culture
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10-Year-Old Girl Gives Michelle Obama Unemployed Dad’s Résumé
A 10-year-old girl took her chance to try to help her father out during the White House’s Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. During a question-and-answer session Thursday with children of Executive Office employees, Charlotte Bell told Michelle Obama that her dad has been unemployed for three years. Then she handed the first…
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5 Things to Know About Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Time magazine released its annual list highlighting the world’s 100 most influential people. A few of those named were no-brainers—music icon Beyoncé, film mastermind Steve McQueen, Pope Francis and President Barack Obama—but why is Nigeria’s finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, listed among these luminaries? Ai, yi, yi—where do we begin? 1. She’s eradicating Nigeria’s debt. In…
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Arkansas Cop Goes Unpunished for Killing Black Teen
Once again, the mother of a black teenage boy is crying that there won’t be justice for her dead son. This time, it’s because prosecutors have dropped charges against the white Little Rock, Ark., police officer who was set to go on trial next month on charges he shot and killed 15-year-old Bobby Moore III…
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Finding Creative Tools to Reach Black Girls
Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal speaks to Ruth Nicole Brown about her new book, Hear Our Truths: The Creative Potential of Black Girlhood. Brown is an assistant professor in the departments of gender and women’s studies and African studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Watch:
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Haters Need to Stop Criticizing Beyoncé’s Time Magazine Cover
Evidently it’s the “list” time of year, and so far black girls are winning. On Tuesday, People magazine debuted its 50 Most Beautiful issue, starring none other than media (and fan) darling Lupita Nyong’o on the cover. Not to be outdone, this morning, Time released its annual 100 Most Influential People issue, featuring singer Beyoncé…
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Plainclothes Cops Shoot Philly Pizza Delivery Guy Wearing Hoodie
Philippe Holland was heading back to his car Tuesday night after making his last stop for his pizza delivery job; he didn’t have his pizza bag with him, Philly.com reports, because it had been a small order. So with his hoodie up and hands in his pockets he trekked back toward his car from the…
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Shaquille O’Neal Has a LinkedIn Page … and It’s Great
With unemployment rates on a too-slow decline, one can never be too content with one’s current job situation—not even a future NBA Hall of Famer who is the “CEO, President at Alot of different companies. Inc.” That’s right: Shaquille O’Neal has a LinkedIn profile, which New York’s Daily News has confirmed is the former NBA center’s…
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North Carolina High School Student Accepted by 7 Ivy League Schools
When high school senior Patrick Peoples decided to apply to a number of Ivy League schools, he was doing it largely on a whim. “No one ever expects to get in,” the young man told WECT. “I just wanted to apply. Maybe I’ll get into one—maybe, just maybe.” But he did more than that. Peoples,…
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NYPD Commissioner Unfazed by #myNYPD Backfire
By now, the fiasco that was the #myNYPD campaign is well known, with Twitter quickly taking over the hashtag promotion, which was supposed to display New York’s Finest at their friendliest, and turning it into a channel to speak out (with withering sarcasm) about police brutality. As it turns out, however, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton…
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Dad: Stowaway Teen Missed Africa
The 15-year-old Hawaiian Airlines stowaway had problems with his life in America, particularly at school, and longed to return to Africa, the boy’s father said in an interview, USA Today reports. The Somali-born teenager, who miraculously survived a five-hour flight to Hawaii from California in the wheel well of a plane, was having difficulties adjusting…