culture
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A Magical Presence on the Stage and Screen: Condola Rashad
Condola Rashad is making a name for herself. The young actress, who turns 30 this year, has largely made her mark in theater. For her debut, she nabbed a starring role in Lynn Nottage’s 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Ruined, and earned a Drama Desk nomination. Subsequent roles in the Kenny Leon-directed Stick Fly and The…
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The Real Housewives of Potomac Is a Show That ‘Bravely’ Asks, ‘Who Is Black in America?’
A long time ago, back when everyone I knew personally was black and my world was much smaller, everyone was embarrassingly blunt about their colorism because they were 9 years old and had no filters. I knew the girls who were bullied because they were dark. I knew the girls who were bullied because they…
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How Can I Start a Family-Dinner Tradition When My In-Laws Hate My Cooking?
I cooked a huge Sunday dinner for my husband, my family and my in-laws because my husband wants to start a new tradition. He wants this to be a regular thing. My family was complimentary, but my in-laws were very obviously less than impressed. I’m a bit offended and sad that his family wasn’t happy…
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Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation Sells for Record Price at Sundance
When the lights went up after a Sundance screening of Nate Parker’s film The Birth of a Nation, the bidding war began, leading to the steepest price ever paid for a film at the festival—$17.5 million—by Fox Searchlight. The film’s reception was described as “electrifying.” Its title is no doubt intentionally provocative: Parker’s film shares…
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The Real Housewives of Potomac and the Tragic-Mulatto Syndrome
The first time I heard the term “Jack and Jill” was in high school. A black girl l knew—let’s call her Toni—was living her best life. Her dad had an MBA from Harvard and was on the board of a bank. She got accepted early to Harvard. They owned their place in New York City.…
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Why Macklemore’s ‘White Privilege II’ Still Misses the Mark, Explained
Who is Macklemore? Have you ever been to Whole Foods on a Saturday afternoon, when it’s giving out free samples? And there’s this superfit and ultra-earnest bearded man passing out surprisingly tasty and unfathomably expensive vegan-chorizo hash? Macklemore is that guy, if that guy were also a rapper. But isn’t Macklemore very popular? A quick…
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Make ’Em Cry, Cam: How Newton Will Drink Reporters’ White Tears
Cam Newton is not your father’s quarterback. He is a fun-loving, flamboyant-dressing, dab-dancing, Southern-sounding, in-your-face figure of black awesomeness who is rubbing white journalists all kinds of raw. Recently, Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wetzel let all his whiteness show when he tweeted this: And then, after thoroughly dismantling the Arizona Cardinals, Newton told the press…
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Her Name Was Janese Talton-Jackson and She Was Killed Because She Said No
I did not know Janese Talton-Jackson on a personal level. There’s a chance I might have seen her before. And a lesser chance I might have spoken to her. But if I did either, I don’t remember. But after news of her death began to circulate on Facebook on Friday afternoon, and more and more…
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Cam Newton Proves Doubters Wrong; Carolina Panthers Headed to Super Bowl 50
The game was over. The Carolina Panthers had completely destroyed the Arizona Cardinals, 49-15, and Terry Bradshaw was trying to do a postgame interview with Cam Newton. The crowd at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., was still buzzing and yelling when their 6-foot-5-inch, 260-pound “Super Cam,” as he is sometimes called, walked over to…