culture
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History, Hiking and Hideaways: Visiting the U.S. Virgin Islands
The U.S. Virgin Islands offer varied experiences. On St. Croix, St. Thomas, and the smallest island, St. John, visitors will find entertainment, challenging watersports, and unspoiled terrain. Americans need not use passports or foreign currency, and English is the official language. ST. CROIX: PEACEFULLY PICTURESQUE St. Croix’s atmosphere fosters a laid back experience and small…
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British Mom of 3 to Marry Minnesota Inmate She Met Online
This is not your typical love story. A British mom of three is hoping to marry an inmate from the U.S. later this year when her love is released on parole, the New York Daily News reports. Jennifer Butler, who is 29 and a single mom to three kids under 10, is planning to fly…
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2-Year-Old Passes Out in Hot Car While Parents Drink at a Bar
Police found a 2-year-old boy unresponsive in a hot car outside a bar after his parents reportedly left him behind while they went inside to have a drink. According to WPXI in Pittsburgh, the toddler was in his car seat “slumped over, sweating and unresponsive” when officials arrived. The car was locked and its…
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78-Year-Old Jailed Over $500 Debt
Debtor prisons are supposed to be a thing of the past, so how did this elderly man end up in jail? Iheanyi D. Okoroafor, a 78-year-old retiree living in South Hadley, Mass., was imprisoned for a $508.27 bill, according to the Boston Globe. On June 11 Judge Robert S. Murphy Jr. sentenced Okoroafor to 30…
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African Slaves Were the 1st to Celebrate Ramadan in America
This past weekend marked the beginning of Ramadan. Nearly one-fourth of the world will observe the annual fast and 8 million Muslims in America will abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset during the holy month. A grueling task at any time of the year, Ramadan this year will be especially daunting during…
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Prince Leads an All-Star Lineup at the Essence Music Festival
It seems fitting that the Essence Festival—which has hosted and broken some of the biggest names in black music for the past 20 years—would have the man who at one point was so big that he used only a symbol as his moniker to headline the 20th-anniversary installment of the three-day musical free-for-all. The Purple…
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We Can All Learn From the NJ Prep School Student Who Spoke Out Against Racism and Sexism
I might be Maya Peterson’s biggest fan. Don’t know her name just yet? You should. She’s the prep school graduate everyone’s buzzing about for her bold, if a bit misguided, way of tackling sexism and racism at her New Jersey high school. Maya, a black-Latina lesbian, was elected class president at the very elite and…
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People Who Are Not Invited to The Root’s 4th of July Barbecue
The invitations to our annual Fourth of July barbecue have gone out (did you get yours?), and there are a couple of people who didn’t make the list this year. Don’t get us wrong: It’s not that we dislike these individuals. We just think that their time would be better served tending to more important…
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Grand Dragon Protests His Removal From Neighborhood Watch
William Walters, grand dragon of the East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire, aka the Ku Klux Klan, got the boot from his five-year post on a neighborhood watch in Philadelphia earlier this year after city officials learned that he was passing out KKK recruitment literature while on the job, reports Philadelphia magazine. “We…