culture
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Being Mary Jane Recap: It’s Your Birthday
Only Mary Jane Patterson can turn her birthday into an opportunity to shame Niecy for her spending habits and then confess to her dad that she had an abortion six years ago. Just when the road to being less awful seemed to be her chosen path, M.J. reminds us all that she is committed to…
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Remembering When ’90s Hip-Hop Beefs Turned Fatal
In 1994, Tupac Shakur was famously shot several times while entering New York City’s Quad Recording Studios. While he would survive that shooting and wouldn’t be killed until two years later, the Quad Studios shooting ratcheted up the so-called East Coast vs. West Coast rap wars of the ’90s. By the time Tupac had recovered,…
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Brined, Deep-Fried or Pillowcased, Turkey Is Wack
Turkey is wack. It tastes like mashed printer paper and prime-time CBS programming. Yet every year we find the bird back on our tables on Thanksgiving, in the refrigerator on Black Friday, on a sad-ass turkey sandwich on Cyber Monday and in the trash sometime after that. Before you begin to raise your grease-stained paw…
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The Best Way to Help Your Kids Through Your Divorce
Harriette Cole is the author of the book of meditations 108 Stitches: Words We Live By and a contributing editor at The Root. Follow her on Twitter.
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White Fright and the Politics of Privilege
The Muslims are coming. Or the refugees. Or the terrorists. With Donald Trump’s recent statement about registering Muslims, and the cadre of governors vowing to oppose any Syrian refugees immigrating to their states, we are once again drowning in the hysteria surrounding another brown bogeyman. As soon as we manage to get past the cave-dwelling…
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What to Do at Thanksgiving Dinner When Someone Says Something Offensive
It was Thanksgiving at my parents’ house, maybe 20 years ago. All the usuals were there: my parents and I, my sister and her three kids, my (maternal) grandmother, and my great-aunt Gladys. Dinner was over, and everyone had left the dining room to watch TV in the living room. Well, everyone except Aunt Gladys…
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Chicago’s Black Youth to Mobilize Over Video Release in Police Shooting Death of Laquan McDonald
Organizer Charlene Carruthers has no plans to watch the latest video showing a police shooting death of yet another black person. She won’t watch it. She doesn’t need to watch it. She already knows what this is about. “I don’t need to watch a video to know how the Chicago Police Department treats black people,”…
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6 Thoughtful Gifts for Your Thanksgiving (or Any Holiday) Host
I’m from the South, where it’s considered an abomination to show up to someone else’s home empty-handed—no matter how small the occasion. Southern folks will bring a pie when they stop by your house to borrow a cup of sugar. Given the time, money and effort that people invest in hosting Thanksgiving dinner, it is a…
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Come On, Patti, You Know James Wright (and Kinna Thomas) Helped Sell Those Pies
I have never known black people to go crazy over store-bought pie. Store-bought pie is the sort of thing that I’ve only understood to be permissible on a weekday when you don’t feel like cooking but you really want to get into your feelings and sweets (with Sade playing in the background). Like, more often…
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Sean Kingston Claims Kidnapping by Jeweler in $225,000 Watch Dispute
In a bizarre case that began with a dispute over a $225,000 watch, singer Sean Kingston claims that his jeweler kidnapped him last week from a downtown Los Angeles parking lot, drove him to a secluded area and threw him out of the car, according to TMZ. The incident began recently after Kingston bought a…