culture
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Watch: The Rock Dancing to ‘the Quan’ Will Make You Smile
In his latest post-gym Instagram workout, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson showed his excitement over completing a cardio workout. The 43-year-old wrestler-turned-actor posted a video of himself dancing to iHeartMemphis’ hit song “Hit the Quan,” alongside the words, “Post-cardio bliss.” This summer he posted another post-gym video as he danced to T Pain, writing, “#260lbsOfBrownEyedDancinSoul #PostWorkoutBliss…
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To Watch or Not to Watch Football: A Black Woman’s Conundrum
As the National Football League season is upon us, and at the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, I’m compelled to confront a paradox many women face. The enlightened and forgiving among us understand the game as a rite of male passage from high school through adulthood. But we struggle with the symbolism and the violence.…
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After 35 Years, BET’s Bobby Jones Gospel Is Raising the Rafters for 1 Last Season
It had been rumored for a while, but when BET announced that this season of Bobby Jones Gospel—a show that premiered in 1980—would be its swan song, was the host sad? “Oh my goodness, it’s like losing a child,” said Jones by phone last week. Then he chuckled and the chuckle turned into a giggle,…
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The Million Man March: On the Bus
On the floor by my bed is one of the books that made me a journalist: Sylvester Monroe and Peter Goldman’s Brothers. (Goldman, I would learn later, wrote the biography The Death and Life of Malcolm X.) The book told the stories of black men struggling to survive in Chicago and beyond. I moved it…
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Raven-Symoné Doesn’t Like Black-Sounding Names? How Ironic
“That’s ironic” is up there with “No, really. I’m 6 feet tall” and “Men are intimidated by me” on the short list of “Unintentionally inaccurate and misleading things people often say.” Because what’s often labeled irony is really just happenstance or coincidence. If two different exes happen to see you out while you’re on a…
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Flip the Script: Black Cop Kills Unarmed White Kid in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s New Fox Project
Love & Basketball and Beyond the Lights director Gina Prince-Bythewood is set to tackle police brutality in a new Fox miniseries starring Sanaa Lathan, Deadline reports. Prince-Bythewood and her husband, Reggie Rock Bythewood, share writer credits and will also share executive-producer credits with Empire Executive Producer Brian Grazer and Imagine Studio’s Francie Calfo. The project, tentatively…
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HTGAWM Recap: Sex, Lies and Betrayal
It was not one of Annalise Keating’s best weeks, and viewers know that in about two months (TV time), things are going to get worse for the law professor, who is now taking it one day at a time and coping with her lonely nights one drink at a time. Her drunkenness might become a…
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Scandal Recap: The 8 Most Disrespectful Moments
Last week, Olivia Pope shocked the world when she boldly proclaimed that “Yes,” she is President Fitzgerald Grant III’s mistress. Not knowing that Olivia has just come out of the closet, this week, Fitz and Mellie prepare to do a joint interview in which they will denounce the rumored affair and declare their ceaseless love…
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5 Things That Changed After the 1st Million Man March
Black men from across the country will assemble on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall on Oct. 10 to mark the 20th anniversary of the iconic Million Man March. Just as a generation ago, the Nation of Islam is the main organizer of the rally. Dubbed Justice or Else!, the gathering demands equal justice at a time…
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Piers Morgan Tweets ‘I Love My Whiteness’ to Black Lives Matter Activist, Calls #BlackTwitter Racist
In a moment of peak whiteness, professional Twitter troll Piers Morgan responded to Campaign Zero activist DeRay Mckesson’s tweet of his signature “I love my blackness. And yours” by saying that he loved his whiteness. Peak. Whiteness. Black Twitter’s clap-back to the British media personality’s initial tweet and his subsequent disingenuous and inflammatory replies was…