culture
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Big Win by Chicago’s Black Little League Inspires Hope
Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West Little League team is inspiring hope in a city marked by crime and gun violence among young people. On Saturday, the all-black squad from the city’s embattled South Side, defeated Las Vegas Mountain Ridge 7-5 in the U.S. Championship baseball game at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pa.,…
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Nearly 2,500 Peaceful Protesters Rally in NYC for Eric Garner
The Rev. Al Sharpton led thousands of marchers in a peaceful rally across the New York City borough of Staten Island to protest the choke hold death of an unarmed black father of six by a white police officer, the Associated Press reports. An estimated 2,500 people marched in a call for justice for Eric…
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Darren Wilson’s 1st Police Force Shut Down by Racial Tension
Three years ago a small police department in Jennings, Mo., was so bedeviled by racial strife between its white officers and black residents that the City Council fired the whole force and built a new one, the Washington Post reports. One of the fired officers was Darren Wilson, 28, accused of shooting 18-year-old Michael Brown…
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Can We Talk About How Black Women Are Treated as Threats, Too?
Like The Root’s Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele, who recently penned the essay “Michael Brown’s Death Reopened My Eyes to My Privileges as a Black Woman,” I understand that, as a woman, I behave differently in public spaces than the black men I know and love. Actually, as an activist who has been involved in various rallies…
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How an NFL Referee Took a Stance Against a Team’s Racist Name
How do you judge a man with conviction? Not just one with beliefs, but one who supports his beliefs with action? Martin Luther King Jr., organizing followers who stood firm in their fight for civil rights, no matter the odds or violence they faced. Malcolm Little, evolving from “Detroit Red” to Malcolm X, preaching about…
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Rapper Joe Budden Wanted on Domestic Abuse Charge
Rapper Joe Budden is in the spotlight again, but not while onstage performing his hip-hop artistry or filming VH1’s popular reality series Love & Hip Hop. Officers with the New York City Police Department began searching Friday for the rapper on charges that he assaulted and robbed his model ex-girlfriend last week at a restaurant…
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Okla. Cop Accused of Sexually Assaulting Black Women
An Oklahoma City police officer was arrested Thursday on charges of sexually assaulting black women in his patrol area, the Detroit Free Press reports. Officer Daniel Holtzclaw, a former star football player for Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich., was on patrol when he encountered the victims, including three who were assaulted in his car…
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St. Louis County Officer Suspended After Bigoted Video Rant
A 35-year police veteran who was assigned to patrol protests in Ferguson, Mo., in the aftermath of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teen has been suspended after a video emerged of him making inflammatory remarks, CNN reports. Dan Page, the officer, was suspended Friday while the department reviews the video, County Police…
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Calm Prevails in Ferguson for 3rd Night
A tentative calm prevailed in the streets of Ferguson, Mo., for a third night Friday, even as a smaller group of protesters and police continued to hold their respective grounds, the Associated Press reports. The fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown on Aug. 9 by Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson, who is white,…
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Brutal Treatment of Black and Brown Youths Reflects Disregard for Their Lives
As a youth justice advocate, I give lots of speeches and presentations to elected officials, the heads of national organizations, judges and attorneys. I talk about why children should never be sentenced to life without parole and other extreme sentences. I also helped launch the Incarcerated Children’s Advocacy Network, or ICAN, which brings together people who…