Search results for: “node/Science”
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Don't Even Try to Blame It on Rio
Why is coupling such a contentious topic in the black community? Yesterday’s explanation was that black men are all gay and secretly on the “down low.” This pseudo-sociological approach explained everything from high HIV rates among black men and women to why marriage rates are so low. It fed anxieties and provided for salacious stories…
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Farewell to My Uterus
After a four-year battle with uterine fibroids, I am finally surrendering. Last Monday, I checked into N.Y. Presbyterian Hospital and underwent a hysterectomy. I am 34 years old. I fought back with hormones and holistic treatments. I have had second and third opinions in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York. I’ve seen black doctors and white,…
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How My Father Taught Me to Talk Jive
Copyright © from the forthcoming book THE JIVE TALKER by Samson Kambalu, to be published by Free Press, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., N.Y. Printed by permission. —My father wore three-piece suits that he had ordered from London in the ’60s and ’70s, when he could still afford them. Back then he looked…
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Does Indy Diss the Developing World?
The box office has given its ecstatic verdict on the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. ($482 million in gross ticket sales and counting.) But one little discussed metric that some people have been using to judge Skull (or, at least, that I have) is: How offensive was it compared to…
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And No Longer on the Street Corner…
Black professional fighters traditionally have had a way of inspiring a generation of young black men, for better or worse: Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson.Kimbo Slice is the new inspiration. What? You’ve not heard of Kimbo Slice? Well, maybe you don’t recognize him because I haven’t called him by his full name:…
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The Science of Racism
James Watson has long assumed a certain special status among American scientists. The molecular biologist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, for, as the Swedish Academy put it in its announcement for the prize, “their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids…
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Color, Controversy and DNA
Below are excerpts from the Q&A with Nobel laureate and DNA pioneer James Watson. READ Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s thoughts about this interview in an essay about the science of racism . WATCH portions of this conversation in video. James Watson: I’ve thought about these things a lot over the last couple of months, because…
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Classical Music’s Latest Bloomer
The 42-year-old, modern classical composer Joseph C. Phillips Jr. is a self-described “late-bloomer.” Now one of the brightest new lights on the modern classical scene, he studied music at the University of Maryland and began his career as an award-winning high school director near Seattle. He honed his gifts as a composer while he was…
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Is There a Link Between Vaccines and Autism?
I belong to a local parenting “listserv,” where moms and dads share information on everything from breastfeeding and circumcision to tantrums and teething. Over the past few weeks, there’s been a persistent topic of both curiosity and debate roiling through our group’s e-mails: vaccine slowdown. Vaccine slowdown, or spreading out the number of shots given…
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1-800-Who’s-Your-Daddy
I’m prepared to share a dirty little secret that many of my colleagues at Howard University School of Law would probably prefer I keep to myself. Some of our students are serious lawyers-in-training who seize every opportunity they can to keep abreast of the latest legal developments and to immerse themselves more deeply in the…