Search results for: “quotemedia/c”
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The 'Real American' Test
I have been living outside of the United States for the better part of five years. So imagine my surprise when I returned in September, to find that we are now making Americans prove that you are a “real American.” It is no longer enough to just have a valid passport and driver’s license, or…
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Will White People Riot?
“Would black people riot if Sen. Barack Obama didn’t win the election?” That was the question a white man in Memphis recently asked a racial reconciliation group with which I am involved. After five years of being a columnist for the daily paper in Memphis, I wasn’t surprised by the absurdity of his query. Many…
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The Five Ohios
Kendra Reddick lives in Ohio and can’t decide which presidential candidate deserves her vote. Like thousands of voters across the Buckeye State, Reddick is a values voter. She typically only backs politicians who share her conservative, fundamental Christian beliefs. So four and eight years ago, Reddick, a black 42-year-old, middle-school history teacher in Cleveland Heights,…
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Channeling George Wallace
Geraldine Ferraro was a far better qualified candidate than Sarah Palin. But the Alaska governor does have one thing in common with the first female vice presidential candidate for a major political party: the ability to tap into a noxious strain of populist resentment that has been one of the most powerfully corrosive forces in…
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When Tom Met Sally
Once in a dry season I wrote an essay about my experiences with interracial dating that was published in the New York Times. To say the essay generated a little heat would be like saying certain Wall Street types took a little off the top. Although the vast majority of the 300-plus e-mails I received (not…
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The R in Revelation
You can learn a lot when you spend seven years under indictment for child-molestation charges, and then get acquitted at trial. Just ask R. Kelly, who sat down with BET on Tuesday night for his first television interview since he was acquitted of all the charges against him in June. Touré, BET’s lollipop-froed correspondent, gently…
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Food Coloring
Black food is in. And we’re not talking about your grandmother’s fried chicken or Aunt Sadie’s peach cobbler. Instead, it seems that with food, the darker it is, the better it is for you. From forbidden black rice to black tea, black is back…not that it ever really went away. For many cultures, dark-hued foods…
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Off-Color Confessions
Something about the widespread media coverage of David Carr’s new memoir, The Night of the Gun, is bothersome. It is noteworthy that The New York Times columnist attempts to correct an unfortunate trend of exaggerated or fictitious redemptive memoirs like James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces (2003). Carr did well to take a reporter’s approach…
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The Cost of Silence
Tonight is Michelle Obama’s night at the Democratic Convention. She will reintroduce herself to America, try to convince us that she and her family, especially her husband, are just like us and worthy of our support. Expect her to be phenomenal. Expect her to be attacked, as well. Republicans and their surrogates have already tried…
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Stop Punking Out, Obama!
“For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him.…