culture
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Dear Oscars: Don’t Do to Moonlight What You Did to These 5 Black Films
Oscar season is upon us. On Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will honor what it deems to be the best films of 2016 during the 89th Academy Awards. After two years of #OscarsSoWhite, this year we have a record six black acting nominees, three films with predominantly black…
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White Folks Can’t Just Come to the Cookout Because They Perform Blackness
Whenever a white person does something remotely decent related to black people or black culture—be it displaying basic decency or performing some act with competence—a chorus of Negroes will declare, “They can come to the cookout!” For our new white readers, “the cookout” is essentially what most of us across these United States refer to…
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Whatever Happened to Black Lives Matter?
Have you seen it? According to the laws of physics and the principles of nature, nothing disappears into thin air, so it must be around here somewhere. It was too big and loud to fall between the couch cushions or hide in the closet, so someone must have stolen it. Someone must have found a…
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Unsung: How After 7 Made Grown Folks’ Music in the New Jack Swing Era
It was the summer of 1989 when the R&B trio After 7 dropped their infectious eponymous debut album with the lead single, “In the Heat of the Moment,” a mischievous dance tune about the wonders of lust. Even though that album went platinum and the following two went gold, After 7 disappeared from the scene.…
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Being Mary Jane Recap: Niecy, It’s Time to Grow Up
Mary Jane still isn’t settled into New York City, and we’re still not settled with the splitting between Mary Jane’s and her Atlanta family’s storylines, which added some of the best moments in the past season. It is great to see the family back in this episode of Being Mary Jane, even if Niecy hasn’t…
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Yale University and the Curious Craze of ‘White-Peopleing’
When I was a little kid, my mother forbade me and my sisters to hit each other. Sometimes, however, when we were really mad, we would push each other into a corner, start swinging our arms wildly and scream, “I was doing this first.” We’d inform the person in the corner that they were free…
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My Black History: The Case for Black Art in an Anti-Presidential Era
Editor’s note: During Black History Month, the focus is usually on historical figures who loomed larger than life, paving the way for the progress we experience today. But black history isn’t just about telling stories of our past. History is being made every day and has been made throughout our lives; it’s not just in…
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Outside the House: How 1 Documentary Sheds Light on Mental Health in the Black Community
There’s a saying in the black community that what goes on inside the house shouldn’t be taken outside the house, and mental health has always been the secret many black people didn’t take outside. In Darnell Lamont Walker’s documentary Outside the House, he’s breaking down the barriers and stigmas when it comes to black people…
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Carlos Santana Says Beyoncé Is Not a Singer; That’s Why She Lost Album of the Year
I love Carlos Santana, especially his shoe line, but he may need a second or third listen to Beyoncé’s music before saying that she’s not a singer. On the heels of Beyoncé losing Album of the Year at the Grammys, Santana weighed in on why Adele won and Beyoncé didn’t. And it had to do…