Get Arrested by Age 23? It’s Wrong
Here’s what a research study feels like to a black male teenager: “To be seen as a person with a name … then poof! A statistic, a memory and, to many, a shame,” said an 11th-grader named Asa Fludd. I repeat this quote often to remind social advocates and cultural critics alike that our reckless…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
