culture
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Thomas Eric Duncan Didn’t Have to Die From Ebola, Nephew Says
While the Ebola narrative continues to unfold, the nephew of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with the disease on U.S. soil, has penned a narrative of his own. “He was a man of color with no health insurance and no means to pay for treatment, so within hours he was released,”…
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UK Experts: Hip-Hop Can Be Used to Treat Mental Illness
Once on the fringe, hip-hop culture is now popular culture and is being taught and studied at some of the most selective universities around the world. Researchers at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom believe that the genre can be used to help treat some mental illnesses. Becky Inkster, a neuroscientist in Cambridge University’s department…
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A Different World: Why My Predominantly White College Wasn’t Right for Me
Editor’s note: In honor of the movie Dear White People, a satirical drama about race and culture at a fictional Ivy League college, we decided to ask two black students to explain why they love or hate their experiences at a predominantly white institution of higher learning. Read part 1 here. Dear White People opens Friday. “The blacks, whether originally…
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Not-So-Great Expectations: Teachers Expect Less of Black and Brown Students
A recent study by the Center for American Progress released this month highlighted what some might call the “soft bigotry of low expectations” if there was a way to take a jug of Downy fabric softener and make old-fashioned implicit bias gentler. The study found that teachers can have a bit of a Pygmalion effect…
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Dear White People: Art Imitating Life’s Racism
Dear white people: It’s not OK to throw a black-themed party at which white students wear racist costumes and drink from cups that look like watermelons, especially to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Justin Simien, the writer and director behind the comedy Dear White People, doesn’t have to look far to illustrate how his…
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Olympic Fencer Kamara James Dead at 29
Kamara James, an Olympic fencer from Queens, N.Y., has died in Modesto, Calif., USA Fencing reported Tuesday. The cause of the 29-year-old’s death, which occurred Sept. 20, according to the Modesto Bee, has not been announced. Just 10 years ago, at the age of 19, James became one of the youngest fencers to represent the USA at…
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Study: Photos of Black Voters Affect White Voters’ View of Voter-ID Laws
Researchers from the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication have released a new study suggesting that photographs of black Americans using voting machines affect white respondents’ support of voter-ID laws. According to the study (pdf), when white survey respondents saw an image of black Americans using ballot machines, they had stronger support for voter ID…
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Michelle Obama Says, ‘Turnip for What?’
Michelle Obama proved that she is much cooler than your average first lady while participating in a Twitter Q&A about her healthy-lifestyle initiative. In a #AskTheFirstLady Twitter chat, Barack Obama impersonator Iman Crosson posed this question: “How many calories do you burn every time you ‘turn up’?” https://twitter.com/Alphacat/status/522072769325182976 Making a play on the popular DJ…
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Sierra Leonean Student Denied Housing Twice in UK City Over Ebola Fears
Amara Bangura arrived in Norwich, England, two weeks ago from Sierra Leone. He was excited to be in the city and looked forward to attending college there—except, he claims, he couldn’t find a place to stay because people were worried that he might have Ebola. He shows no signs of the deadly disease and says…
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10 Random Thoughts About Last Night’s Very Entertaining BET Hip Hop Awards
Lions and tigers and flex zones. Oh my. The BET Hip Hop Awards, aka “the one with the cyphers,” aired Tuesday night in all their budgeted glory. And for the unimaginative among us, this was that coveted time of the year to hop on the Innanets to self-importantly side-eye BET’s shortcomings. But I do it for…