culture
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Actress Tanee McCall to TMZ's Raquel Harper: 'Domestic Violence Is Not Entertainment'
And you’re such a nice guy, too … from what I see, and when they say as far as like the whole domestic violence situation, it’s hard for me to see … I rock with him. I don’t care what the critics say. —Raquel Harper, TMZ’s “Raq Rants,” Sept. 21, 2016 Raquel: I watched your “Raq Rants”…
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No More Drama: Why Aren’t There More Black Female Comedies on TV?
If you’re flipping television channels this fall looking for something to watch, odds are you will notice far more black women than you’ve seen on TV in a long time. It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago, Kerry Washington became the first black female lead in a network drama in 40 years.…
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Tired of Waiting: An Artist’s Duty in 2016
“We who feel lava in our eyes and hearts find it hard not to shake or scream.” —The Transformations Suite “I can only speak about my own country, because I know this country; I think I know it pretty well. In this country now—and I have to preface everything I’m going to say with this—all…
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The Top 9 'Oh, No, She Didn’t’ Moments from the Season 3 Premiere of HTGAWM
The Keating Five are back with the top mean girl herself, professor Annalise Keating (played by Viola Davis) in the ABC hit How to Get Away With Murder. Now, don’t get mad at me for calling her a mean girl. She’s only mean if you get in her way, mess with her clients or mess…
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The National Museum of African American History and Culture Opens, Housing ‘Sacred’ Objects
It’s no easy task to encompass the history of a race of people with varying cultures, languages and religions who were forced to create a new culture and community in a foreign land under the brutality of slavery. But the National Museum of African American History and Culture has taken on the task and dug…
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White America Must Heal Itself: 2016 Is 1965 and 1984
Last weekend, during a writing retreat, I ended up in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Iowa entered the Union as a free state and was a hub for the Underground Railroad, but I wasn’t surprised to see a handful of Confederate flags flying from homes as I drove through towns called Solon and North Liberty. Ours has…
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The Root’s Young Futurists, Where Are They Now: Keke Palmer
Actress and singer Lauren Keyana Palmer—better known as Keke Palmer—has quite the résumé. And the 23-year-old continues to work on her craft. Palmer was a member of the cast of Grease: Live, which aired on Fox in January. She went on to release her reflective album, Waited to Exhale, in June 2016. And Palmer is due to release…
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Singer and Charlotte, NC, Native Anthony Hamilton: ‘We Are Fed Up’ With Injustice
There is turmoil across the nation. The time is now to use our voices to insist on change. Unfortunately, people with closed minds label us racists because we want our black men, women and children not to be gunned down like savages. Although slavery was technically abolished more than a century ago, let me remind…
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6 Reasons Why Black Women Have Every Right to Be Angry
I don’t have OWN on my cable package anymore, so it’s taken me a bit of time to catch up on my favorite show, Iyanla: Fix My Life. The season has started with a four-part special that finds spiritual healer Iyanla Vanzant addressing “the myth of the angry black woman” and orchestrating a house of…
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Baseball Player Tweets Racist Message, Then Pulls Apology Out of the 'I'm Not a Racist' Handbook: Examined
Updated Friday, Sept. 23, 2016, 2:42 p.m. EDT: The Seattle Mariners have suspended Steve Clevenger for the remainder of the 2016 season without pay. Clevenger spent Thursday tweeting out vile messages about Keith Lamont Scott, who was gunned down by Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., police, and those who have been protesting his death. In theory, the suspension sounds…