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Single Mothers, Sons and the Sex Talk
I remember the day as if it were yesterday. My son, who was 11 years old at the time, excitedly walked into my room in the middle of the afternoon. “Mommy, I’m a man now!” I choked on my water, literally. I sat there with my mouth wide open and really didn’t know what to…
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Could Michael Jackson Really Be Miki Howard’s Baby Daddy?
In what looked like an episode of The Maury Show, TMZ aired live DNA-test results from FilmOn.com that allegedly indicated there is a 99.9 percent chance that Brandon Howard, 31, the son of R&B singer Miki Howard, is also Michael Jackson’s son. Now, when I say “allegedly,” it pretty much means, can we trust the…
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Dream Defenders Confront Florida Legislators
The Dream Defenders are sticking to their goal of making sure their voices are heard by protesting inside Florida’s Capitol in Tallahassee Tuesday morning, the first day of Florida’s 2014 legislative session. The group, an organization of young people fighting systemic injustice toward communities of color, stepped into the spotlight after the shooting death of…
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Twitter Puts News Sites on Blast for Horrible 12 Years a Slave Headlines
Apparently a couple of news sites felt that in order to “outdo” the others, it would be a good idea to do a play on words with 12 Years a Slave and “escape.” Because, you know, slavery and escaping are all talking points today. The News-Gazette, which is based in Illinois, had this ill-conceived headline…
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Tasteless Tweet Congratulates Lupita Nyong’o, Advertises Africa Book
During last night’s Oscar win, the congratulations that Lupita Nyong’o received on Twitter practically broke the social media outlet. But imagine if she hadn’t won. It probably would have gone something like this: After Lupita ascended her rightful throne—I mean the stage; no, I actually mean throne—it was too hard to keep up with the…
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Girls With Guns, Boys With Dolls: Does It Matter?
The first toy I fell in love with was a red dump truck I received after a cousin said he was tired of it. Here was a 4-year-old girl, in pigtails and ribbons, dragging a dump truck around after my mother rigged it with a rope. At that age, all I knew was that the…
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Figuring Out the Right Time to Introduce Him or Her to the Kids
Navigating the dating world can be challenging when you’re a single parent. I remember speaking with a guy friend who’s raising three children on his own, and he found it interesting that some of the women he dated were immediately inquiring about meeting his children. He told me that one woman in particular felt offended…
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Hateful and Hurtful: Colorism Is Alive Within Our Kids
My first experience with colorism as a child wasn’t exactly a personal experience. In our house, there were four kids, two light and two brown. My brother and I were the brown ones. It’s not as though we cared, either, or even noticed. We did things kids do on a daily basis: went to school,…
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Single Parents: You Don’t Have to Do It Alone
When I was 10, after my parents divorced, my mother became a single parent, raising four kids practically on her own. I still don’t know how she managed at times, but she wasn’t without help. The one thing I can say that made a huge difference was the fact that, even before Hillary Clinton spoke…
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There Are Tons of Black Female Comedians for 'SNL'
Kenan Thompson is way off the mark in suggesting that the reason Saturday Night Live has too few black female comedians is that there aren’t enough funny, talented black women for the job, Yesha Callahan argues at Clutch magazine. In a recent interview with TV Guide, Thompson removes all blame for Lorne Michaels, the executive producer…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
