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Stop Hating on Poor Blacks Who Buy Expensive Stuff
In the aftermath of allegations of racial profiling at Barneys and Macy’s, Tressie McMillan Cottom checks in on criticism of the shoppers, who some say shouldn’t have been spending beyond their means in the first place. “Poor people make stupid, illogical decisions to buy status symbols,” she writes at her blog, Tressiemc, “for the same…
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Sen. Cory Booker Takes Office
(The Root) — Thursday will be a whirlwind day for the new senator from New Jersey, Cory Booker. His public swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., will be conducted by Vice President Joe Biden, and later in the afternoon he’ll visit with President Barack Obama at the White House. Booker will be one…
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'Baby Love' Writer on Muse of 1st Novel
(The Root) — Almost halfway through Rebecca Walker’s haunting debut novel, Adé: A Love Story, I realized that dog-earing was a fool’s errand. Every sentence was a gift. Every new paragraph packed with colors, scents and italicized sounds I had to see, smell and hear again. Soon the book’s pages were more bent than not.…
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Black Women's Problem With Feministing
(The Root) — Online feminist publication Feministing drew criticism on Twitter last night when black feminists and allies charged that the site used the #solidarityisforwhitewomen hashtag in promotional materials for an event without the creator’s permission. Black feminist writer Mikki Kendall told The Root that she created the hashtag “to call out the problem of…
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Why Obamacare Will Succeed
Earl Ofari Hutchinson writes at his blog, the Hutchinson Report News, that while glitches have dogged the rollout of Obamacare, the importance of these problems in the “overall initial implementation of Obamacare has been wildly overblown.” The GOP controlled House Ways and Means is the first of the three GOP congressional committees “investigating” Obamacare to…
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Chris Brown Headed to Rehab
(The Root) — Chris Brown has elected to enter rehab after being arrested for assault in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, according to a statement from his representative. “His goal is to gain focus and insight into his past and recent behavior, enabling him to continue the pursuit of his life and his career from…
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Quote of the Day: Marita Golden on Creativity
Read more about Marita Golden 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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White People, Enough With the Blackface
(The Root) — Like an incurable and recurring infection, blackface just never seems to go away. This disease rages throughout the nation and in other places around the world. What is it about blackface? What is it that attracts people to do it? Could blackface be the equivalent of smoking crack for some people? You know that…
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How Slavery Feeds Today's Racism
(The Root) — 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen’s critically acclaimed movie opening nationwide on Nov. 8, is the most powerful cinematic depiction of slavery ever seen on-screen. The critical buzz surrounding the film has rightfully focused on the combination of its astonishing performances, nuanced script and unflinching examination of antebellum slavery’s impact on a…
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White Women Entitled to 'Natural Hair' Claim
(The Root) — “I am a young white woman, though one who regularly reads The Root and associates quite often with young black women. Because I am almost always the ‘girliest’ friend, I inevitably get onto the topic of beauty and, on a related note, hair. After all this time, I have learned quite a…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
