Why the Black Internet Believes Grammys Just Threw Shade at Beyoncé
Proof The ‘Absent Black Father’ Was a Big Lie
Jay-Z’s Daughter Rumi Carter Throws Up the Roc Nation Sign On Stage, Sparking Insane Illuminati Theories
Black Musicians Who Were Targeted By The FBI and Other Law Enforcement
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Harold Ford Jr Won't Run For Senate in NY
Who saw this one coming? Former Tennessee congressman Harold Ford, Jr. announced in a New York Times op-ed that he won’t has run for U.S. Senate in New York against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: I’ve examined this race in every possible way, and I keep returning to the same fundamental conclusion: If I run, the likely…
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FBI To Close Most of Its Civil Rights Cold Cases
Three years ago the FBI promised to investigate more than 100 unsolved civil rights killings. Now the agency is ready to close all but a handful of them, according to the Washington Post. “There’s maybe five to seven cases where we don’t know who did it,” said FBI Special Agent Cynthia Deitle, who is heading…
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‘Fat’ is the new ‘N’ Word. Seriously?
Over on HuffingtonPost.com is a column by some chick named Vicki Iovine headlined FAT Is the New ‘N’ Word. She’s white, and that’s all I’m going to infer about why she played the race card. The headline – a breathtaking work of staggering ignorance – speaks for itself. And hey, it worked: It got my…
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A Video Postscript to Black History Month
Newsweek staff writer Raina Kelley created a sweet videotaped postscript of sorts to Black History Month, addressed to her biracial toddler son, Gabe. It’s a follow-up to her November 2009 Newsweek article “A Letter to My Son on Election Night,” and tempers the exuberance of that article with the sober reality that “Barack Obama and…
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Farrakhan: White Right Wants Obama To Be One-Term President
The “white right” is conspiring to make Barack Obama a one-term president and trap him into a war with Iran, Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan told about 20,000 followers on Sunday at a Saviours’ Day event in Chicago. During a speech that lasted nearly four hours, Farrakhan urged the president to do more to…
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The Root Interview: Lynn Nottage on ‘Ruined’ Beauty
Sexual violence against tens of thousands of women has been a chilling constant during the decade of chaos and conflict in Eastern Congo—so much so that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last July declared rape a weapon of mass destruction. The carnage inspired playwright Lynn Nottage to explore the fallout for women at war. In…
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Bybee, Yoo and America’s Tortured Soul
Did the authors of the infamous “torture memos” get off scot-free? Recent news stories seem to suggest that attorneys John Yoo and Jay Bybee were exonerated when the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility decided not to issue a finding of professional misconduct against them. But a close examination of the 69-page memo makes it…
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Court Saves Voting Rights Act and Itself
It would be difficult to overstate the significance and revelatory import of the Supreme Court’s long-awaited decision in North Austin Municipal Utility District(NAMUD) v. Holder – the case that challenged the constitutionality of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. We learn that the conservative plurality on the Court (minus Justice Thomas) has a pretty…
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GQ's Black Style Pioneers
GQ offers a stylish slide show of black pioneers who knew how to dress to their own beat.As we reported over on The GQ Eye, the sharp-dressed young gentlemen behind the blog Street Etiquette —Joshua Kissi and Travis Gumbs—recently launched a D.I.Y. photo project to commemorate Black History Month and the style legacy of men…
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The Root Interview: David Levering Lewis
David Levering Lewis had just gotten off a plane in Morocco after a long flight from the U.S. He and his wife registered at their hotel in Rabat. A waitress served them breakfast, then burst into tears and lost her French when she learned they were American. Lewis wondered what her problem was. He then…