culture
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America’s ‘Black Borat’ Attempts to Explain Russia’s Love-Hate Relationship With Obama
A few insults, an illegal invasion—throw in a visual jab involving bananas and a spanking—and the relationship between Russia and the United States has seen better days. At first glance, many Russians seem to delight in attacking President Barack Obama personally and racially in a way that is shocking even for a people known for…
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Beyond the Lights Review: A Love Story With a Deeper Message
Beyond the Lights, opening in theaters Friday, is the third feature film from writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood, whose other works include The Secret Life of Bees (2008), the TV movie Disappearing Acts (2000) and the classic love story Love and Basketball (2000). If the success of Love and Basketball helped propel Prince-Bythewood into the Hollywood stratosphere, along…
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The Other Thing the Lincoln University President Got Wrong About Women Who Have Sex
Lincoln University President Robert R. Jennings stirred up a lot of trouble for himself when remarks he made in September to female students insinuating that women lied about rape went viral this week. After much public outrage, he apologized on Tuesday. “My message was intended to emphasize personal responsibility and mutual respect,” Jennings wrote. “I…
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Thomas Eric Duncan’s Family Settles With Dallas Hospital
The family of U.S. Ebola patient zero Thomas Eric Duncan, who was the first—and so far the only—person to die in America from the disease, has settled with the Dallas hospital that cared for Duncan, Reuters reports. The family will not have to pay for the care that Duncan received while he was being treated…
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Father of Los Angeles Lakers Player Killed in Philadelphia
Los Angeles Lakers guard Wayne Ellington Jr. is on an indefinite leave of absence after the team confirmed that a man shot and killed in Philadelphia on Sunday was his father, the Associated Press reports. According to the report, police said that they found Wayne Ellington Sr., 57, in the driver’s seat of a car…
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Study: Brazilian Police Kill 6 People a Day
Excessive use of force by police in Brazil has left more 11,000 people dead over approximately five years, averaging six deaths a day, a public-safety nongovernmental organization reported on Tuesday, according to CBS and the Associated Press. A study by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety pointed out that the total number of deaths in…
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Lincoln University President Apologizes for Comment About Rape
Lincoln University President Robert R. Jennings sent out an apology on Tuesday for remarks he made insinuating that women lied about rape, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. “My message was intended to emphasize personal responsibility and mutual respect,” Jennings wrote in his apology, according to the Inquirer. “I apologize for my choice of words. I certainly did…
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Members of White Conn. Frat Go Unpunished After Harassing Black Sorority
Members of the University of Connecticut chapter of the black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha are speaking out against how they’re being treated by the historically white Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity, especially after individual members of the frat went unpunished after making racist and sexist attacks, the school’s Daily Campus newspaper reports. “We were called whores,…
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Michael Brown’s Parents Pour Their Hearts Out to the UN
Michael Brown’s parents, Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr., spoke before a United Nations committee in Geneva on Tuesday to urge the panel to “recommend the immediate arrest” of the police officer who shot their unarmed son, a CNN report explains. They also told the committee to recommend that Ferguson, Mo., police officers put an…
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Mo. National Guard on Standby as Darren Wilson Grand Jury Verdict Nears
Soon the nation will learn if a grand jury in Missouri has decided to bring charges against police Officer Darren Wilson, the cop who fatally shot the unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown. The state’s governor, Jay Nixon, thought it would be smart to place the state’s National Guard on standby just in case a verdict is…