Search results for: “quotemedia/f”
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Law & Disorder
ABOUT JADA F. SMITH After officially deciding to pursue my life’s dream of hosting MTV’s “Total Request Live” in the 10th grade, I created a master plan to major in broadcast journalism at Howard University and eventually move to New York City and interview all the fabulous people in Times Square. Seven years later I’m…
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Brother Kennedy: Good White Folk
For the longest time, besides family, black people would only put three pictures up on the wall: Jesus Christ, Nipsey Russell and John F. Kennedy. The Kennedys, in general, have always had a soft spot in the hearts of many black folks because they have always been, as old timers say, “good white folk.” The…
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Ted Kennedy Is Dead at 77
Edward M. Kennedy, one of the most powerful and influential senators in American history and one of three brothers whose political triumphs and personal tragedies captivated the nation for decades, died at 77. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, was the last survivor of a privileged and charismatic family that in the 1960s dominated American politics and…
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Mr. President, While You Were Out
President Barack Obama and his family are on vacation and, for a while anyway, the angry, disfigured faces of the health care town halls have faded from the news. But we know what’s waiting for him when he gets back—more of the same—and so far he hasn’t been handling it well. Supporters are urging him…
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Bravo's Southern Discomfort
You know you need a reality check when, on the one show meant to highlight the lives of women such as yourself—young(ish), glamorous and black—it’s the white chick with Mattel hair that you end up feeling sorry for. (Or better yet, sympathizing with.) And the women with the airbrushed smiles and the loud mouths seem…
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More Than Rum and Relaxation
Plantation, sugar cane fields, chattel house. These words evoke powerful images of slavery and antebellum America, and even now they are laced with unpleasant racial sensitivities. However, in a recent trip to Barbados, these loaded words were part of my daily itinerary. On the small island are plantation houses surrounded by acre upon acre of…
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Eunice Kennedy Shriver Dies at 88
From the Washington Post: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, a member of a political dynasty who devoted her life to improving the welfare of the mentally disabled by founding the Special Olympics, died Tuesday morning at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Mass., after a series of strokes. Shriver, a sister of President John F. Kennedy and…
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Mentally Ill Offenders Burden Juvenile System
FRANKLIN FURNACE, Ohio — The teenager in the padded smock sat in his solitary confinement cell here in this state’s most secure juvenile prison and screamed obscenities. The youth, Donald, a 16-year-old, his eyes glassy from lack of sleep and a daily regimen of mood stabilizers, was serving a minimum of six months for breaking…
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The Real Affirmative Action Babies
Last Sunday, veteran Washington Post journalist Juan Williams and conservative author Shelby Steele wrote two opposing op-eds on the pending death of affirmative action. Williams opined that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was too optimistic when she predicted that affirmative action, born with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, had at most 25 more years to…
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Twitter Hi-Jinks: How Black Are You?
Sometimes, we’ve gotta keep it light. A sample from the #HowBlackAreYou trending topic: soulrebelJ: I still call my little brother booky. @jenjanea: I love a fish fry, always lived in Black neighborhoods, don’t trust the po-po & am prob more educated than u @elonjames: I have a Pavlovian lyrical response to the phrase “Who the…