culture
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This Week’s Game of Thrones Was a Replay of Every Black Fight Ever
Wait … was I the only person in the Seven Kingdoms who thought this whole let’s-capture-a-White Walker-and-bring-him-back plan was the stupidest idea since the male romper? (No, that is not a homophobic or gender-normative statement. The male romper is a shitty idea, and by “shitty,” I mean that the good Lord has only blessed me…
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So, 2 White Women in ‘Make America Great Again’ Hats Walk Onto an HBCU Campus …
There are certain weeks in history when you just don’t want to test black folks’ patience. These weeks include but are not limited to: Jan. 23-30, 1977: The week that Roots originally aired. April 29-May 4, 1992: The week four officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King. Aug. 12-19, 2017: The week white nationalists attacked…
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Girls Trip Hits $100,000,000 at Box Office, Proving Yet Again That Hollywood Should Always Bet on Black
Girls Trip, the breakout hit of the summer, has crossed the $100 million mark at the box office, proving, yet again, that movies for and by black people can put asses in theater seats. The comedy—starring Jada Pinkett Smith (black), Queen Latifah (black), Tiffany Haddish (black) and Regina Hall (black); directed by Malcolm D. Lee…
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Step: Black Girls Stomping All Over Adversity to Create a Rhythmic Safe Space
On the totem pole of society, black girls are distributed at the bottom. The magic within us is an unmatched recipe consisting of our resilience, perseverance and love. No matter the adversity and hate hurled at us, we rise from the ashes like an intoxicating phoenix. And this is the feeling you’ll get while watching…
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To Be Clear, White Supremacy Is the Foundation of Our Country. We Won’t Destroy It by Toppling Statues
From the white supremacist “rally” and terror attack in Charlottesville, Va., to the current president’s public defense of Nazis to the recent uproar over HBO’s controversial decision to green-light a new series portraying a Confederate victory, it is clear that our nation is in the midst of a very public—and painful—reckoning with the memory (and…
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Crown Heights Exposes a Very Common American Problem: Wrongful Conviction
The time is 1980. The place is the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn in New York City. The man is 18-year-old Colin Warner. It’s a familiar scenario. An unarmed black man is walking through his own neighborhood, minding his business, when, within the blink of an eye, his whole life changes. Police officers pull up,…
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Judge of Characters: The ‘Alt-Left,’ White Genocide and Other White Nonsense That Doesn’t Exist
This week, we’ve been faced with more Donald Trump make-believe. In a delayed press conference after the tragic white supremacist riot in Charlottesville, Va., we all watched in horror as Trump mentioned that he was supposed to be addressing veterans benefits but Charlottesville happened. And then he basically ignored the loss of a life and…
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3 Facts That Prove the Reality of White Supremacy
When I was 16 years old, my entire family thought my little sister was going crazy (and by “sister” I mean my cousin who lived with us because black people do that, which could be the subject of an entirely different article). Every morning, she would tell us that there was a monster under her…
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Tracing Your Roots: Why Did My DNA-Test Results Change?
A few reasons that the percentages in your ethnic-ancestry breakdown may change over time. Dear Professor Gates: I did DNA testing through the site African DNA. Initially it showed I had 82 percent West African ancestry, 10 percent European and the rest “Middle Eastern.” However, I recently received updated results from Family Tree DNA (which…
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Why All Confederate Statues Must Fall
Following the horrific events in Charlottesville, Va., where one woman was killed during a white supremacist rally to save a statue of Robert E. Lee, cities across the country are moving swiftly to remove Confederate monuments from public spaces. Even citizen protesters in Durham, N.C., took matters into their own hands to remove a Confederate…