culture
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Former Scandal Star Columbus Short Pleads Not Guilty in Bar Assault
Columbus Short, the controversial former star of Scandal, made a brief appearance in a California court to plead not guilty to felony battery charges for allegedly knocking a man unconscious in a bar brawl in West Hollywood in March. Short, who has been the subject of many news reports since it was announced that he…
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Police Commissioner Calls Obama N-Word and Refuses to Apologize
In the almost all-white town of Wolfeboro, N.H., resident Jane O’Toole was in a restaurant in March when, she says, she overheard the police commissioner use the n-word. She wrote the town manager about the language. Wolfeboro Police Commissioner Robert Copeland wrote her back acknowledging that he’d called the president the n-word and adding that…
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Va. High School Students Challenged Segregation and Helped Pave the Way for Brown
John A. Stokes, a 19-year-old high school senior, and his schoolmates were sweltering. In the tar paper shacks they called classrooms, there was no indoor plumbing or running water. The tar paper provided no insulation and sometimes even failed to keep out the rain. Conditions weren’t much better during winter, when a single wood-stoked, potbellied…
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Here’s Why That School Principal Tells Young Black Men to Wear Ties
If you want to read a compelling defense of the individuality of spirit and mind in young black men—and their right to choose the normal range of teenage self-expression—look no further than this week’s Race Manners column, in which The Root’s Jenée Desmond-Harris explains why she’s skeptical about a school principal who stresses “dress for…
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Aaron Hernandez Indicted Again—This Time for 2012 Double Murder
Former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez has been slapped with two more homicide charges in the shooting deaths of two men in Boston in 2012, according to Yahoo Sports. A Suffolk County, Mass., grand jury returned the indictment against Hernandez, who is already in custody and awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges for the 2013…
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Texas High School Sophomore Turns Out to Be 31-Year-Old Woman
High school sophomore Charity Stevens wasn’t who she claimed to be. It turns out that 15-year-old “Charity Stevens” was actually Charity Anne Johnson, a 31-year-old woman. Jezebel notes a KLTV report that Johnson enrolled in New Life Christian School in Long View, Texas, in March, posing as Charity Stevens. Before enrolling, Johnson convinced Tamika Lincoln to…
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Rihanna Accidentally Smashes Police Chief’s Phone, Donates $25K to His Charity
Maybe there should be a Good Gal RiRi meme. The pop star shelled out $25,000 to a police chief’s charity after accidentally breaking his cellphone. According to Us Weekly, the Bajan songstress was sitting courtside at the Los Angeles Clippers’ playoff game May 9 when L.A. Police Commission President Steve Soboroff asked for a selfie…
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Georgia High School Seniors Declare, ‘N–ga We Made It!’
Neither South Forsyth High School officials nor many students were impressed or amused by a “senior prank” that involved hanging a sign declaring “N—ga We Made It!” from the side of the school building Tuesday night, Fox 5 reports. The phrase, linked to a lyric in a popular Drake song, was also drawn on some…
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Nigerian Soldiers Clash With Militants Near Village Where Girls Were Kidnapped
Violence erupted again near the Nigerian village where more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped, with the Associated Press reporting that gunfire between Islamic militants and the Nigerian military left 12 soldiers dead and led to some soldiers firing on a commanding officer as he left the scene. According to a witness who spoke to AP,…