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Quote of the Day: Tupac Shakur on Women
You can find this lyric from the song “Keep Ya Head Up” (1993) 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 editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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Diplomat’s Strip Search Was Overboard, but So Was India’s Reaction
Sangeeta Richard had always wanted to work abroad. Her wish came true when she became a nanny for Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general in New York. Unfortunately, according to prosecutors, Khobragade had no intention of paying Richard minimum wage to comply with American wage laws, and she committed visa fraud by asserting she would.…
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Looking for a Great Gift? How About Buying Black!
We are deep in the throes of the holiday season, so why not consider using some of your dollars to support black-owned businesses before the year is out? Here are 10 businesses for you to check out in the coming week. 1. Heritage Link Brands Los Angeles-based Heritage Link Brands is the largest U.S. marketer…
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Did My Jamaican Kin Descend From British Loyalists in America?
“My father told me that his maternal grandmother’s side of the family descended from a British Loyalist family who owned a plantation in Virginia. When the American Revolution started, this family relocated (and took all their slaves with them) to Jamaica, another British colony at that time. Is there any way that I can verify…
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Black Directors Are Answering All Your Questions on Twitter
So, black-cinema lovers: There’s a nine-hour conversation happening on Twitter right now. Director Ava DuVernay is making our Friday with the Rebel-a-thon event on Twitter, hosted by her organization AFFRM, which is described as a collection of “like-minded black film nerds” who “distribute the work of black independent filmmakers as [it] cultivates audiences for their…
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Sharpton Town Hall: Jobs Key to Curbing Chicago Violence
The Rev. Al Sharpton on Thursday heard directly from residents, faith leaders and activists about just how to help curb gun violence in Chicago, which is besieged by shootings of young black males. Speakers at the town hall-style event, which was held at Hyde Park Academy High School, a short distance from President Barack Obama’s…
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All Diddy’s Children
Check out Diddy and his six children looking quite fancy on the family holiday card he shared on Twitter Thursday night: Here’s who’s who, clockwise from left: Chance, 5; Christian, 15; Diddy; Justin, 19; twins D’Lila and Jessie, 5; and Quincy, 22, in the bottom center. You should know that Diddy posts photos of his…
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Poor Kids Should Sweep Floors, Says GOP Scrooge
Apparently Rep. Jack Kingston has taken it upon himself to pick up where Mitt Romney left off in attempting to establish the GOP brand as officially synonymous with disdain for poor people. In a recent speech Kingston reportedly said of kids benefiting from free-lunch programs, “Why don’t you have the kids pay a dime, pay…
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Quote of the Day: Queen Latifah on Black Women
You can read this lyric from the song “U.N.I.T.Y.” (1993) in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read more about 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 editor-in-chief of The Root.…
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How to Survive a Winter Without Flowers
The Garden in Winter Here is what I do when I look out the window and see my garden buried under three feet of snow: I think of the gardens and the plants I saw in them, or the plants I saw in the wild. In August I was in Daniel J. Hinkley’s garden, where…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
