culture
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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…
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Don’t Talk About Ferguson or Michael Brown, School District Says
Superintendent Ed Hightower of Illinois’ Edwardsville School District has told schools not to talk about Michael Brown. According to KMOX News, Hightower told the station that although current news is typically discussed in class, “this situation in Ferguson-Florissant has become a situation whereby there are so many facts that are unknown.” If students bring up…
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USC Football Captain Admits Lying About Heroic Story
Update 6:56 p.m. USC football captain Josh Captain now says he made it all up, according to ESPN.com. That story about saving his drowning nephew by jumping out a second story window is just that; a story. There’s no explanation for what the young man was thinking in telling this tale, or how he really…
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Company Man and Wife: Couple Sells Ad Space to Sponsor Wedding
Courtney McKenzie and her fiance, Jamil Newell, are under no illusion about the high cost of a destination wedding, so the couple have come up with a creative way to cover the expense: have corporations sponsor it. The Orlando, Fla., couple are all set to wed in December and are hoping that they get enough…
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Squatters on the Rise in Cash-Strapped Detroit
Water is not the only thing that’s becoming hard to come by in Detroit. With joblessness on the rise in a city that has already claimed bankruptcy, squatting—or staking claim to property that has been abandoned or a former owner can no longer afford—is increasing. According to an Al-Jazeera news report, 27-year-old John Deboer is…
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Family Calls Assault in Baltimore a Hate Crime
Police have a 19-year-old in custody as the main suspect in two violent incidents last week in the Baltimore neighborhood of Otterbein, WJZ reports. Within the span of a week in the neighborhood, there have been three attacks, with at least one victim needing surgery for his injuries. A 25-year-old victim, who has remained unidentified,…
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My Friends’ Colorism Is Affecting My Baby’s Facebook Likes!
Saw your response to racist comments posted online, but what about this? I’m trying my best not to be petty here, while I’m aware this is going to sound petty no matter how I put it. I believe my friends’ and family’s internalized racism and colorism is affecting their responses to photos of my child.…
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Picture This: We Don’t All Look Alike
The idea is this: Once you reach status—legendary-Hollywood-superstar status—the rules change. Somehow you are legitimized, devoid of disrespect, a household name. The tropes should not fit anymore, and slights should fall casually outside your perimeter. That is the black-American-success dream of assimilating without changing who you are; that somehow, in your legitimate work, you are,…