culture
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Kalief Browder Took His Own Life, but the System Murdered Him [Corrected]
Correction, July 26, 2018 11:25 a.m.: Kalief Browder’s bail was $3,000, not $10,000. Earlier: Kalief Browder was murdered, in the first degree. The papers will say that on Saturday, Browder, 22, walked into a room in his home, took the air conditioner out of a wall and hanged himself. But this was a premeditated murder…
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Why We Are Crazy About Uzo Aduba
When Orange Is the New Black—the unlikely hit series set in a women’s prison—kicked off in 2013, the Boston-born Uzo Aduba, whose parents are Nigerian, was an unknown. Theater, not television, had been her primary medium. But thanks to that training, Aduba has taken her popular character, Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren, who could easily have…
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15 Under-the-Radar Music Artists You Need to Hear Right Now
Aaron Randle is a Howard-bred writer living in Kansas City, Mo.
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3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets: The Death of Jordan Davis
When Michael Dunn murdered 17-year-old Jordan Davis in the parking lot of Gate gas station in Jacksonville, Fla., on Nov. 23, 2012, the bullets not only ripped through Jordan’s body but also tore open the hearts of his parents, Ron Davis and Lucia McBath, before finally slicing through the post-racial lie America pretends to believe…
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US High School Graduation Rates Are Soaring, but Too Many Students of Color Are Still Being Left Behind
Across the country, families everywhere are coming together to celebrate a treasured American tradition: high school graduation. And today we have more cause to celebrate than ever before. We have reached an 81.4 percent national on-time high school graduation rate, the highest in the nation’s history. And we are on track to raise that number…
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Report: Anthony Riley, Ex-Contestant on The Voice, Dies of Apparent Suicide
Anthony Riley, the Philadelphia-based street singer who rose to fame as a contestant on the most recent season of NBC’s The Voice, has died of an apparent suicide, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Riley, 28, a fan favorite who was being coached by Pharrell Williams, left the singing-competition show in January to deal with substance-abuse issues,…
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Barbershops Get Stocked With Books for Boys, Thanks to Ala. Attorney
An article published in The Root last year about a Florida barbershop that promotes literacy sparked a movement miles away in the cities of Prichard and Mobile, Ala. Freddie Stokes launched Books for Boys about three weeks ago. He initially intended to establish small libraries, of about 75 books each, in two or three barbershops,…
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The Woman Behind Black Music Month
Old Negro spirituals. Gospel. Jazz. The blues. R&B. Rock ’n’ roll. Funk. Hip-hop. Black music is almost as old as America itself, yet the monthlong celebration that commemorates it—Black Music Month, celebrated in June—was only created in 1979. How did it come about? Who is behind it? And why do we need it when black…
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Only the Strong: A Superbly Told Tale of Redemption and Survival
What was it like for blacks in America during those painful years immediately following the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968? This is the subject of Jabari Asim’s debut novel, Only the Strong. In it, Asim, editor of the NAACP’s The Crisis magazine, chronicles the lives of the inhabitants of the fictional Gateway…
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Not for Kids: Is Football Too Dangerous for Our Boys?
It’s the mentality in football: Playing hurt. Playing in pain. Playing with a concussion. NFL star Emmitt Smith recently said that he did it. His peers did it. And others will continue to do it. It’s part of the sport. But it’s that part that’s also taking parents who had been sitting on the fence…