culture
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Is It Hip-Hop Homophobia Over French Nails and Skirts?
Apparently, veteran gangster rapper Snoop Dogg still enjoys defying all the rules of so-called authentic black masculinity found in mainstream hip-hop culture. After reinventing himself as a devoted father and Snoop Lion—the reggae-infused advocate of black consciousness and universal love—he is now using Instagram to promote his fierce, duo-chrome French manicure, complete with marijuana leaf…
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DNA Test Showed Mostly European Ancestry? It’s OK, You’re Still African American
52.9. I’d never given much thought to this arrangement of numbers until a few months ago. Those digits represent a majority of my ancestral makeup. During a recent DNA examination, I discovered that 52.9 percent of my ancestors are European. My African relatives make up 43.4 percent of my DNA (including 28 percent West African). A small…
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17-Year-Old Chicago Rapper Charged With Murder
A teenage Chicago rapper has been charged with murder in connection to the fatal shooting of a driver in the Wentworth Gardens housing complex, over what the assistant state’s attorney is claiming was retaliation for an earlier dispute, the Chicago Tribune reports. Seventeen-year-old Clint Massey, who goes by the stage name “RondoNumbaNine,” was ordered held…
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Single Parents and Money: The Root Live at 11 A.M.
In many African-American families, when we have an important issue to discuss, we gather in the kitchen and bring it to the table. That’s especially true of financial discussions, whether about how to pay the bills, how to send Junior to college or where to start looking for a new job. For the next six…
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Why All the Anger Over a Model’s Breast-Feeding Photo?
When breasts are propped high in Victoria’s Secret ads or the pages of King magazine, or an A-list star wears a dress cut to her navel or maybe a R-related movie shows women flashing them freely, few people seem to have a problem. Maybe some advocacy groups for teenage girls and their self-esteem, maybe some…
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Men Who Used Stolen Passports on Missing Malaysia Flight Were Iranian, Not Black
The two men who used stolen passports to board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight were not black, as was previously reported, but in fact asylum seekers from Iran, Fox News reports. Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble confirmed that 19-year-old Pouri Nourmohammadi and 29-year-old Delavar Seyedmohammaderza had traveled to Malaysia on Iranian passports from Tehran,…
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President Obama, Zach Galifianakis Trade Digs on Between Two Ferns
There are several mysteries in the world, and how Zach Galifianakis scored President Obama on his Funny or Die mock-talk show, Between Two Ferns, may now be the funniest, if not the biggest. Ferns features host Galifianakis and his guest sitting, in fact, between two gigantic ferns while the comedian asks extremely awkward questions. The…
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Will Smith to Produce Harlem Hellfighters
Will Smith is reportedly teaming up with Sony Pictures to produce a film version of the graphic novel Harlem Hellfighters, according to industry blog Shadow and Act. The novel, which is inspired by the true story of the all-African-American 369th Infantry Regiment, was written by Max Brooks, best known for his book World War Z:…
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Blackface Skit Brings Backlash at Church Conference
Here we go again. The National Young Fundamentalists Conference is learning that blackface is not OK, after putting on a skit in which a member of the Clay Mills Road Baptist Church in Kentucky—where the convention was being held—dressed as Mr. T, complete with blackface, Mediaite reports. The pastor’s assistant, Joseph Pickens, took a picture…
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George Zimmerman Signs Autographs at Florida Gun Show
George Zimmerman doesn’t understand why his signing autographs at a gun show in Florida might spark public outrage, so that’s how he spent his weekend, according to Mediaite. The former neighborhood watchman, who was acquitted last year in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, was at the New Orlando Gun Show signing autographs…