culture
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Survey: White Males Dominate Cable-News Talk Shows
In a five-week major cable-news survey, Fair, a progressive national media watch group, uncovered some startling and unprecedented results. For five interspersed weeks—the first two weeks of February, first week of March and first two weeks of April—the watch group monitored guests appearing on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 and OutFront With Erin Burnett, MSNBC’s All…
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Florida Barbershop Promotes Literacy by Giving Books to Its Young Customers
Your local barbershop probably consists of televisions broadcasting ESPN, animated banter on almost any subject and music to match the vibe of the shop. The only literature you would expect to find is a magazine. A Palm Beach County, Fla., barbershop is altering this traditional view of barbershops by taking away the TVs and radios…
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New Captain America Is an African American From Harlem
If only comics were like the real world, then the second-in-command who has been valiantly putting in the work and learning the trade would get promoted regardless of color. On Wednesday, Marvel Comics announced just such a promotion as Falcon, the African-American character born and raised in Harlem, will become the new Captain America. (Comic…
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Texas Actress Who Sent Ricin Letter to the President Gets 18 Years
A Texas actress who mailed ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama, then-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a gun control advocate was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports. Shannon Guess Richardson, 36, pleaded guilty in December to the federal charge of possessing and producing a biological toxin. In…
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Morticians Ditch Bodies After Getting Ousted From Texas Funeral Home
A foul stench coming from a Fort Worth, Texas, funeral home drew the attention of the building’s landlord during a property check Tuesday morning. Little did the landlord know that the smell was wafting from several unidentified bodies—some already embalmed and in caskets—inside, the Dallas News reports. Police who responded to the landlord’s call…
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Let’s Apply Affirmative Action Based on Present-Day Segregation, Not Race
In his recent case for reparations, The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates offers this startling fact: “Black families making $100,000 typically live in the kinds of neighborhoods inhabited by white families making $30,000.” It underpins one of his main arguments: that black folks uniquely were victims of intentional, government-sponsored racial segregation that endures and must be compensated…
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Law Enforcement and the KKK Have a Close History in Florida
Once upon a time in Florida, for many law-enforcement officers, being in the Ku Klux Klan was almost akin to being in the Fraternal Order of Police. This was especially true in Lake County, a central county of the state once ruled by the Klan and the brutality and bigotry of Sheriff Willis McCall. “The…
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NJ TV Reporter: Black Men Are Anti-Cop Because They Grow Up Without Dads
We’ve heard this argument before: Black men’s anti-police mentality can be attributed to an absence of black fathers in the home. Sean Bergin, a white TV reporter with News 12 New Jersey, found himself in hot water for espousing that view during a report that was broadcast on Sunday, the Associated Press reports. Bergin’s report…
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Chicago Man Charged With Hate Crime for Spitting On and Slapping Judge
One Chicago man is facing some serious charges after allegedly spitting on a Cook County judge and then slapping her with his open hand, the Chicago Tribune reports. Judge Arnette Hubbard, who is African American and was the first female president of black legal groups the National Bar Association and the Cook County Bar Association,…
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Oklahoma Mom Says 1-Year-Old Contracted Herpes at Day Care
One Oklahoma mother is furious after her 1-year-old daughter allegedly contracted a case of herpes from a caretaker at ChildTime day care in Oklahoma City, KFOR reports. When the toddler’s mouth started bleeding from painful blisters that had developed around her mouth, Consuela Smith immediately took her child to see a doctor—which is when she…