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Kanye's Katrina Outburst 'Worst Moment' of Bush Presidency?
By Alexandra Petri I faced a lot of criticism as president. I didn’t like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was racist because of the response to Katrina represented an all-time low.”— Excerpt from George W. Bush’s…
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Reggae Artist Gregory Isaacs Dead at 59
By Terence McArdle Gregory Isaacs, 59, the Jamaican-born reggae singer who was known as the “cool ruler” for his smooth, romantic singing style and who popularized the reggae subgenre known as lovers rock, died of lung cancer Oct. 25 at his home in London. Unlike so-called roots rock singers Bob Marley and Burning Spear, who…
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Ex-Girlfriend Breaks Silence on Justice Thomas
By Michael A. Fletcher For nearly two decades, Lillian McEwen has been silent — a part of history, yet absent from it. When Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his explosive 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Thomas vehemently denied the allegations and his handlers cited his steady relationship with another woman in…
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Danielle Evans, an Author Straddling Racial Divides
By DeNeen L. Brown On the bottom floor of a Bethesda, Md., bookstore, Danielle Evans, the 26-year-old Washington-area author who has been praised by Salman Rushdie and the Paris Review as a literary prodigy, recites her story “Snakes” from her debut collection. It is the tale of a biracial girl who is sent by her…
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Survey: A Troubling Number of Military Personnel Are in Debt
By Michelle Singletary Whenever I’m traveling and I see uniformed military personnel, I can’t help but become a little teary-eyed. I worry that the service members may be shipping out to Afghanistan or Iraq. I appreciate the sacrifice those in the military make, especially the many who are in combat zones. So it’s with no…
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Can Obama Deliver the Black Vote?
By Eugene Robinson At a high-spirited rally in Philadelphia on Sunday, President Obama challenged the mostly black crowd to defy pundits who purvey the conventional wisdom. “They think, ‘Oh, well, Obama’s name is not on the ballot; maybe they’re not going to turn out,’ ” he said, referring to African-American voters. “You’ve got to prove…
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Michelle Obama's Power Moves
by Nia-Malika Henderson What a difference a year makes. In 2009, Forbes magazine ranked First Lady Michelle Obama the 40th most powerful woman in the world. But this year she grabbed the top spot. To get there, Obama leapfrogged over her billionaire pal Oprah Winfrey; took out Beyoncé, who sang for the Obamas’ first dance at the…
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Child Nutrition Bill, a Priority for the First Lady, Stalls
by Jane Black A child nutrition bill that was a centerpiece of Michelle Obama’s healthful eating campaign stalled in the House on Wednesday after anti-hunger groups and more than 100 Democrats protested the use of food-stamp dollars to pay for it. The bill, which passed unanimously in the Senate this summer, would have mandated strict…
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What Will Future Generations Condemn Us For?
by Kwame Anthony Appiah Once, pretty much everywhere, beating your wife and children was regarded as a father’s duty, homosexuality was a hanging offense and waterboarding was approved — in fact, invented — by the Catholic Church. Through the middle of the 19th century, the United States and other nations in the Americas condoned plantation…
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Why Harvard Is Teaching 'The Wire'
by Anmol Chaddha and William Julius Wilson In our course on urban inequality at Harvard this semester, we want our students to understand the roots of the social conditions in America’s inner cities. To that end, we get some help from Bodie, Stringer Bell, Bubbles and others from HBO’s The Wire. Take this scene in…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
