culture
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Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan Calls for Black Courts
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is pushing for black Americans to have their own court system because of a U.S. legal system of racial bias, the Raw Story reports. “We want equal justice under the law,” Farrakhan said at the group’s annual convention before approximately 18,000 people—including Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.)—on Sunday in Detroit.…
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Tamron Hall Becomes Today Show’s 3rd-Hour Co-Host
Veteran news anchor Tamron Hall officially joined the Today show as a third-hour co-host, supplementing the team of four other hosts, the Associated Press reports. Hall, a regular fill-in host for the show, will also continue to anchor her NewsNation show on MSNBC at 11 a.m. “You know how important the Today show is to people, to…
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Buckhead, ATL, to Justin Bieber: Don’t Move Here!
A rumor got out that Justin Bieber might be moving to the exclusive Buckhead neighborhood in Atlanta, and longtime resident Harold White wasn’t having that. According to CNN, the retiree was worried about unwanted attention should the singer indeed move to affluent area known for its old-money mansions. So White planned an organized protest for…
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Openly Gay Player Jason Collins Makes NBA History
Jason Collins not only became the NBA’s first active openly gay player Sunday afternoon by signing a 10-day contract with the Brooklyn Nets, but he also appeared in his first game against the Los Angeles Lakers later that same day, ESPN reports. “I don’t have time to really think about history right now,” he told ESPN shortly…
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Identity Conflicts Aren’t Just for Mixed People. I’m Black and I Have Them, Too
I wish there were an option for “It’s complicated” when I’m talking about who I am and where I’m from. No, I’m not physically racially ambiguous in a way that makes people ask endless questions about my ethnicity, demand to know my heritage or call me exotic. I am, in fact, very black. I’ll never…
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A White Woman Wants to Get Rid of Her Inner George Zimmerman
In his remarks regarding the George Zimmerman verdict last summer, President Obama challenged Americans to “wring as much bias” from themselves as possible. We need to do “some soul-searching,” Obama advised the nation. Amid all the media coverage of the Zimmerman and now the Michael Dunn verdicts, I’m left wondering if we aren’t forgetting to…
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‘El Chapo’ Guzman: US to Push for Extradition
Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was the stuff of modern-day legend, eluding law enforcement for nearly 13 years. But that ended Saturday, when he was arrested without incident at a hotel in Mexico’s Pacific beach town of Mazatlan, in his home state of Sinaloa, CNN reports. He was apprehended in a joint operation of…
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Michael Sam Is Ready to Talk Football
When the University of Missouri’s hot NFL prospect Michael Sam announced recently that he was gay, it was all anyone wanted to talk to him about. Now, days after the announcement, it’s still all anyone wants to discuss. But he’s ready to talk football, according to the Huffington Post. “I wish you’d say, ‘Hey Michael…
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Minority Heroes Deprived of Medal of Honor—Until Now
In an effort to correct possible acts of bias that spanned three wars, President Barack Obama will bestow the Medal of Honor on 24 Army veterans in the aftermath of a congressionally mandated review, designed to ensure that eligible recipients were not bypassed due to prejudice, the Associated Press reports. The ceremony will honor veterans,…
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NJ Man Freed After Police Dash Cam Shows Abuse, Cops Indicted
Thirty-year-old Marcus Jeter of Bloomfield, N.J., was facing a five-year prison sentence until he was freed by evidence from a dashboard camera on the police cruiser of the very officers who falsified reports, according to ABC 7 New York. The video came to light after Jeter’s defense attorney, Steven Brown, requested all recorded evidence. Initially,…