culture
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11-Year-Old Forced to Clean School Toilets During Detention
Henry Hawkins, a Maryland fifth-grader, was caught arguing with another student. He was ordered to stay for detention after school. The 11-year-old later asked his mother whether she liked to clean toilets, since that was what he was told to do for his punishment. “If you want to give them detention, that’s fine,” Neshanna Turner,…
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Mob Beats Detroit Driver Who Stopped to Check on Boy He Hit
A suburban Detroit man whose pickup hit a 10-year-old boy who stepped into the street was in critical condition with head injuries in a hospital after a mob attacked him when he stopped his vehicle to check on the child. The 54-year-old man, whose name was not released, is being treated at a Detroit hospital.…
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Introducing Beverly Bond’s Rock! Like a Girl
For Black Girls Rock! Executive Producer and DJ Beverly Bond, hip-hop is more than just music, and women’s voices in it are more relevant than their portion of the genre’s platform might suggest. That’s why she’s launching Rock! Like a Girl—a concert followed by a “think tank” conversation designed to tackle the unique boundaries that female…
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President Obama to Headline Sharpton’s NAN Convention
Back in 2011, when President Barack Obama last spoke at the National Action Network Convention, NAN’s founder and president, the Rev. Al Sharpton, introduced him, saying, “He took this nation from where most of us have never been in our lifetime and put us back on a solid course.” Three years later, as NAN prepares for its…
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How to Find the Art of Cool in North Carolina
Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal sits down with Art of Cool Music Festival co-founder Cicely Mitchell to talk about the future of jazz and the festival, which takes place April 25-26 in Durham, N.C., with a stellar lineup of jazz artists. Mitchell explains how the festival builds interest in the artists with a series of…
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MLK’s Last Crusade Was the Poor People’s Campaign Against Poverty
Today, as we remember the 46th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, we should remember the lessons from the civil rights icon’s last great political crusade: the Poor People’s Campaign to end poverty. The less than three months between national celebrations of King’s birthday and more sober reflections on his martyrdom reveal the often…
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New Orleans Man’s Confrontation With Cop Caught on Tape
Updated Thursday, April 3, 8:45 p.m. EDT: The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office released a statement late Thursday regarding the arrest of Donrell Breaux. According to the statement, the officer was responding to a call from a neighbor who claimed that a black male was cursing at him, his wife and his children, even when asked to…
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Underemployment Plagues African Americans
It is commonly accepted that unemployment is a huge obstacle for African Americans in their walk toward economic progress. However, underemployment is an even bigger problem for them, especially in comparison with their white and Hispanic counterparts, the Associated Press reports. According to the National Urban League’s latest annual State of Black America report, “One…
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5th-Grader Claims Police Officer Pointed Gun in His Face
Omari Grant was just fooling around in the wooded area behind his Henry County, Ga., home like a normal 11-year-old boy, conspiring to build a tree fort with his friends. However, things took a frightening turn when a neighbor called the police to complain about the boys cutting the trees, WSB-TV reports. One officer arriving…
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Atlanta Archbishop Likely to Sell $2,200,000 Mansion
After an outcry from Catholics, citing the modest lifestyle of Pope Francis as an example, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Atlanta Wilton Gregory says that he will most likely sell a recently built $2.2 million mansion that was meant to be for his personal use, the Associated Press reports. However, he hasn’t made up his…