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SNL Spoofs ‘Fake’ Interpreter at Nelson Mandela Memorial
Saturday Night Live could not pass up the opportunity to satirize the sign language interpreter who was roundly criticized for his questionable performance at Nelson Mandela’s memorial last week. Posing as the so-called interpreter, Thamsanqa Jantjie, Kenan Thompson gesticulated wildly during the show’s opening as Jay Pharaoh’s unflappable President Barack Obama delivered a speech. “I…
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Yes, Megyn, There Is a Black Santa Claus
For nearly a decade, Langston Patterson has donned a red Santa suit while greeting squealing fans at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in South Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reports. The only thing that sets him apart from some other Santas around the country is that he’s black. So, yes, Megyn Kelly, there is a…
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NFL Player Jovan Belcher’s Body Exhumed for Brain Exam
In an effort to find signs of brain damage from repeated concussions, the family of former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher has requested the exhumation of his body a year after he killed his girlfriend and himself, USA Today reports. The family’s attorney, Dirk Vandever, said that Belcher’s body was exhumed Friday at North…
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Jameis Winston Scores Heisman Trophy
Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston reportedly called it a “blessing” when he learned that he had become the youngest player to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday. “It’s a blessing,” he told an audience during the presentation in New York, CNN reports. “I don’t even know what’s going on right now, honestly. I’m just so…
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Nelson Mandela Laid to Rest
Nelson Mandela was buried in his childhood village of Qunu, South Africa, on Sunday, ending the journey of the singular man who went from prisoner to president and revolutionized South Africa. A military escort accompanied his coffin to the burial site and removed the national flag that draped his coffin, CNN reports. His widow, Graça…
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Nominate the 2014 Young Futurists!
Who are the young black trailblazers in your community? The Root is putting the spotlight on the young African-American leaders and innovators of the future, and we want your help. We are now accepting nominations for The Root 2014 Young Futurists list, to be unveiled in February. Young Futurists are between the ages of 16 and 22 and committed…
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Quote of the Day: Malcolm X on Anger
Read this quote from his speech at the Harlem rally for Fannie Lou Hamer (1964), and additional quotes by Malcolm X, in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. 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…
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Police: Pastor Raped Girl to ‘Take the Demons Out’
A 61-year-old Minnesota pastor has been charged with raping two teenaged girls for nearly a decade, the Huffington Post reports. The man, Jacoby Kindred, pastor of One Accord Ministries, has been accused of sexually abusing the daughters of his son’s girlfriend, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Pioneer Press, telling one victim that…
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Trayvon Martin’s Parents to Pen a Book
Trayvon Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, plan to write a book about the life of their son, the unarmed teenager who was shot and killed in Florida in 2012, the New York Times reports. They reportedly met with publishers this week to pitch the book, the Times says. They hope the story will…
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Donald Trump, Birthers Exploit Loretta Fuddy’s Death
Just as the Obamas are likely preparing to spend their annual winter vacation in Hawaii, the birther movement is peddling yet another outrageous conspiracy theory about the authenticity of the president’s birth certificate, the Huffington Post reports. Loretta Fuddy, the director of Hawaii’s Department of Health, died Wednesday in a small, commercial plane crash off…
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