culture
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Sasheer Zamata Debuts as SNL’s 1st Black Female Cast Member in 6 Years
Sasheer Zamata made her debut Saturday as the first black female cast member on NBC’s Saturday Night Live in six years. She was featured in several sketches during the NBC show, including the first sketch about the bar mitzvah of host and musical guest Drake. During the sketch, she appeared as the girlfriend of the…
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MLK Decried the Psychological Enslavement of Blacks
There is a sad irony in the fact that we are celebrating what would have been the 85th birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., just a month after the New York Times focused national attention on the gap in breast-cancer survival rates between black and white women. This news came on top of…
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Harry Belafonte Embraces the Power of Twitter Activism
He’s 86 years old. He began his human and civil rights advocacy decades before the introduction of social media. Many observers chalked up his public shaming of contemporary black celebrities for failure to engage in his brand of social justice work to a simple generational divide. So one might guess that actor, singer and activist…
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Darren Sharper, Ex-NFL Star, Arrested on Rape Charges
Darren Sharper, the former NFL superstar who was a five-time Pro Bowl selection, was arrested Friday and charged with sexual assault, TMZ reports. The Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s website reports that Sharper was taken into custody Friday afternoon and released from jail on a $200,000 bond just before midnight. Sharper, 38, has been linked to two…
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Philadelphia Teen Alleges Severe Abuse During Police Pat-Down
Darrin Manning and his high school basketball teammates were dressed for the cold when they hopped off the subway on Jan. 7, wearing hats, gloves and scarves given to them by a teacher, the Raw Story reports. But the 16-year-old student at Mathematics, Civics & Sciences Charter School in Philadelphia found himself in a quandary…
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A Final Blues Song for Amiri Baraka
Newark Symphony Hall in New Jersey turned into a space of mournful celebration on Saturday for Amiri Baraka, the poet, activist and playwright. In many ways the event represented at once a moratorium and requiem for the Black Arts Movement. Actor Danny Glover and professors Cornel West and Michael Eric Dyson headlined a star-studded lineup…
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Amiri Baraka: Thousands Pay Respects at NJ Funeral
As the casket bearing activist, poet and playwright Amiri Baraka was carried into his funeral service Saturday in Newark, N.J., bagpipers, African drummers and jazz musicians led a moving procession, the Associated Press reports. Baraka, 79, died Jan. 9 of an undisclosed illness. Actor Danny Glover was slated to officiate Saturday’s service at Newark Symphony…
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Oliver Stone: MLK Biopic Hits Snag
Hollywood director Oliver Stone’s much anticipated biopic about Martin Luther King Jr. is probably not coming to a theater near you anytime soon. A rewrite of the script for the film, which was to feature Jamie Foxx, was rejected by DreamWorks and Warner Bros., he announced Friday on Twitter. Problems occurred when the studios, said…
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Avonte Oquendo: Missing Autistic Teen’s Clothing Found With Remains
No one has reported seeing Avonte Oquendo since he slipped passed a security guard and made his way out of the Riverview School in Long Island City, Queens, N.Y., on Oct. 4, 2013. Since then the 14-year-old, who was obsessed with the subway system, has been the focus of massive searches. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation…
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Chicago Man Guilty of Killing 9-Year-Old Daughter in Grisly Cover-Up
Richard Lyons told police that he rushed his daughter’s limp and lifeless body to a hospital after finding it in an alley near his home on Chicago’s South Side in July 2008, NBC Chicago reports. He told investigators that his daughter, Mya, had been attacked by a burglar who was trying to break into a basement.…