culture
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A Ring on Every Finger
With the Los Angeles Lakers 99-86 win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday night, coach Phil Jackson won his tenth NBA title. Ten titles is a staggering number—it means he now has a ring for every finger—but unless you bleed Boston Celtic green, then Jackson already ranked as the best coach in NBA history. Red…
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Video: Black Women and Reproductive Health
Princeton Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell discusses “fictive kinship” and the collective conscience, shame and reproductive health in Black America.
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Everyone is Giving Iran's Election the Side Eye
Something may be rotten in the state of Iran. Today, thousands of protestors have flooded Tehran’s Freedom Square voicing their displeasure at last week’s election results and demanding an investigation take place. Mir Hossein Mousavi, the candidate who ran against the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said today that he would run again in the event of…
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Where’s the Magic?
Basketball enthusiasts are missing some of the best basketball-related TV if they don’t flip to the ESPN News channel after each game in the NBA finals. In particular, Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy’s comments to reporters are the sort of thing Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert wished they had dreamed up. Watching Van Gundy…
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Video: Remember Charles Hamilton? The Rapper Who Got Popped by his Girlfriend?
As you probably know, Charles Hamilton is the rapper who got his clock cleaned by his girl for talking slick regarding their personal life on camera. If you are not familiar with it, check it out here. Below, someone offers up an explanation as to why Chaz—who has something of a history of being a…
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The Harlem That Was
“Harlem, 1970-2009: Photographs by Camilo José Vergara” is on exhibit at the New York Historical Society until July 12. I began my documentation of Harlem in 1970. The neighborhood was like a rundown version of Paris in which life was lived outside, on the streets, amid the fading glory of its grand boulevards. Once imposing…
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Video: The Oakland Dummy Chronicles
It’s times like these when the collective conscience is a reeeeaaal drag.
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Black and Tan: African-American Novel Wins Irish Literature Prize
“Man Gone Down”, the story of one Black man’s difficulty to achieve the American dream, has won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize. Written by Michael Thomas, the novel triumphed over 145 other novels nominated by libraries from 41 different countries. Along with the prize came a $140,000 winner’s purse. Concerning the novel, Thomas had this…
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Key Figure in Burris Scandal Dies in Suspicious Car Crash
John Ruff, a political consultant connected to both Sen. Roland Burris and former governor Rod Blagojevich, died in a single-car automobile accident Monday afternoon. According to the Associated Press, alcohol was not a factor and authorities are not sure why his BMW swerved off the road and struck a tree. Connected to both men through…