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50 Years Late, a Prom Comes to Birmingham
(The Root) — Earnestine Thomas didn’t attend her senior prom before graduating in 1963 from Birmingham, Ala.’s A.H. Parker High School — there wasn’t one. She had planned on attending with friends and wearing a fancy, neon-hued dress that glittered in the lights. Senior proms and other end-of-school-year activities in Birmingham’s “colored” schools were canceled…
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7 Benefits of Sweatworking
We have all heard the dos and don’ts of networking, but lately, there’s a growing trend among business professionals: sweatworking. Coined by the New York Times , the term is exactly what it sounds like: networking while sweating it out at the gym. An increasing number of people professionals are taking advantage of the country’s…
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Ignorant Things People Say About My Black Kids
Writing at xoJane, Chantal Rich says that she didn’t mind living in rural Tennessee, until strangers started to comment on her adopted children. “So, how much did she cost?” The person asking me this, about my daughter, was an older woman and a complete stranger to me. As I pulled my daughter closer to me, the…
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Obama to Nominate Mel Watt to Head FHFA
(The Root) — On Wednesday, President Obama will announce his intent to nominate Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) to direct the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a White House official told The Root. FHFA was created on July 30, 2008, when President Obama signed into law the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. If confirmed, Watt…
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Mad at Rihanna for the N-Word? Don't Be a Hypocrite
Ernest Owens, in a piece for the Huffington Post, encourages those who are upset about the singer’s controversial Instagram post to take a look at their own online lives. Oh no, this is not to excuse Rihanna from saying a word that is unacceptable and derogatory, but as we all liked her marijuana smoke blowing images…
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LGBT Athletes of Color Paved the Way for Jason Collins
Writing at Colorlines, Jamilah King says that this movement has been in the works for years and has a diverse set of characters. Sexuality and sports make for a complicated mix. Throw in race and the persistent obsession with what it means to be a man in America, and the conversation becomes impossibly loaded. That’s…
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I Found One Drop: Can I Be Black Now?
(The Root ) — “I recently availed myself of my university’s online resources and did some genealogical digging about my white conservative family. It turns out that one of our ancestors was an African-American slave who passed as white. His is an incredibly powerful story about a dark chapter in our nation’s history, and I believe…
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Quote of the Day: Malcolm X
Read The Root’s coverage of Malcolm X 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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20 Things Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Wishes He Knew at 30
In a piece for Esquire, basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shares widely applicable pieces of advice that have little to do with the sport that made him famous. From the commonsense (become financially literate) to the unexpected (do more yoga and watch more TV), he says he wishes that he could climb into a time machine…
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Jason Collins Proves 'Outing' Isn't Needed
(The Root) — Jason Collins received kudos from the president, first lady, a former president and many others for having the courage to break one of America’s last great barriers. He became the first openly gay active player in one of America’s major professional sports. Collins has handled the situation with pure class, and refreshingly,…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
