culture
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About That Michelle Obama Essence Photo …
I said I wasn’t going to write about it. But I have to. I. Have. To. On Wednesday evening, I was practicing my ritual of procrastinating by browsing through Instagram. A friend, an Essence editor, posted a new image of the first couple that will run in the upcoming October issue. The Obamas are on…
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Atlanta and the Black Millennial Experience—in GIFs
So by now you’ve heard of Donald Glover’s Atlanta and its Southern blackness. The series premiered on FX Tuesday and was Glover’s TV directorial debut. We’re here for it. The 32-year-old cleverly explores issues like parenthood, relationships, police brutality and sexuality in a comedic light. The situations faced by the Atlanta cast are super relatable to…
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Tracing Your Roots: I Want to Find a Slave’s Descendants and Apologize
I’m Australian, and hoping to trace living relatives of a slave owned by a relative of my uncle in Trinidad. I want to apologize for my ancestor’s actions. What I know is as follows: William Preston Galloway (born May 30, 1798, in Edinburgh, Scotland) landed in Trinidad in 1821 and by 1825 was the owner…
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#GenForward: Majority of White Millennials Believe Black Lives Matter Encourages Violence Against Police
The majority of black millennials in the United States wanted Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to be their next president, but since he’s out of the race, 60 percent of black millennials said they would vote for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton if the general election were held today. Why? Because 78 percent of black millennials believe Clinton to be qualified to hold…
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How Black Lives Matter Saved Colin Kaepernick’s Career
America has a history of taking black athletes who stand up for black rights and blackballing them. See 1968 Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos, whose black-gloved fists set off a butterfly effect of good ole down-home racism and death threats against both of their families. See former NBA players Craig Hodges and Mahmoud Abdul…
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Airbnb Tackles Its Discrimination Allegations Head-On, Establishes New Policies
Earlier this year, home-rental site Airbnb came under heavy scrutiny after black users of the platform took to social media to describe the discrimination they faced. Most noted that after renters saw their photos, which were included in the booking request, they were denied accommodations. The hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack popped up on Twitter and went viral.…
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Are We Misappropriating the Term ‘Hotep’?
“Hotep” has taken on new meaning as social media escalates the evolution of words. Language is fluid, and with cultural shifts, words can fall in and out of use or morph into new definitions. What was the term “social media” 20 years ago? “Hotep” is not as new a word, but it has come into…
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With Atlanta and Queen Sugar, TV Gets a Dose of Real Southern Blackness
“I’m criminally Northern,” from black Twitter stalwart and cultural critic Jamilah Lemieux about the epic Tuesday night of black Southern intensity fueled by new TV shows Atlanta and Queen Sugar. Clearly, the Chicago native, who now calls New York City home, was not alone, as similar sentiments also showed up on Twitter. Those from the…
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Protest This: The NFL Is a Shelter for Violence
After we applaud Colin Kaepernick’s protesting of police brutality, don’t let the spectacle of demonstration distract us from the crooked stage of the American football field, where social ills are churned into entertainment. When the commencing whistle is blown, cheers for the game and its heroes drown out screaming acts of domestic violence, racism, sexism,…