Search results for: “quotemedia/c”
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Smileypalooza: Right Message, Wrong Messenger
I’ve never been much of a fan of Tavis Smiley’s annual State of Black America confab, which struck me as an extravaganza of excessive Negro bloviation. And I’m not planning to watch the really big show he is putting on C-SPAN on Saturday, the “We Count! The Black Agenda is the American Agenda” conference, which…
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The Root Interview: Why Tavis Smiley "Cannot Be Silent"
Just weeks after Tavis Smiley announced in January that he’d be ending his annual State of the Black Union conference, the PBS talk show host and activist revealed plans to convene a one-day symposium with leaders and prominent thinkers about the African American agenda. “The conversation is about whether or not there is a need…
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Black Leaders Through the Looking Glass
Lawrence C. Ross Jr. is the author of The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities and a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Follow him on Twitter. Become a fan of The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Lawrence Ross is the author of the Los Angeles Times best-seller…
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Black Leaders Through the Looking Glass
Lawrence C. Ross Jr. is the author of The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities and a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Follow him on Twitter. Become a fan of The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
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The Return of Blackface
Broadway and Me blogger Janice C. Simpson takes a thoughtful look at the reappearance of black face in two recent theater productions.Who would have thought that in the age of Obama, black face and minstrel shows would be making a comeback? But over the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen two very different shows that…
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Pardons Sought for Those Who Help Slaves Escape to Freedom
Imprisoning people for helping slaves flee bondage isn’t tight and a Kentucky group is working to have the convicted pardoned by the governor In the 19th century, Kentucky convicted at least 58 people for “seducing or enticing slaves to leave their lawful owners.” Defendants faced 20 years in the Kentucky State Penitentiary, where some died.…
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The Story Behind the Alarming Herpes Numbers
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s announcement that nearly half of African-American women are infected with herpes has prompted reactions from panic and shock to outrage and disbelief. The study finds that women and blacks were most likely to be infected. The prevalence of herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) was nearly twice as high…
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Coping With 'The Help'
It was kind of funny. While the overflow crowd of 450 or so ate in the dining room of Queens University of Charlotte, staffers took their lunch in the kitchen before Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, spoke. No, it had nothing to do with race or class. (And no one had to use separate…
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Gabourey Sidibe's Next Role
Gabourey Sidibe’s star continues to rise Oscar® nominee Gabourey Sidibe will make her way from the mean streets of ‘80s Harlem in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire to the cushy, modern-day Connecticut suburbs in the new SHOWTIME dark comedy series, THE BIG C. Sidibe, who guest starred in the pilot episode, just…
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'Freaknik: The Musical': Bourgies, Beware
“There’s some bad in the best of us. A little good in the worst of us. A little freak in all of us.” —T-Pain as Freaknizzle, the Ghost of Freakniks Past, remixes the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in Freaknik: The Musical. For much of the multicultural millennial generation, pop—and hip-hop—culture opened our often-small…