culture
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Is Black Music the Well Many Other Artists Drink From and Profit From More Than Black Artists?
What is black music? For many, it’s soul, funk, R&B, hip-hop and essentially all genres of music that reflect roots in blackness. But the industry doesn’t hear us. Music is very much a culture of “We make it, they take it.” We’ve seen it throughout history in the theft of everything we exclusively create within…
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#Nigga, What? Afro-Brazilians Express Black Pride by Embracing a Problematic Word
Like most people who use Instagram, I peruse the platform to seek out black beauty—men and woman. I live in Brazil, a country that is more than 50 percent black. But you wouldn’t know that by the faces you see on television, in magazines and even on mainstream websites. So Instagram is where it’s at.…
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‘Evilest White Woman on Earth’: The Criminal Injustice of Terra Morehead
Warning: This story is not about America’s criminal-justice system. In this story, America’s criminal-justice system is a parable. In this story, “criminal” is synonymous with “not white.” In this story, “justice” is a mythical concept. In this story, Terra Morehead is synonymous with “injustice.” In this story, “injustice” is the only thing that is real.…
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10 Euphemisms for ‘Racist’ That Won’t Hurt White People’s Feelings
Have you ever referred to someone or something as racist? I have. While many people shy away from using the word because of its incendiary nature, I use it a lot. A whole lot. My predilection for using the term is not because I think everything and everyone is racist. It’s that I want to…
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Energetic and Nostalgic Performances by Bell Biv DeVoe, Tony! Toni! Toné and More Helped the Apollo Spring Gala Raise Over $2 Million
This week the legendary Apollo Theater celebrated the 13 years of its star-studded annual Spring Gala. Every year the iconic Harlem landmark gathers every ounce of black excellence it can find to raise funds for its year-round artistic- and community-programming initiatives. Guess how much they raised this year? No … guess. Over $2 million! Yeah,…
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A Hero’s Journey: Father Comes Home From the Wars Is a Reckoning with American History
A war. A hero. A conflict. A journey. These are the components of any timeless tale, dating as far back as the ancient Greeks. In fact, they are the prototypical “hero’s journey,” as epitomized by the second-oldest known Western text in history, well-known to many high school and college literature students as Homer’s The Odyssey.…
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Slaves, Dinosaurs and White Jesus, Oh My! How Taxpayers Fund Crazy Christian Conservative Education
Slaves who accepted Jesus into their hearts were better off than the ones who held on to African religions. Black people were pretty happy under Jim Crow until Northerners messed everything up. Noah brought dinosaurs onto his ark and Africans had dinosaur puppies, but the Nazis don’t want you to know that. These are not…