culture
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Protesters March in Phoenix After Unarmed Man Fatally Shot by Police
As many African Americans struggle to absorb the shocking deaths of Michael Brown, 18, and Eric Garner, 43, and subsequent decisions by separate grand juries not to indict officers involved in those killings, details are emerging in Phoenix that an unarmed black man taking food to his family was gunned down by a white police…
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Ben Carson’s ‘Women’s Lib’ Rant Was a Barely Veiled Shot at Black Women
Known for being the beloved darling of the Grand Old Party, Dr. Ben Carson has a penchant for pathologizing blackness that dovetailed last week with his blatant misogyny, causing the good doc to blame the extrajudicial killing of African-American boys and men on—wait for it—the “women’s lib movement.” “Certainly in a lot of our inner…
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What the Eric Garner Case Says About Staten Island Politics
You can learn a lot about Staten Island if you catch Method Man flowing on a classic Wu Tang album. Another way to capture the New York City borough’s vibe is by watching Eric Garner get choked to death by an overzealous Gotham cop and then watching a grand jury in Richmond County—the jurisdiction that…
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If Your Bestie Wants to Be Close Friends With Your Husband, You Might Have a Problem
My best friend and I grew up with my now-husband of five years. Their relationship, as far as I know, has never been substantial. It’s the hi-and-bye type. The first two years of our marriage, she lived with us. An incident occurred during that first year when he was showering and she went in for…
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The US Injustice System—or How Caribbean Optimism Became Black Rage
The New York City grand jury decision not to charge the cop responsible for Eric Garner’s death has snatched away a lot of the hope that I’ve held on to about race relations here—my birth country—that I now see is still clinging tightly, in many places, to its white supremacist ways. Reading that, you may…
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Daniel Pantaleo’s ‘Apology’ to Eric Garner’s Family Was Just Plain Sorry
We’ve heard much over the past week about how Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson’s description of Michael Brown as a “demon” suggests that Wilson didn’t see Brown—and by extension doesn’t see black people in general—as fully human. And while these are different cases, in the wake of the failure to indict Eric Garner’s killer, I…
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5 Ohio Sheriff’s Deputies Under Investigation for Racist Texts
Five deputies are under investigation for allegedly sending racist text messages while working, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department confirmed, according to Raw Story. Two of the officers involved, Sheriff’s Capt. Thomas J. Flanders and Det. Michael J. Sollenberger, were put on paid leave at the beginning of December. The other three deputies have not been named…
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DC Protesters Storm Streets in Support of Eric Garner and Michael Brown
Hundreds of people in the Washington, D.C., area added their voices to those in New York City who took over Times Square to protest the grand jury’s failure to indict a New York City police officer for the choke hold death of Staten Island dad Eric Garner. In College Park, Md., protesters took to the…
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Chicago Man Reportedly Attacks Woman Who Refused to Give Him Her Phone Number
A Chicago man is facing battery and assault charges after he reportedly attacked a woman who refused to give him her phone number. DNAinfo Chicago reports that an unnamed 21-year-old woman from Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood was riding the city’s L train when Denzel Rosson, 24, approached her and asked for her number. The woman refused…
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#ThisMustStop: A Conversation About Saving Black Lives From Police Brutality
On the heels of the nonindictment of then-Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, on Wednesday night a grand jury in New York City handed down a nonindictment in the choke hold death of Eric Garner at the hands of police Officer Daniel Pantaleo. Demonstrators took to the streets to…