culture
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How Do I Legally Prove Native American Ancestry?
For this week’s column, we decided to address a topic that comes up frequently in your questions: How does one legally establish Native American ancestry? Legal recognition as a tribal member varies depending on the Native American nation in which you seek enrollment. Native American communities are sovereign nations and, as such, have their own…
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Why Aren’t There More Black WWE Stars?
The first time I remember consciously turning on the TV to watch wrestling, I saw the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels, squaring off against Mike Tyson. I watched in confusion as the two superstars threatened to hit each other and Michaels ripped open Tyson’s shirt to the thunderous roar of the audience, indicating that they’d formed…
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Shit Might Hit the Fan in St. Louis Tomorrow
Chemists define an explosion as “a sudden, violent change of potential energy to work, which transfers to its surroundings in the form of a rapidly moving rise in pressure called a blast wave or shock wave. The shock wave can cause substantial damage.” I was there when Ferguson, Mo., exploded. When Officer Darren Wilson pumped…
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Mind Your Own Vagina: On Yvonne Orji, Adult Virgins and Personal Sexual Choices
When we say we want women to be free to make their own sexual choices, do we only mean that when the choice is one that we would make for ourselves? When we say that women should have agency over their own bodies, do we mean only if that agency is not influenced by other…
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Alt-White: On How White People Use Language to Deny the Existence of White Supremacy
Somewhere in the good ol’ book, there’s a saying that goes, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Now, I’m about six years removed from my last Sunday school class, but I’m pretty sure this concept also applies to a fairly old concept: Language. Now, I am not here to recount the origins of language…
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How 3 Black Visionaries Are Bringing the Hood Into the Marijuana Industry
What if all the drug money made in black neighborhoods stayed in black neighborhoods? Even better, what if the people selling the weed in communities of color didn’t have to hide the money? What if they didn’t have to worry about being arrested three times more often than whites? What if the tax revenue for…
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It’s Michael Jackson’s Birthday: Are Your Favorite M.J. Songs on Our List?
On this day 59 years ago, the world was blessed with the birth of one Michael Joseph Jackson. From his humble beginnings in Gary, Ind., he would rise to a worldwide level of stardom that most entertainers can only hope to achieve. Eight years after he left us, his music lives on and continues to…
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The 5 Types of ‘Becky’
Becky: (noun); a white woman who uses her privilege as a weapon, a ladder or an excuse. Ex: “A random Becky hit me up on Twitter to explain why not all white women are racist.” What started as a controversial term for fellatio has blossomed into an all-encompassing term for a specific class of white…