culture
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Watch: Police Defend Arrest of Black Man Reportedly Tased in Front of His Kids
Updated Aug. 29, 9:10 a.m. EDT: The St. Paul, Minn., Police Department issued a statement on its Facebook page defending the arrest of Chris Lollie in January of this year. The statement was reported by the Minneapolis City Pages. In the statement, police say they were called by a private security company because a man had…
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Study: Whites Have 1 Black Friend; Blacks Have 8 White Friends
When Beverly Daniel Tatum published Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? back in 2003, she used some statistical evidence to explain why black and white students self-segregate and also relied on anecdotes from her experiences as a black student at predominantly white schools. Those people who asked, “Well, aren’t all the…
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Black American Fighting for ISIS in Syria Is Killed
There was the idea that if the jihadist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, was able “to turn” an American—that is, win over his or her support—it would then use the American to orchestrate a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. But 33-year-old Douglas McAuthur McCain, a black American, defied that expectation,…
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The Growing Movement to Make Attacks Against Homeless People a Hate Crime
Seven states are looking to stop attacks on homeless people who are being targeted because of their race, religion and sexual orientation. Alaska, California, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island and Washington have all tweaked their hate crime laws so that these kinds of attacks will earn perpetrators longer prison sentences, Al-Jazeera reports. The National Coalition…
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Watch: Debating ‘Black Female Privilege’
It struck some people as an oxymoron. They couldn’t wrap their minds around how the words “black women” and “privilege” were being used in the same sentence in this article, let alone how they were being used to describe anything having to do with the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. That I said Brown’s death made…
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Have Faith in Aaron McGruder’s Black Jesus
Just about everyone in Black Jesus is selfish. But Black Jesus still has faith. Jesus’ flawed, albeit loyal friends (disciples?)—ex-con Fish (Andra Fuller), slacker Jason (Antwon Tanner), gal-pal Maggie (Kali Hawk) and drunkard Boonie (Corey Holcomb)—his curmudgeonly neighbor Vic (Charlie Murphy); even Lloyd, the conniving and cantankerous homeless drunk played by John Witherspoon. They all…
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In Ferguson and the Entire Nation, Institutional Racism Extends Far Beyond Law Enforcement
The tragic events unfolding in Ferguson, Mo., following the police shooting death of a young African-American man have ignited a national conversation around deeply rooted racial tensions in America. On Monday at Michael Brown’s funeral, where thousands of family, friends, civil rights leaders and residents gathered, came calls for justice and dignity for all families.…
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Attorney: Video Shows John Crawford III Being Shot ‘on Sight’ in Wal-Mart Toy-Gun Case
John Crawford III did not even have the BB gun pointed in the air. In fact, he wasn’t even facing the officers who shot him. At least, that’s what his family’s attorney has said after being allowed to review surveillance video from the fateful Aug. 5 incident at an Ohio Wal-Mart, the Raw Story reports.…
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Handcuffed Man Died After Being Tased 13 Times by Police, Attorney Says
A Georgia man’s family has learned that he died while in police custody after being hit with a Taser some 13 times by two police officers who were involved in a foot chase with the man. At the time he was in handcuffs and had claimed that he was too tired to walk. According to…
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Thieves Vandalize Rosa Parks’ Alabama Home
Police are looking for thieves who vandalized and ransacked an apartment building in Montgomery, Ala., where renowned civil rights activist Rosa Parks lived at the time of her arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat, Reuters reports. The building, which is also a small museum and is on the National Register of Historic…