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Legendary Motown Etiquette Expert Dies
(The Root) — On Monday Maxine Powell — the modeling-school proprietor, etiquette expert and charm-school coach — died at age 98. Best known for her work with Motown’s Artist Personal Development Department, she trained performers there in the arts of poise, posture, grace, speech and style. But her legacy extends far beyond the legendary record…
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The Burden of Socializing While Black
(The Root) — This scenario may or may not sound familiar to you: You’re the only black person (or one of few) at a predominantly white social event. A friend’s wedding, perhaps. The DJ throws on a ubiquitous hip-hop hit, one you might find on a Now That’s Music! compilation album. You like the song…
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Hollywood Finally Catches Up With History
(The Root) — Steve McQueen’s masterful 12 Years a Slave has already changed history in two major ways: It is the first Hollywood-backed movie on slavery directed by a black filmmaker, and based on Solomon Northup’s 1853 oral account, it is the first film ever based on an actual slave narrative. While the former results…
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Blackness Portrayed as the Face of Evil
(The Root) — This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black in Western Art Archive at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute, part of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. This chilling scene of martyrdom comes from a…
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The Truth About Being the Other Woman
(The Root) — Last week, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison for corruption. Even though Kilpatrick’s name has become synonymous with corrupt politics, most people outside of Detroit don’t know the details of the case that landed Kilpatrick a conviction in March for racketeering conspiracy, fraud, extortion and tax…
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Quote of the Day: Maya Angelou on Love
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 University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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Light Girls: Don't Buy Into the Privilege
In a letter to caramel-complexioned black girls, Asha French, writing at Ebony magazine, encourages them to recognize the “racial project” that preferenced their light skin tone over a chocolate complexion, and warns them not to buy into the favoritism, guilt or privilege that they may experience because of color. Dear Beautiful Daughters Who Happen to be Racially…
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America Must Address Growing Income Inequality
American society will devolve into broad enclaves of the haves and have-nots if policymakers don’t do something about the increasing gaps in income and opportunity, Columbia University professor Joseph E. Stiglitz argues at the New York Times. Of the advanced economies, America has some of the worst disparities in incomes and opportunities, with devastating macroeconomic…
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When Whites Gawk at Black Performance
In a piece at Slate, Aisha Harris describes how white people are often peculiarly fascinated by black performance, and how their praise and gawking can often be demonstrative of a “fetishization” of black people and black culture. I get it — most white people rarely ever have to consider their whiteness in social settings, so they…
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Won't Work for Free? You're an 'Urban Whore'
Supporters immediately started the #StandingwithDNLee hashtag on Twitter when this news broke last Friday, which later resulted in an apology from Biology Online. Oh, and the editor dude was also fired. Black Twitter — with the help of some allies — wins again. If you want to see what’s hot on black Twitter, check out…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
