culture
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Wal-Mart Driver in Tracy Morgan Crash Takes to Twitter to Claim Innocence
Kevin Roper, the Wal-Mart truck driver who has been charged in a crash that left one person dead, and comedian Tracy Morgan and three others hospitalized, apparently isn’t sitting back and waiting for his trial to proclaim his innocence. On Tuesday, a series of tweets emerged from an account linked to the 35-year-old who was…
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Cheryl Miller Reveals How Tough It Was to Find a Coaching Job
Cheryl Miller spent a year and a half trying to get someone to return her phone calls, but no one wanted to take a chance on the Hall of Fame basketball star as their women’s basketball coach. That is until Langston University, a small HBCU in Oklahoma, decided to give her a shot. In a…
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Is There Anything Wrong With Passing for Black?
I have curly dark hair and am of Indian and Caucasian descent. I have a really diverse group of friends, and because of my hair and my skin tone (a deep tan/brown), I find that people often assume I’m black. I feel awkward correcting them, so I just go with it. Is that wrong? A black…
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My Son’s 14-Year-Old Killer Deserved a 2nd Chance
My only son, Ronald D. Simpson III, was murdered on Father’s Day 13 years ago. Ronald was 21. His killer was a 14-year-old boy. We were devastated, as any parents would have been. Despite this, my son’s mother and I did not want our son’s killer to spend the rest of his life in prison.…
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Learning to Live With Internet Haters
Judge me. Last night I watched VH1’s Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta. When it comes to the image of black people on TV, it gets no worse than most—but not all—of the cast. (Exhibit A: This season’s leading storyline involves an allegedly homemade sex tape that really resembles a slickly produced porno.) Let me plead my…
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Gay Black Men’s Salaries Are on Par With Those of Straight White Men. Progress?
Anyone who knows anything knows that it is hard to be a black man in America. There’s endless data that backs up this declaration, from the disproportionate number of men of color targeted by law enforcement to programs like stop and frisk and the shooting of unarmed black boys like Trayvon Martin. Because of the…
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Stevie J Arrested, Reportedly Owes More Than $1 Million in Child Support
Reality-TV star and onetime hit producer Stevie J has been arrested after racking up what TMZ reports is a “million-dollar child support debt.” According to the gossip site, the Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta star is currently in jail after he allegedly stopped paying a court-ordered $8,500 monthly child support payment in 2001. According to a criminal complaint seen…
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Indiana Mom Receives Threatening Note: ‘You Have 2 Lovely Daughters’
When Gary, Ind., mom Alfreda Murphy got an anonymous letter in her mailbox, her next action was to call the police and lock her children inside the house, CBS 2 reports. “You have two lovely daughters,” the letter starts, referencing Murphy’s two oldest daughters. “I and my friend have watched them every since they…
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Study: Economic Hardship Linked to More Discriminatory Behavior
There’s something about economic hardship that makes people observe race differently, making them more discriminatory toward people with darker skin, Time magazine reports. The study, conducted by researchers at New York University, showed that when the economy went south, lighter-skinned individuals were more likely to perceive someone with more African features as darker than they actually…
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Funeral for Raymond Boone Sr., Editor of the Richmond Free Press, Set for Tuesday
Raymond H. Boone Sr., the colorful, principled and feisty founder, editor and publisher of the weekly Richmond (Va.) Free Press, died Tuesday [June 3] at his Richmond home after battling pancreatic cancer, his wife, Jean Boone, told Journal-isms. He was 76. Boone was on the job until nearly the end, said his daughter, Regina Boone, a photographer…