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At Last: Frank Ocean Releases Long-Awaited Album, Blonde
After fits and starts, rumors and innuendo, Frank Ocean finally released his sophomore album Saturday night. Five years after Channel Orange, Blonde was released via Apple Music and through pop-up shops in New York, London, Los Angeles and Chicago. The album is called Blonde on Apple Music but titled Blond on the physical album. There…
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U.S. Justice Department Says Poor Defendants Can’t Be Held If They Can’t Afford Bail
The U.S. Justice Department said that holding defendants in jail because they can’t afford to make bail is unconstitutional—the first time the government has taken such a position before a federal appeals court, reports NBC News. On Thursday, Loretta Lynch’s DOJ filed a friend of court (amicus) brief in federal court saying that mandating inmates pay…
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White Supremacist Stabs Interracial Couple in Olympia, Wash.
A kiss between a black man and white woman reportedly enraged a self-proclaimed white supremacist so much that he stabbed them outside a bar in the state of Washington without any provocation. The Washington Post reports that Daniel Rowe, 32, came up to the couple at about 8:30 p.m. as they left the China Clipper Club…
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What Would Nat Turner Do?
When I was 9 years old, my closest friend was a swaggering, wayward, foul-mouthed Puerto Rican who counterbalanced those attributes by also being smart, precocious and charming. He was the coolest kid in my building, and it flattered my fragile ego that he chose me, a sports-obsessed bookworm, to be his sidekick. For a few…
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Watch: Al Roker Takes No Tea for the Fever on Ryan Lochte—‘He Lied’
In a video shot heard around the world, Al Roker was not trying to hear any defense of Ryan Lochte, the Olympic swimmer who apparently made up a fantastical story of being robbed at gunpoint in Brazil, starting a series of events now dubbed #Lochtegate. Roker, who was sitting on a beach in Ipanema covering…
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Al Sharpton on Nate Parker: Hollywood Trying to ‘Smear the Messenger’
The Rev. Al Sharpton has pledged not to let Hollywood “discredit” and block actor Nate Parker’s plans to release his upcoming film The Birth of a Nation, which tells the story of an 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner. The movie, which won national praise from critics after its debut at the Sundance Film…
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Ex-NFL Player Ray Lewis’ Son Indicted on Sex Assault Charges
Former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis’ son was indicted on a charge of third-degree criminal sexual conduct by a South Carolina grand jury, according to Bleacher Report. Ray Anthony Lewis III, 20, was indicted Aug. 11 and “is accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman while knowing she was under the influence,” and “when the…
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Black Writers Rally to Save Langston Hughes’ Home
The home occupied by one of the great leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, still stands on 127th Street in Harlem today. Hughes used the top floor of the home as his workroom from 1947 to his death in 1967; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The current owner,…
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Rio Rundown: Women’s 4×100 Team Retains Gold, Men Appeal Disqualification
Emerging victorious in the intense rivalry with Jamaica, the U.S. women’s team retained the 4×100-meter relay title, and Allyson Felix won a record fifth gold medal in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Friday. It was the second-fastest women’s 4×100 relay ever, second only to the relay at the 2012 Olympic Games, where…
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10 Things Afro-Brazilians Want You to Know
Back in 2002, according to the Estado do S. Paulo newspaper, former U.S. President George W. Bush reportedly asked Fernando Henrique Cardoso, then-president of Brazil, “Does Brazil have blacks, too?” For Brazilians, this statement showed a stunning ignorance of the country, which is the fifth largest in the world and is one of the seven-largest…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
