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How a 'Proud' Lesbian Became a Pol's Wife
In 1979 Chirlane McCray declared in an essay for Essence magazine, “I am a lesbian.” Thirty-four years later she returned to the publication for an interview about what happened between that groundbreaking piece and her current “traditional marriage” to Bill de Blasio, who’s running for mayor of New York City. Check out a few highlights.…
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Marion Barry Totally Loves 'Scandal'
The success of ABC’s Scandal is widely known, and if you have a Twitter account, you know how popular the show is. It turns out that it’s not just your mom, barber and kid’s preschool teacher who are watching — black icons are tuning in, too. Marion Barry, the embattled former mayor of Washington, D.C.,…
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Ramsey: Criminal Past 'Helped Me Become the Man I Am'
Charles Ramsey, whose heroic image was complicated, if not completely tarnished, on Wednesday when his history as a spousal abuser came to light, told TMZ that he’s not ashamed that media outlets uncovered the domestic violence arrests in his past. He claims that the experience — he reportedly served six months in jail for battering…
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Quote of the Day: Muhammad Ali
Read more of our coverage of Muhammad Ali 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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Cops Using Drones? Get Ready
(The Root) — Within a decade, thousands of aerial drones could be hovering over neighborhoods across America, surveying traffic or crops, monitoring large crowds, searching for missing children and fugitives and perhaps more. Could the “eye in the sky” deliver major advancements for public safety and a wide variety of industries, or lead to violations…
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Reading, Writing and Rape: Sexual Assaults on Campus Must End
In a piece for BlackAmericaWeb, Tom Joyner says that these drug- and alcohol-fueled incidents have gone too far, and parents need to step in and drill into children’s heads that sexual violence is never OK. While too many of us were concentrating on an NBA player’s sexuality despite the fact that most of the population…
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Does It Matter If He Calls Me His Girlfriend?
(The Root) — “I read something about a woman who was dating a guy for six months and he didn’t introduce her when they ran into people. It got me thinking — does it matter if your boyfriend introduces you like ‘This is Gina’ instead of saying, ‘This is my girlfriend, Gina’? Does saying ‘girlfriend’…
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An Open Letter to Charles Ramsey
Before the domestic violence reports surfaced, Eris Zion Venia Dyson analyzed the now-fallen Internet star’s racial insights in a piece at the For Harriet blog. In plain speak, you said something so profound, and I want to unpack the statement that you made: “When a young, pretty white woman runs into the arms of a…
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Student-Loan Debt: Time to Get Serious
Writing at the Huffington Post, Rep. Karen Bass makes the case for a comprehensive fix to the student-loan debt crisis. For one thing, student-loan interest rates will double on July 1 from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. If I’ve heard it once I’ve heard it a thousand times from my Republican colleagues: we have to…
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The Curious Case of the Black Viral Star
(The Root) — We knew it was coming. The formula is practically scientific: Disaster strikes; poor black person foils it (preferably in a roller set) or escapes, then gives a live interview jam-packed with ridiculous quotes that even Beyoncé can’t resist; the Internet memes flood Facebook; and the fame countdown starts at minute 15. So…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
