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Lolo Jones Gets on Twitter's Bad Side
(The Root) — In the midst of tensions running high over Rachel Jeantel’s testimony in the George Zimmerman murder trial, track star Lolo Jones managed to secure a piece of the outrage for herself after making a tasteless joke at Jeantel’s expense. Jeantel, a friend of the late Trayvon Martin and the last person to…
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Paula Deen Is Not Racist?
Food critic Michael W. Twitty writes an open letter to Paula Deen at the Huffington Post, parsing out her public relations debacle through the prism of racism in the North and South. While not defending it, he determines that her attitude is more cavalier than racist. When you said, “of course,” I wasn’t flabbergasted, I…
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Adam Clayton Powell Jr. on Law
Read the quote in context 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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Why Can't Black Kids Play Heavy Metal?
(The Root) — It all started with a video of three young black boys head-banging in New York City’s Times Square, playing a musical genre that, for a number of people, is a rarity for people of color. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based sixth-graders have been performing together since 2007, the year they formed the first incarnation…
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Wake Up: 20 Socially Conscious Songs
Music has the power to move us, heal us and inspire us. Here’s a list of 20 socially conscious songs, along with their performers, that address everything from civil rights to gang violence to safe sex. With roots based in African-American hymns, Jackson’s 1964 performance of “We Shall Overcome” helped make the tune one of…
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Wake Up: 20 Socially Conscious Songs
Music has the power to move us, heal us and inspire us. Here’s a list of 20 socially conscious songs, along with their performers, that address everything from civil rights to gang violence to safe sex. With roots based in African-American hymns, Jackson’s 1964 performance of “We Shall Overcome” helped make the tune one of…
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Will King's Dream End Without the Voting Rights Act?
Writing at the Huffington Post, Kevin Powell argues that the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down parts of the Voting Rights Act will reverse the progress made by civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. This historic gesture now frees nine American states, mostly in the South, to change their election laws without advance…
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Cursive Dies; World Continues Spinning
(The Root) — Viewers of the George Zimmerman trial were shocked to hear that Rachel Jeantel, the prosecution’s star witness, cannot read or write in cursive. But surprise! Most schools don’t even teach kids to write in cursive anymore. Back in April, the New York Times published an op-ed entitled “Handwriting Matters; Cursive Doesn’t” that…
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Minority Report: Reflections on Supreme Court Rulings
(The Root) — This was a monumental week for the Supreme Court, which ruled on three major cases before ending its session. Decisions on the constitutionality of affirmative action in college admissions, preclearance requirements for the 1965 Voting Rights Act and a law prohibiting federal recognition of gay marriage were delivered back-to-back over the course…
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Keri Hilson: 'YOLO, So Know Your Status'
(The Root) — Keri Hilson gets tested for HIV/AIDS every six months, and she’s lending her name to a product that will allow you to do the same. “I make healthy decisions when it comes to my sex life, and I make really good decisions to lower my risk of HIV,” Hilson told The Root during a…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
