culture
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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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#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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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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It Takes Heart to Fight: What Boxing Taught Me About White Supremacy
Editor’s note: In recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Samoan writer Rudy Mageo shares his story. As a first-generation immigrant from Samoa, my experiences growing up in the Dana Strand Projects in Wilmington, Calif., a poor community near the Los Angeles ports, align with other disenfranchised immigrants and other persons of color…
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For White People Who Pretend Not to Understand What Racism Is or How It Works: Here’s a Refresher Course
When Roseanne Barr was called out and subsequently fired for the racist tweet she made about Valerie Jarrett on Tuesday, two things happened at the same time. First, white people feigned ignorance as to why saying a black woman was the love child of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes was racist. They…
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When Barbecuing and Living While Black Becomes a Crime
“Pay it forward” is something you hear a lot in the restaurants and shops of Oakland, Calif. If you see a stranger in distress and you can help, you stop what you are doing and support them. The concept of doing for someone as you would want them to do to you is a fundamental…
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‘I’m From Here’: Washington, DC, Natives Fight Back Against the Whitewashing of Chocolate City
When I arrived in Washington, D.C., more than two decades ago to attend Howard University, one of the first things I noticed was the diversity of black people, all different kinds: rich ones, poor ones, bougie ones and the natives, born and raised in D.C., who introduced me to mambo sauce, go-go music and New…