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Man Finds Father on Facebook
(The Root) — Celebrating Father’s Day is still relatively new for Chris Truesdale and his son, Terrell Starr. Starr always knew that his father was out there somewhere, but Truesdale had no idea he had a son until he received a Facebook message back in 2009. Despite not knowing that he even had a son,…
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Chris Rock: Zimmerman Can 'Eat a D–k'
It’s not exactly the analysis of race, law and justice that we’ve heard from other sources about George Zimmerman’s second-degree-murder trial for the shooting death of unarmed Florida teen Trayvon Martin. But then again, Chris Rock is a comedian, so this is pretty much what we’d expect (if, perhaps, a little more blunt than usual).…
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Virginia Lt. Governor Candidate on Yoga and Satanism
Why in the world would E.W. Jackson, a candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia, be talking about yoga and Satanism in press conferences? Well, because he had some pretty interesting things to say about the two in a 2008 book (specifically, he linked the practice of yoga to demonic possession), and those points needed some…
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Cheerios Ad Parody Tells Haters to 'Eat It'
Not everyone was a fan of the adorable Cheerios commercial that featured a biracial family. In fact, Cheerios had to disable the comments feature on its YouTube page after the ad generated such a negative response. Our guess is that the racists that took issue with the commercial will also hate its spoof — which…
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'Mistresses' vs. 'Scandal': A Difference?
(The Root) — When I heard that ABC was launching an American version of the BBC drama Mistresses, which follows the trials and tribulations of four women who behave as mistresses by choice and sometimes by happenstance, I was intrigued. I immediately wondered if ABC’s new show, which has the same title, could match the…
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The Drop in Chicago's Murder Rate Won't Last
Slate magazine’s crime correspondent, Justin Peters, argues that the strategy that has reduced Chicago’s homicide rate this year — by putting more police officers on the street — will unravel when the money that pays for their overtime runs out. He also cites Chicago’s infamous weather as a possible factor. The fact is that you…
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Everyone's Good News on Facebook Stresses Me Out
Like Chaka Khan once crooned, “It ain’t all good,” and this is the sentiment writer Lauren Lyons expresses in a piece at the Huffington Post. She speaks openly about how she sometimes thinks the struggles in her life are an anomaly because of everyone else’s positive updates on Facebook. Lyons encourages people to share their…
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DNA Test: 'Unknown' Ancestry?
(The Root) — “I was recently diagnosed with an uncommon autoimmune disease called Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) syndrome, which is found in Asians, Mediterranean people and Native Americans. I am African American. I had my DNA tested via Ancestry.com’s AncestryDNA test and was told that I was 68 percent West African, 25 percent Central European and the…
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Quote of the Day: Claude Brown
Read the full 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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Miley Cyrus Wants Something That 'Feels Black'
(The Root) — Miley Cyrus is quickly becoming the poster child for cultural appropriation, evidenced by the dry, questionable “twerking” she’s been doing all over the place. As if that wasn’t enough, she now has a gold grill. And if that’s not enough, she’s flat-out going for a “black” sound with her new music, according…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
