culture
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Esperanza Spalding on the Peace Ball, Trump and Life After Emily
“If a mountain has to erupt, it’s going to erupt,” so says musician Esperanza Spalding. These are not lyrics from her progressive 2016 single “Good Lava”; she is, however, speaking of unleashing the molten abandon of her inner self to give birth to her critically acclaimed 2016 album, Emily’s D+Evolution, as well as of America’s…
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Being Mary Jane Recap: The Big Bad Wolf
Last week’s season premiere of Being Mary Jane was titled “Getting Nekkid,” This week’s episode is “Getting Naked,” and as Mary Jane (Gabrielle Union) explained to Lee (Chiké Okonkwo), the difference is in your intentions and the ever-running theme of vulnerability. “Nekkid” implies that you are naked but “up to no good.” “Naked” is to…
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Watch: Remembering Muhammad Ali on His 75th Birthday
Today, on what would have been Muhammad Ali’s 75th birthday, and coming on the heels of what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.’s 88th, we are reminded of how we should follow their example of service to our communities. Ali once said, “The service you do for others is the rent you pay for…
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Martin Luther King III Recaps His ‘Constructive’ Meeting With Trump
Martin Luther King III made the interesting decision to meet with Donald Trump on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the national holiday celebrating the birth of his father. King said that Trump intends to ensure that all Americans are guaranteed the right to vote and that he plans to work with Trump to that end.…
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Martin Luther King Jr.: ‘My Dream Has Turned Into a Nightmare’
On May 8, 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. granted an interview to veteran NBC News correspondent Sander Vanocur and made it clear that his famous dream had turned into a nightmare. The interview happened just three-and-a-half years after King’s powerful “Normalcy, Never Again” sermon—more commonly known as the “I Have a Dream” speech, thanks to…
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What to Say When ‘Wypipo’ Bring Up MLK
Whenever a black person diverges from the path of respectability and voices an opinion contrary to the mainstream narrative, the keepers of the status quo will quickly shout them down with the same, recognizable refrain. Sometimes it sounds so familiar, one might think the people who sit atop America’s totem pole must have trained one…
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Black Lives Matter Chicago and Martin Luther King Jr.
“This is a terrible thing. I’ve been in many demonstrations all across the South, but I can say that I have never seen—even in Mississippi and Alabama—mobs as hostile and as hate-filled as I’ve seen here in Chicago.” —Martin Luther King Jr. text On Nov. 5, 2016, Joshua Beal was in Chicago for his cousin’s…
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White Fragility Leads to White Violence: Why Conversations About Race With White People Fall Apart
Why do conversations about race fall apart when we have them with white people? I have been thinking about this for the last few weeks, ever since I attempted to speak with Grey’s Anatomy actress Ellen Pompeo about it on Twitter. As with many conversations I’ve had on race with white people, that one quickly…
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Eddie Long’s Death and Homophobic Theological Legacy
Eddie L. Long, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, has gone to be with the ancestors. He was 63. His church released the following statement Sunday morning: New Birth Missionary Baptist Church celebrates the life and legacy of Bishop Eddie L. Long who is now spiritually healed and home with the Lord. Bishop…
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Meet Gloria Allen, Trans Icon Who Led Charm School for Transgender Youths of Color
Gloria Allen, 71, is a transgender African-American woman who is seen as an icon by many in her community. She volunteered for years teaching a charm-school class at Chicago’s Center on Halsted, trying to teach transgender and gender nonconforming youths how to survive and to believe in themselves. “If we were all the same way…