culture
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Here’s a List of Books on Slavery That Kanye Should Read
Kanye West doesn’t care about books. If he hadn’t said as much in a 2009 Reuters interview, where he labeled himself a “proud nonreader of books,” we’d still know about his breathless commitment to ignorance just by listening to his latest rants blaming black people for crime, the Democratic Party and—most disgusting of all—slavery: At…
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Exclusive: Lezley McSpadden on Why She’s Considering a Run for Ferguson, Mo., City Council
On April 23, something unexpected happened to me. I woke up that morning to fly to Boston for a screening and panel discussion about my new documentary, Stranger Fruit, at Harvard’s prestigious Institute of Politics. The panel—with the film’s director, Jason Pollock, and my attorney, Benjamin Crump—was very moving. At one point during the panel,…
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Dear White People Vol. 2 Digs Deeper Into Modern-Day Segregation, Microaggressions, Twitter Trolls and More
There’s something so refreshing about entertainment that tackles larger issues within the black community. Getting to see black people live out their full lives, all while staring down racism, microaggressions, police brutality, modern-day segregation, biracial identity, sexual identity, abortion and more, is something that’s becoming far less foreign. Netflix’s Dear White People has returned with…
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Lester Holt Says Meek Mill Is a ‘Mature, Thoughtful Young Man’
Veteran newsman and NBC’s Nightly News anchor Lester Holt has seen a lot in over 30 years of journalism. He moderated the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and then-candidate Donald Trump, and his MSNBC colleague Lawrence O’Donnell called Holt’s May 2017 interview of Trump as president “possibly the most important televised presidential interview ever…
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Lynching Memorial: Ghanaian Artist Hopes Sculpture Captures Shared Pain Between African Americans and the Motherland
Kwame Akoto-Bamfo’s visa application for entry into the United States was denied last year. He’s from Ghana and was invited by the Equal Justice Initiative to build sculptures of African slaves at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which is dedicated to the victims of lynching in America. The memorial, along with the Legacy…
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Hate the Player, Not the Game: On Loving the Art of R. Kelly, Kanye and Cosby
This weekend, while driving with my windows down in 86-degree, sunny springtime weather, my car’s playlist (mostly comedy, hip-hop and old-school R&B) shuffled randomly to a 26-minute story from a 1968 comedy album. As a lover of storytelling, I couldn’t bring myself to hit the skip button as the winding, 26-minute story from the album,…
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‘Not All White People’: A Definitive Disclaimer
I wrote about white people gentrifying fried-bologna sandwiches last week. I knew as soon as I hit publish on the post what type of response it was going to get, but I published it anyway because the kinds of white people who would turn a fried-bologna sandwich into some type of hipster happy meal, complete…
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Donald Glover’s ‘This Is America’ Explained by 2 People Who Don’t Pretend to Understand It
Since Donald Glover/Childish Gambino released the awe-inspiring video for his song “This Is America,” the internet has been filled with people explaining the symbolism of the imagery, subtext and subtle references contained in the music video. Those people don’t know shit. Instead of overwhelming you with bullshit phrases gleaned from an art-appreciation class, we decided…
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Black Genius: A Privilege Afforded Only to Straight Black Men
This. Is. America. Whether you love it or hate it or are somewhere in between, Donald Glover’s newest music video, juxtaposing black joy and pain, has folks thinking. Somewhere in between “This is a masterpiece” and “This is blasphemy” are screams from some of the largest (social) media platforms throwing out that ever trite and…
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Tarana Burke: Black Community Needs to Have Uncomfortable Conversations About Sexual Violence
I caught up with Tarana Burke at the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault annual awards on Monday in New York City, where she picked up yet another award for her years of activism, most notably #MeToo. Over the past year alone, Hollywood and media luminaries like Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Matt Lauer and…