culture
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Lamar Odom ‘Talking and Texting’ After Emerging From Coma
Lamar Odom’s condition continued to improve Saturday, days after he was discovered unconscious in a legal Nevada brothel with cocaine and other substances reportedly in his system. The former NBA athlete was making steady improvement, a person close to Odom, but not authorized to speak publicly about his condition, told the Los Angeles Times. Odom,…
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Watch: Tracy Morgan Returns to SNL: ‘I’m Back and Better Than Ever’
Nearly a year after a vehicle crash left him with a critical brain injury, Tracy Morgan returned to host Saturday Night Live to cheers and a reunion with his 30 Rock cast members. “I’m back and better than ever,” the former SNL cast member proclaimed during his monologue, which featured appearances from 30 Rock co-stars…
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Alex La Guma: The Greatest Novelist Whose Name You’ve Never Heard Before
Editor’s note: The spelling of the ethnic term “Coloured,” used within the context of South African history and culture, reflects the writer’s preference. October 2015 marks the 30th anniversary of the death of one of the world’s great novelists, arguably the greatest Africa—let alone South Africa—has ever produced, a man who was not only a prodigiously…
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Meet Cush Jumbo, the Brit Star Who Plays The Good Wife’s New BFF
The black-British acting invasion hasn’t slowed, and Cush Jumbo, who popped up in the season premiere of The Good Wife on CBS, is the latest import. In her native England, Jumbo distinguished herself on the theatrical stage, winning awards and nominations for performances in Shakespeare’s As You Like It and the all-female version of Julius…
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No More Fear: It’s Time to Reform Policing in Baltimore
On the evening of April 31, 2012, someone broke into Ashley Overbey’s home in Northeast Baltimore. When Overbey returned from work and noticed her home was awry, she called the police. The responding officers were rude, according to Overbey. They told her, “You live in Baltimore; what do you expect?” She called to file a…
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A List of People Not Responsible for Damaging the Legacy of Bill Cosby and The Cosby Show
Yesterday Ebony magazine debuted the cover of its November issue. It features a picture of the Huxtables from The Cosby Show behind shattered glass, with the glass’s most prominent crack directly over Bill Cosby’s face. Naturally, this explosive cover sparked another round of conversation about “the Cosby legacy”—something The Root’s Senior Writer Kirsten West Savali examined in a…
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Scandal Recap: Dog-Whistle Politics
Last week, after telling the world that she is President Fitzgerald Grant III’s mistress, Olivia Pope gave White House Press Secretary Abby Whelan permission to throw her under the bus in front of the press in order to take the heat off Fitz. This week the media had a field day with this story as…
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How to Get Away With Murder Recap: Trying to Fix Bad Karma
It’s been about a month since anyone in Annalise Keating’s close circle killed anyone (that we know of), and now they seem to be focused on becoming better people—or maybe just not adding any more bad luck to their already damaged karma. Connor Betrays Annalise Connor, who chopped up Sam’s body and once figuratively pushed…
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About That Ebony Cosby Cover Everyone’s Talking About
You could almost hear the glass shatter when Ebony magazine’s November “Family Issue(s)” cover exploded across social media Thursday, shards of conflicting emotions piercing the soul of black America. Front and center is the Huxtable family, minus Sandra, frozen as many of us remember them: happy, beautiful and black. The smiling face of patriarch Cliff Huxtable is distorted…
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Where’s the Media Sympathy for Lamar Odom?
Of course you’ve heard that two-time NBA champion Lamar Odom was found unresponsive in Las Vegas on Tuesday. He was taken to a local hospital, where he remains in critical condition. This has caused a major media frenzy, a circus. I guess it’s to be expected because Odom is a celebrity. He became a familiar…