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Ex-N.W.A Manager Jerry Heller Dead at 75
Jerry Heller, co-founder of the seminal rap label Ruthless Records and former manager of rap group N.W.A, has died at 75. TMZ reports that Heller died after suffering a medical emergency while driving in Ventura County on Friday morning. He allegedly slammed into a minivan and was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. It’s…
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Trump Surrogate Pastor Mark Burns Be Lyin’ and Gets Caught on Camera
There is a name used in the South about unscrupulous men of the cloth: “jackleg preachers.” Given the evidence, it looks as if Pastor Mark Burns fits the bill. Burns, who came into national prominence this year as an unabashed Donald Trump surrogate and supporter who spoke at the Republican National Convention, was caught in…
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Ex-SC Cop Who Hurled Black Student Over Desk Won’t Face Criminal Charges
The South Carolina police officer who was fired for violently dragging a young black girl across a classroom over use of a cellphone will not face criminal charges. The New York Daily News reports that Richland County Solicitor Dan Johnson said in a 12-page court report Friday that he found no probable cause to charge…
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5 Queer Black Female Authors Who Will Blow Your Mind Wide Open
Hashtags like #BrownGirlMagic, #BlackGirlsRock and #CareFreeBlackGirl represent a movement of self-definition led by black women for black women. A self-definition that seeks to motivate, push and create space for black women to stand up straight in the crooked room that is America’s commitment to distorted and backward portrayals of black women’s humanity. Similarly, stories written…
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Breast-Feeding: It's Not All It's Cracked Up to Be
I do not like breast-feeding. There, I said it. I’d been feeling like I couldn’t say it until I finally blurted it out the other night in a bout of frustration. My baby was going through her first growth spurt, which meant that she was feeding around the clock. Newborns tend to feed every one-and-a-half…
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7 Arguments I Wish People Would Stop Using to Defend Their Favorite Celebrities
I spend a great deal of my day trying to figure out what to write about for my next story. Luckily for me, there’s rarely a day that passes without a hot-button issue being debated on one of my many social media timelines. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve spent a great deal of…
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Is My Family’s ‘Slave Name’ the Wrong One?
I have been working on my family tree for years and cannot find anyone on my father’s side earlier than my great-grandparents Texas Williams, 1871-1951, and his wife, Nettie Howard Williams, 1875-1912. My father said that Texas always said that they were really “Dunns”—that the Dunn family sold them to the Williams family and they…
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JetBlue Puts 5-Year-Old on Wrong Flight
Andy Martinez Mercado, 5, was returning home to New York City after visiting with his family in the Dominican Republic when he was put on the wrong flight, ending up in Boston, the New York Daily News reports. It took over three hours to locate Andy after it was discovered that he was missing. “I thought he…
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The Military Isn’t a Monolith: An Open Letter From an Active Duty Officer to Colin Kaepernick
Dear Colin, Your decision to stage a silent protest against racial injustice by remaining seated during the national anthem is one of great courage and intestinal fortitude. Your protest and follow-up comments have been met with excessively vitriolic reactions, including condemnation by members of the military on whose behalf detractors purport to castigate you. Members…
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Aaliyah’s One in a Million and the Power Players Behind the Music: Where Are They Now?
The year 1996 was arguably the hottest in the ’90s for black popular culture. Tupac released his classic album All Eyez on Me, and just months later, he was gunned down in Las Vegas. Jay Z dropped Reasonable Doubt, launching a career that would see him rise from a street hustler to “a business, man.”…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
