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Best Man Holiday: The Most Important Film of the Year?
Thanks to the critical and commercial success of Lee Daniels’ The Butler and 12 Years a Slave, 2013 is already being hailed as a banner year for black cinema. It is looking extremely likely that between the two films, African-American directors, writers and performers could dominate the next Academy Awards. But another “black” film was…
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Moms and Sons: Serving Time in Fake Jail
We drove home in silence, and I could tell that it was killing my son. If I had gone full-blown-hand-waving-talking-through-gritted-teeth-just-wait-till-I-can-get-you-home crazy, I might have Iet slip what was in store for him, and I wasn’t about to let that happen. No, jail would have to be a surprise. Moms raising sons alone too often find…
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On the Rise, MMA Tries to Figure Out the Hip-Hop Generation
As throngs of former collegiate wrestlers, contact sportsmen and current street fighters look to the new beacon of athletic hope that is mixed martial arts, one must recognize the shift in the talent pool. It is a shift that, although gradual, came from a place of desperation once the prospect or at least the perception…
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Quote of the Day: Claude McKay on Humor
Read how the quote is referenced 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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How Black Was JFK's Camelot?
Editor’s note: For those who are wondering about the retro title of this black-history series, please take a moment to learn about historian Joel A. Rogers, author of the 1934 book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, to whom these “amazing facts” are an homage. Amazing Fact About the Negro No. 55:…
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She Has a Heart Beating for Justice
Listen carefully when Jotaka Eaddy speaks, and you hear her heart pulsating to the beat of a hollow gourd. It keeps rhythm with Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey and the Rock tapping out “Ella’s Song.” When Eaddy describes what propelled her into activism you can almost hear that female a cappella group harmonizing, “We who…
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2 Large Artifacts Installed at US Black History Museum
Because of their size, a railway train car and a prison tower are being installed during the construction phase of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall, the Associated Press reports. Both are being lowered into the construction site by crane because they are too big to install…
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Alec Baldwin Pays for His Latest Hateful Rant
Lord, how many times will Alec Baldwin have to explain that he is not a raging bigot? Earlier this year, he allegedly called a black photographer a “coon.” He also attacked a British journalist on Twitter, calling him a “toxic little queen.” (And he didn’t think that was homophobic.) Last week he worked overtime: He…
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The Culture of Disrespect, Race and President Obama
The following is an excerpt of Charles M. Blow’s column from Sunday’s New York Times: “In an interview with the BBC this week, Oprah Winfrey said of President Obama: ‘There is a level of disrespect for the office that occurs. And that occurs, in some cases, and maybe even many cases, because he’s African-American.’ With that remark,…
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Sylvester Stallone Reportedly Hurls N-Word at Paparazzi
Sylvester Stallone reportedly got a little testy with photographers who were hot on his trail in Beverly Hills on Thursday, TMZ reports, leading him to allegedly hurl a racial slur, “This [f———g] [n-word] here, this [f——-r].” The incident occurred as he and a friend were leaving Caffe Roma and were being followed by a group…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
