culture
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Ambitious, Thought-Provoking and Utterly Bizarre, Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You Was the Most Mind-Blowing Movie at Sundance
Before he received a rousing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival for his bizarrely brilliant social-critique film debut, Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley was ruffling the feathers of corporate America as the frontman of political hip-hop group the Coup. The Oakland, Calif., collective is infamous for their 2001 album, Party Music, and its prophetic cover art,…
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Toni Braxton Has Blocked Me on Twitter and I Have Questions
In September I was alerted to a new Toni Braxton single, entitled “Deadwood,” by a friend who has long known my affinity for all things Toni Braxton. I heard the song and, unsurprisingly, loved it. So being the longtime fan that I am, I promptly went to Twitter in order to spread the gospel. That’s…
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Kelvin Harrison Jr.’s Breakout Performance Anchors Powerful Young-Adult Novel-Turned-Sundance Film Monster
It’s maddening that a book written in 1999 still carries so much relevance in 2018. Nearly two decades ago, Walter Dean Myers’ young-adult novel approached a racist court system that paints African-American men as guilty “monsters” before any evidence is presented. Sadly, this concept holds true as former music video director-turned-first-time filmmaker Anthony Mandler (Beyoncé…
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Black Panther: An Allegory of the World Wanting Blackness but Not Black People
When it was announced that T’Challa—THE Black Panther—would become an official part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, social media lit up with excitement. People who were familiar with the comics were buzzing about which iteration would be translated to the big screen and how he would fit in with other characters, such as Captain America…
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Tracing Your Roots: Who Were My Kin Born During Slavery?
Differing surnames and living arrangements complicate the search for the parents of an ancestor born during Reconstruction in North Carolina. Dear Professor Gates: I am curious to know who the parents were of my paternal great-grandfather Turner Bond (1868-1925). He was a self-employed blacksmith in Windsor, Bertie County, N.C., who could read and write. He…
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Black History Can’t and Shouldn’t Be Relegated to a Single Month
Last year, Vice President Mike Pence commemorated the start of Black History Month by acknowledging Abraham Lincoln, a white man, for submitting the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. Pence’s snubbing of black people happened on the same day President Donald Trump talked as if Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, writer and civil rights leader, were still alive…
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From Living Single to Love Jones: How the ’90s Shaped My Style
Between Bruno Mars and our new president, Cardi B, taking us back to In Living Color with their video for “Finesse” and bingeing on Living Single after it made its way to Hulu last month, I’m in a ’90s mood. Listen, when Living Single debuted in August of ’93, I knew immediately that I wanted…
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Episode 2: The Tragic Deaths of Robert Walker and Echol Cole Sparked 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike
Robert Walker, 30, and Echol Cole, 36, woke up on Thursday, Feb. 1, 1968, and went to work for the Memphis (Tenn.) Sanitation Department. They left their families for a long day of collecting garbage with the full expectation of returning home to them. Instead, as their shifts were about to end and heavy rain…
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Is Today’s Hip-Hop Trash or Are We Just Getting Old? Spoiler Alert: The Answer Is ‘Yes’
I’ll start with a disclaimer: I’m an old hip-hop head. I am 30-*coughs and crumples paper while driving under a bridge* years old and I am set in my taste, similar to how white people describe their racist parents as being “set in their ways.” I know what I fuck wit. If you know me,…