culture
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When It Comes to What’s Best for Black Folks, It’s Time for White People to Mind Their Business
I was an inquisitive child. My grandmother called me nosy, but I like to think I had an insatiable thirst for knowledge. I would often ask questions that were answered with, “It’s none of your business.” “Why did he never marry?” “It’s none of your business.” “Why does she have so many friends?” “It’s none…
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The Top 10 Black TV Fathers of All Time
As we celebrate Father’s Day, the men who shaped our lives deserve much praise and applause. As such, we also want to honor the talented men who shaped our cultural ideal of black fatherhood. We gathered an esteemed panel of tastemakers, experts and women who made a 2 o’clock hair salon appointment but are still…
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#BlackDadsMatter: Mass Incarceration Is Robbing Children of Their Fathers. Here’s How to Fix That
While some kids will spend Sunday tossing a ball with their dads and enjoying family cookouts, far too many will be separated from the love and care of their incarcerated fathers. Around 5.1 million children in the United States have had a parent in jail or prison at some point, according to research from the…
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Living With Sickle Cell: ‘I Don’t Know What It Means to Be Without Pain’
Nikki Peterson, like approximately 100,000 other Americans, was born with sickle cell anemia. The 43-year-old lives in Upper Marlboro, Md., and ends up in the hospital about four times during what she calls a good year. Once a month, she undergoes a grueling process called hemapheresis. All of the blood is removed from her body,…
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What My Father and Juneteenth Taught Me About Having ‘Expectations’
I wouldn’t know Juneteenth without my father. He’s the Texan. He grew up celebrating the holiday that started on June 19, 1865, when slaves on Galveston Island, Texas, finally learned they’d been freed under the Emancipation Proclamation two years prior. Even though he now lived in St. Louis, he’d always make the same jokey reference…
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Imma Let You Finish, Hamilton, but Donald Trump Is the Best Politician-Rapper of All Time
The musical Hamilton goes hard. But the Donald Trump Mixtape goes harder. My review: 1. He spits bars. Trump doesn’t give speeches; he freestyles. The Washington Post wrote, “Donald Trump says a lot of things twice.” But he’s not repeating himself. That’s just the hook. He invents whole new parts of speech: the past-tense clueless (“When…
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4 Columbused Hairstyles That Have Made Headlines
In these very uncertain times, there are few things of which we can be absolutely sure. At the top of this short list are taxes, birth, death and cultural appropriation. As long as there are people walking this earth, dominant groups will find a way to “borrow” (read: steal) stuff from minority cultures and Columbus…
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Watch: Estelle Tells Her Truth and Serves Food for Thought
Grammy Award-winning artist Estelle is a truth-speaking force. The British singer-songwriter first came on the scene in the early 2000s, and with her charming accent and vivacious spirit, she has made her mark on the music industry—stateside and abroad. Estelle has made herself vulnerable through her willingness to sing about life’s complications. Expect for the enchantress’s music…
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What Would It Take to Scare America Into Passing Stricter Gun Control?
It’s been exactly one year since Dylann Roof decided to make himself infamous by walking into Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church—less than five minutes from where I’m sitting now—to, according to prosecutors, commit murder, get his racist merit badge and join the ranks of the worst people from South Carolina ever. He accepted the kindness…