culture
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Marvel Comics Cancels Black Panther Spinoff About Black Women 48 Hours After New Trailer Drops
If you’re like me, you’re still recovering from the life-altering, summer-changing amazingness that was the Black Panther movie trailer that debuted during Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday. The music, the action and the cast of actors look amazing. The costuming alone is about to change the game. Black women are going to…
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Remembering the Pulse Nightclub Tragedy: 1 Year Later
One year ago June 12, I awoke to a flurry of text messages and missed calls from friends demanding that I turn on my television. It was a Sunday morning, and like many black gay men who reside in the nation’s capital, I was in hibernation, sleeping off one too many Jack and Cokes. When…
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Running While Black: Melanin and Movement Does Not a ‘Thug’ Make
Rule 1: If your skin comes within two dozen shades of looking blue in the moonlight, don’t run at night. Rule 2: If your schedule demands it, be careful. If Marine veteran-cum-lawyer David Lee Phillips wasn’t familiar with those rules before an officer stopped him while he was running at night back in 2010, he…
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Drive Black, Buy Black: The Root Goes on the Blackest Road Trip Ever With Author Lawrence Ross
Meet Lawrence! What’s up, everyone! My name is Lawrence Ross, and if there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I love black people. Yeah, I know people like to say that, but I truly do. I’m fascinated by who we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going. And over the past…
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MC Lyte on Why Dope Female Emcees Are Now MIA
Thirty years ago, “Take It Lyte” and the more popular “I Cram to Understand U” were how most hip-hop lovers were introduced to MC Lyte. By the time her album Lyte as a Rock dropped the next year, in 1988, there was no debating whether MC Lyte was a bona fide emcee. She was actually…
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Police Training Should Start With a History Lesson on Slavery Laws
A recent study on police interactions shows what black Americans already know: Police interact in a less respectful manner toward them than they do white Americans. Based on police-camera audio from the Oakland, Calif., Police Department, this evidence is being used to support a change in police training regarding how to teach police to show…
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Melanin Madness! Black Panther Trailer Drops and Folks Lose Their Minds
Everybody in the world was already watching Game 4 of the NBA Finals, and when the trailer for Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther dropped during a commercial break, folks lost their damn minds. And then took to Twitter to talk about it. Besides the fact that the sneak peak made clear that this would be a…
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Unique Views, Episode 46: Queen Sugar or Queen Cougar?
I’m not one to brag, but in my heyday, I was the Michael Jordan of charm. As I’ve gotten older, I’m not as sharp, and in truth, I’ve lost a step. My charm has never worked on my co-host, Danielle Young, aka Ms. Patti Patti LaDanielle, and as such, we hate each other. That’s not…
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The Official White-Tears Quiz: How a Black-Student Protest Terrified and Outraged White People
Instead of reading this as a news story, please use this article as an official measuring stick for your white-tears awareness. The answer key is at the bottom. A Washington state college was deluged with a torrential downpour of low-sodium, gluten-free white tears after butt-hurt white people freaked out when minority students asked for a…