culture
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Jagged Edge May Be Unsung, but They Haven’t Stopped Singing Yet
Twins Brian and Brandon Casey, along with their friends Richard Wingo and Kyle Norman, made up the 1990s R&B group Jagged Edge. Unlike boy groups like New Edition or Jodeci, the individual members didn’t become household names or branch out into solo careers, but their sound was so unusual that even traditional R&B balladeers like…
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Dear NBC: A Slave Cannot Be a ‘Mistress’
There are times when black America’s feathers are ruffled, and our reaction does not come from anger or aggravation but from wonder. Even though many of our bruises have calloused over, every now and then someone will stick us in the exact right spot, and when we feel the pinprick, instead of getting mad, we…
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Tracing Your Roots: Was My Ancestor Deported to Ghana?
A series of run-ins with law enforcement in the United Kingdom splits a family apart. Now the family is seeking answers. Dear Professor Gates: I’m trying to trace my great-grandfather, whose name was either David Sebe Agyemah Darku or David Sebe Agyeman Darku. He was sent to jail in England for a high-profile crime involving…
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Philando Castile, the War on Drugs and the Lynching of Black Humanity [Retracted]
RETRACTED (6/12/18): This story has been removed because we have discovered it was in breach of our editorial standards. If you’d like to know more, you can read an editor’s note here. A cached version of the story is available here for transparency.
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Doc Rivers and the Los Angeles Clippers: Are a Man’s Pride and a Father’s Love Ruining a Basketball Franchise?
Let me preface all of this by saying that I am a diehard Los Angeles Lakers fan. The Clippers will always be the JV squad in this city, and everyone knows it. It doesn’t matter how close they get to winning a championship or how bad a season the Lakers are having—this city rides for…
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A Comprehensive Guide to Sending and Receiving Nudes
“Love is blind, but just in case, send nudes.” —ancient African proverb I may have added that last part, but we now live in a world where pictures are worth a thousand texts, and apparently people can send and receive nude photographs on their phones. (I know using the word “photographs” makes me sound ancient,…
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Everything You Wanted to Know About the Umar Johnson Memes but Were Afraid to Ask
Umar Johnson is back in the news again, blowing up black Twitter after his recent appearance on Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club with DJ Envy, Angela Yee and Charlamagne tha God. During a wide-ranging interview, the king of the “ankh-right” (because the word “Hotep” deserves better) railed against interracial marriage while dropping some jewels (pronounced…
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Boomerang at 25 Isn’t Just a ’90s Eddie Murphy Flick; It’s a World We Want to Live In
It is a Friday night on the set of 1992’s romantic comedy Boomerang. In between shooting takes for the now classic Thanksgiving-dinner scene, Eddie Murphy and cast trade jokes about what would happen if Mr. and Mrs. Jackson (John Witherspoon and BeBe Drake) had sex in the bathroom of his character Marcus’s luxurious New York…
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John Singleton on How Crack Overtook L.A. in the New FX Series, Snowfall
Snowfall is proof that, more than 25 years after breaking through with his Oscar-nominated debut film, Boyz n the Hood, John Singleton hasn’t forgotten his roots or, most importantly, his responsibility. Different from Rebel, Singleton’s first scripted television show as an executive producer for BET earlier this year, Snowfall digs deep, very deep. Whereas Rebel,…
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I’m Just Here for the Ribs
I love any excuse for a cookout. My father is from Texas, lives in St. Louis (two places famous for ribs), and was raised on barbecue. He probably has St. Louis’ own Maull’s BBQ sauce in his veins instead of blood. During the spring and summer, he typically hauls out the grill for a series…