culture
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3 of the Worst Responses to the Ray Rice Video
On Monday the Baltimore Ravens terminated Ray Rice’s contract after the release of a video showing him assaulting his then-fiancee, Janay Palmer, and the NFL suspended him indefinitely. The decision to let Rice, 27, go was immediately applauded by everyone from NFL players to women’s rights organizations. In Twitter conversations such as #WhyIStayed, survivors of abuse…
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Witness in John Crawford III Shooting Changes Story
John Crawford III was shot dead by Beavercreek, Ohio, police about a month ago for simply carrying a BB gun as he walked through the aisles in Wal-Mart. A witness to the incident, Ronald Ritchie, was responsible for calling 911 and reporting Crawford to law enforcement, saying that a black man was “walking around with…
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Arrests Made After Video of Teens Assaulting Mentally Disabled Man Goes Viral
Two juveniles were arrested for allegedly beating up a mentally disabled man in Delaware, WPVI-TV reports. The two boys, 13 and 14 years old, were arrested over the weekend before being released to their parents on $2,500 bond, the news station notes, after a video of them committing the horrible assault went viral. According to…
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New High-Def Version of Ray Rice Assault Reveals Obscenities and Spitting
A clear version of the assault video of Ray Rice and his then-fiancee, Janay Palmer, including sound, was shown to the Associated Press, and according to those who viewed this version, the couple can be heard shouting obscenities at each other. Palmer also appears to spit on the recently cut Baltimore Ravens running back. According to…
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Ebola Infection Growing Rapidly in Liberia
The efforts to treat people infected with the Ebola virus and to stop the transmission of the disease have led to a domino effect in Liberia that is causing infections to grow at an exponential rate. According to the BBC, potentially infected people take taxicabs to hospitals and treatment centers, the type of public vehicle…
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US-Sponsored African Coalition Is Accused of Raping Somali Women and Girls
It’s hard to imagine that the very place Somali women and girls go to seek refuge from the famine and fighting that have engulfed their country—shelter camps organized by African Union troops in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu—is where some of them are allegedly being raped by soldiers tasked with protecting them. According to Al-Jazeera, Somali women…
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America’s Unspoken Education Issue: Black Kids Need Black Teachers
“Hiring more white teachers is not the best way to improve education for students, particularly students of color.” This recent commentary by a black student from New Orleans in the Washington Post predictably aroused the ire of readers who accused the young man of reverse racism, playing the race card and divisiveness. That’s no surprise.…
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Why Nubian Skin Lingerie Matters for Women of Color
At the end of a summer when unarmed black men seem to have become, increasingly, routine targets of law enforcement, it would be easy to overstate the significance of an advance for people of color in the world of fashion. But with the caveat that this obviously isn’t the most pressing news of the day,…
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The Month After Michael Brown’s Death: A Ferguson Timeline
It’s been a month since Ferguson, Mo., Police Officer Darren Wilson gunned down unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown, setting off nationwide demands, first for justice for Brown’s family, and later, for protesters subjected to shockingly aggressive policing by a militarized force. In just 30 days, “Ferguson” has come to serve as shorthand for police misconduct, racial…