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Iranian-Backed Militias Threaten Attacks
Iranian-backed Shiite militias have issued warnings that they will retaliate against American interests in Iraq if the U.S. proceeds with strikes against Syria, the Associated Press reports, citing Iraqi security officials and militants themselves. Iraqi officials say they are taking the warnings seriously. The threats, which come as President Barack Obama’s administration and Congress debate…
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The Meaning Behind Miley's 'Struggle-Twerk'
Writing at the New Inquiry, Ayesha Siddiqi argues that broad interpretations of styles that flow out of pop culture should never really be surprising, but in contrasting so deeply with her “white girl” image, Miley Cyrus earns both praise and scorn for her MTV Video Music Awards “struggle-twerk.” [Miley Cyrus’] loyalty to the white girlhood she…
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Dear Respectability Police: You Won't End Racism
In a powerful piece at Ebony, Jamilah Lemieux issues a stern rebuke to those who think that black people can police themselves into becoming respected or validated by white people. She asks, “How are white folks gonna confront their biases when at every turn there’s a black person willing to hop up and tell them that we are really…
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How Do I Find Ancestor From Martinique?
(The Root) — “My name is Linda Brown, and I have definitely hit a dead end regarding my great-grandfather, Firmin Francois Fortier. How do I find out if he was really born in Martinique? The story in the family is that he was born in Martinique on Oct. 27, 1850, to a French father and…
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August Jobs Numbers: Black Unemployment Rises
The Labor Department released its August jobs report today, showing that the nation’s employers added 169,000 jobs last month, just slightly below what economists had predicted. The overall unemployment rate fell to 7.3 percent from 7.4 percent, but mostly because people dropped out of the labor pool and were no longer being counted as unemployed,…
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Black Democrats Wary of Syria Strike
Saying they are still gathering information, several members of the Congressional Black Caucus apparently are not ready to rubber-stamp President Barack Obama’s plan to strike Syria, according to The Hill. Black Democrats were among the most consistently vocal opponents of the Iraq war a decade ago, and they’re now among the most reluctant to endorse…
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Politics, Race and Fried Chicken
(The Root) — When I first saw the headline about a GOP elected official in trouble for an inappropriate gaffe involving fried chicken, I immediately thought, “I already read this story.” Then I realized that the name of the elected official mentioned in the story was different from the one in the previous story I…
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Quote of the Day: Dorothy Pitman Hughes on the Power of Businesswomen
Read more from Dorothy Pitman Hughes here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute 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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10 Types of Guys Black Women Have Dated
(The Root) — Earlier this week the Washington Post published a list of “The 10 D.C. Guys We’ve All Dated.” It included “the chill Republican dude” who wears shirts with whales on them, “the organic kale guy” who makes homemade quiche and “the Clarendon guy” who downs shots of Fireball and never misses brunch. While…
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Bring on More Black Blame, Obama
(The Root) — Last week, in his remarks commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, President Obama did what many would argue has become a signature move in his speeches to black audiences: In the midst of a professorial history recap featuring paragraphs of his characteristic soaring rhetoric, he slipped in several hundred…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
