culture
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Top 10 Signs You’re Too Old for the BET Hip Hop Awards
Who doesn’t enjoy a good star-studded, celebrity-rich awards show with its music, fashion and accolades for those who excel in a given field? So, of course, you’re tuning in to the BET Hip Hop Awards, airing Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, but maybe it’s time for you to tune out. If this list applies to…
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Meet Maverick Carter, LeBron James’ Real MVP
It’s pretty impossible not to know LeBron James, No. 2 on this year’s The Root 100 list of black Influencers. For over a decade now, the NBA’s other 23 has been working overtime, even ending his 13th basketball season with a first-ever NBA championship for his Cleveland Cavaliers and his third overall. Maverick Carter, who…
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The Roots Picnic Leaves Philly to Rock NY
The Roots Picnic in New York City was like a buttoned-up Afropunk, but with white people. On Oct. 1-2, the legendary Roots crew mesmerized New York City’s Bryant Park with the music festival known as the Roots Picnic. The event, which typically takes place in Philadelphia, is quite the institution to music fans. Despite the…
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Harry Belafonte’s Many Rivers to Cross Festival: A ‘Woodstock’ for Social Justice
Even at age 90, Harry Belafonte hasn’t laid down his sword. Over the weekend, he, along with his daughter Gina Belafonte, hosted the inaugural two-day Many Rivers to Cross: A Festival of Music, Art & Justice, just outside Atlanta, through the organization Sankofa.org, which he founded in 2013. Sankofa.org uses celebrities to elevate the issues…
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A Complete Breakdown of White People's Fears
There is a contingent of alt-right trolls who patrol the internet, radio shows and public conversations to quickly dismiss any real-world discussion about police brutality, state violence or how society devalues the bodies of black people. Their argument is always the same: Black people commit a disproportionate amount of violence; therefore, black people make up…
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The Story of 10 Young People Killed in a Day by Guns Should Make You Rethink American Gun Culture
In America, “Every day, on average, seven children and teens are killed by guns; in 2013 it was 6.75 to be precise,” writes Afro-British journalist Gary Younge in the introduction to his upcoming fifth book, Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives. “Gun violence is the leading cause of…
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2016 Triumph Awards Honor Spike Lee, Benjamin Crump and Sean 'Diddy' Combs
It’s become one of the most anticipated civil rights awards programs of the year. Even the Rev. Al Sharpton smiled for the cameras as he and his girlfriend, Aisha McShaw, made their way along the red carpet. They weren’t alone. A litany of stars gathered Sept. 18 at the Tabernacle Theater in Atlanta for the…
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Mary J. Blige Didn't Ask Clinton About Hateration; Nor Did She Just Break Out Singing. And Other Reasons You Need to Watch Their Interview
The trailer for it may have been awkward, but once you actually watch Mary J. Blige’s interview with Hillary Clinton on her Apple Music talk show, The 411, in full, you’re likely to find out it’s rather innocuous. The memes surrounding the image of Blige and Clinton in what looked to be an emotional moment…
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What Happened to Marilyn Mosby, the Champion for Justice in Baltimore?
Baltimore resident Freddie Gray died in April 2015 as a result of injuries sustained while being improperly restrained in a police van. Protests over his death turned violent, and in the middle of the unrest, Marilyn Mosby, the Baltimore City state’s attorney, stood on the stairs of the War Memorial in downtown Maryland to announce…