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Hip-Hop's Materialism Is Bad for Fans
Recent Hampton University graduate Nicole Breeden was shocked that her $100,000 degree didn’t come with a cheat sheet to instant success or a black credit card, she writes at Clutch magazine. She castigates the hip-hop industry for encouraging hopes of achieving extraordinary wealth that most people will never obtain. The fantasy, she says, promotes cynicism…
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Obama's March on Washington Anniversary Speech Missed the Mark
Colorlines‘ Imara Jones admonishes the president for blaming people of color for persistent economic inequality during his speech for the March on Washington’s 50th anniversary. He said that Obama’s talk was long on rhetoric and short on substance. On the very site of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the nation’s first black…
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Twitter: Happy 55th Birthday, Michael Jackson!
(The Root) — For Michael Jackson’s fans, it’s hard to believe that the music great has been gone for five years. Today was not for mourning, though. MJ fans, celebrities included, took to the Internet to remember the legend. On Twitter, folks tweeted their favorite songs and pictures and sent well wishes into the universe.…
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March 2013: What About the Future?
(The Root) — As an exercise in further deifying Martin Luther King Jr. and further solidifying an oversimplified version of his legacy, yesterday’s 50th-anniversary celebration of the historic March on Washington was a huge success. But as a means of kindling a new and badly needed social movement that could meaningfully address the unfinished business…
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11-Year-Old Texas Boy Enrolled as College Freshman
The Daily News is reporting that Carson Huey-You, who just started his freshman year at Texas Christian University, is the youngest person ever to attend the private university in Fort Worth. He was in high school at the age of 5. Today he is 11 years old and taking a full college load, including physics, calculus,…
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Youth Speakers Snubbed at King Program
(The Root) — At least on ceremony, the elders fumbled the passing of the civil rights torch to a new generation as two emergent young leaders were bumped from Wednesday’s program at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Phil Agnew, of Dream Defenders, and Sofia Campos, of United We Dream, separately were cut…
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Michelle Obama Honors Whitney Young's Memory
On Tuesday Michelle Obama honored the memory of Whitney Young, one of the speakers at the historic March on Washington in 1963, the Washington Post reports. It was an especially important moment for the first lady because she is a graduate of Chicago’s Whitney M. Young Magnet School. Obama spoke briefly to a group of…
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The March on Twitter: A Recap
(The Root) — The 50th anniversary of the March on Washington was commemorated in major ways both online and offline. Offline, hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to hear rousing speeches from prominent black figures including the family of Martin Luther King Jr., Oprah Winfrey and President Barack…
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Quote of the Day: Paul Robeson on Racism in Hollywood
Read more of the quote 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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Ever Have a 'Waiting to Exhale' Moment?
(The Root) — “Have you ever had a ‘Carrie Underwood, Jazmine Sullivan or Angela Bassett in Waiting to Exhale’ moment in a relationship? LOL.” —R.T. If you’re out of the loop about the pop-culture references above, RT is asking if, in a fit of brokenhearted, bruised-ego anger, I’ve ever damaged someone’s property as revenge. My…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
