culture
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When White Girls Get Black Dolls for Christmas, Watch a Cycle of Bias Begin
Tamir Rice’s tragic death has exposed painful assumptions that seem hard-wired into the (white) American psyche about black children. The video sequence of Tamir’s killing has been read in a variety of ways. About what could be seen in the video, a Cleveland prosecutor said, “Tamir was big for his age—5 foot 7 and 175 pounds,…
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Natalie Cole Dead at Age 65
Natalie Cole, the singer who followed in the foosteps of her famous father, Nat King Cole, passed away Thursday in Los Angeles at the age of 65. The official cause of death, according to TMZ, was congestive heart failure, but the website reports that she had underlying issues of complications from a kidney transplant. Cole…
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As Someone Raised on Bill Cosby, I Feel No Joy in Writing About His Alleged Crimes
My parents forced me to have a crush on Rudy Huxtable. Now, I realize how that might read. I can imagine people picturing a dictatorial and deranged mother and father tying an 8-year-old me to a chair when The Cosby Show came on and forcing me to chant, “I will crush on Rudy Huxtable” while…
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Motherhood Resolutions for 2016
I have five resolutions for how to be a better parent to Emmy in the new year. Let’s go. 5. Be careful of the snap-back. I don’t necessarily lose my temper with Emmy. Wait. That’s a lie. I do often lose my temper with Emmy. Because her sister is 10 years older, Emmy functions as…
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The ‘Affluenza’ Teen vs. the Value of Black Life
As the year crawls to a close, it is fitting that Ethan Couch has been captured. Couch, if you don’t remember, was the teen who, in 2013, killed four people in a drunken-driving crash in Texas and paralyzed another person but got off with 10 years’ probation after his attorneys argued that the wealth he…
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The Moments in 2015 That Made Us Realize Racism Isn’t Going Anywhere
If there’s one thing that 2015 has taught us, it’s that racism isn’t a thing of the past; it’s a thing of the present. The idea of a post-racial America is just that: a novel idea, but one that isn’t going to become reality anytime soon. National incidents and specific people put racism in the…
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Remember When Ralph Tresvant Went Solo?
It was only a matter of time. After Bobby Brown was kicked out of New Edition in 1985 and then put out his first solo record, the road was set for the other members of the group to venture out with individual projects. Expectations were high after Don’t Be Cruel, Brown’s sophomore album, became a…
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My Husband Wants to Stay in for New Year’s Eve. Is It Wrong to Go Out Without Him?
My husband is being difficult. He’s changed his mind at the last minute about going to a party we planned to attend on New Year’s Eve. I want to celebrate and bring in the New Year as a couple, surrounded by friends. Now he wants to stay home. Am I wrong if I want to…
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On Being a New Parent When News Like Tamir Rice Hits
Invariably, among the countless words and rants and tweets and think pieces and blogs and status messages and emails and texts generated whenever another news story breaks about a police-involved killing of a young black person, are the words from parents. Mothers and fathers of black babies, of black boys and girls, of black teenagers…