culture
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Scandal Recap: Of Monsters and Men
Last night was so tantalizingly entertaining and fun to watch that I literally clapped my hands and squealed with delight while watching alone in my living room. Remember when Beyoncé’s first single came out and we all thought, “This is really good, but she still could be a one-hit wonder”? Then she comes out with…
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A Letter From Death Row
What would you write if you knew those words might be your last? Ray Jasper is a death row inmate in Texas. His execution is scheduled for March 19. According to Gawker, at the age of 19 Jasper was convicted of the 1998 robbery and murder of recording studio owner David Alejandro. He wrote a…
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Man Gets 4 Years for Jet Ski Accident That Killed Usher’s Stepson
A Georgia jury has found the man who fatally wounded pop singer Usher’s 11-year-old stepson in a 2012 Jet Ski collision guilty and sentenced him to four years in prison, Rolling Stone reports. Jeffrey Simon Hubbard, 40, was found guilty of homicide by vessel as a result of the 2012 water incident that took the…
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Isaiah Washington to Guest Star on Grey’s Anatomy
Isaiah Washington, who was fired from ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy in 2007 for calling cast member T.R. Knight an anti-gay epithet, is throwing on the scrubs once again for a guest appearance on the show in May. According to the Associated Press, Washington’s return as Dr. Preston Burke coincides with the announced departure of series star…
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6 Times Privilege Went Wrong for White Families
Most times, the people who suffer as the result of entitled attitudes are the ones who, because of race and class, don’t have them. But lately, privilege seems to be coming back to bite the wealthy parents who provided it, in the form of everything from court costs to hassles to humiliation. A New Jersey…
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Black, Gay, Southern Men Embodied in Sweet Tea
Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal sits down with professor E. Patrick Johnson to talk about his play Sweet Tea. Professor Johnson is the Carlos Montezuma Professor of Performance Studies and African American Studies at Northwestern University. Sweet Tea was published as a book in 2011. At the time, Amazon described it this way:…
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Melissa Harris-Perry Shows Her Natural Hair Sans Braids and Her New Baby
Melissa Harris-Perry, the MSNBC host who recently chronicled on the news channel’s website her fertility issues and the difficulty she and her husband had in choosing to go the surrogate route, is now sharing another side of herself with viewers: her natural hair. Harris-Perry, the host of the Melissa Harris-Perry show (MHP for those in…
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An Ex Can’t Be a ‘Friend’ If He’s Trying to Get Back With You
My ex and I remained friends after our breakup. He has a girlfriend now, but he’s constantly telling me he wants to be with me and the only reason he’s with her is because we’re not together. I think he told me he’s thinking about marrying her to get a reaction from me. How do…
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Running Back Ray Rice and Fiancee to Attend Couples Seminar
Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice and his fiancee, who were involved in a brutal domestic dispute at a casino in Atlantic City, N.J., that ended with Rice allegedly knocking his bride-to-be unconscious, are attending a couples’ seminar, coach John Harbaugh told reporters Wednesday. According to ESPN, Harbaugh told reporters that Rice is “doing everything…
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Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Sisters File Lawsuit Against Christie’s
The sister of famed graffiti artist turned art icon Jean-Michel Basquiat are claiming that art works currently listed at Christie’s auction house are phonies, and they have filed a $1 million false endorsement and false advertising lawsuit, the New York Daily News reports. Jeanine Basquiat Heriveaux and Lisan Basquiat claim that the famed auction house,…