culture
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Interpreter Claims Schizophrenic Episode at Mandela Memorial
The man who has been at the center of the controversy over “fake sign language” during Mandela’s memorial service says that he had a schizophrenic episode during the program, and that he lost concentration and started hearing voices and hallucinating, IOL News reports. Thamsanqa Jantjie says that he struggles with mental illness and that he…
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Tutu’s Home Robbed While He Mourned Mandela
Looks like not everyone in South Africa was feeling the loving spirit of Nelson Mandela’s memorial. Police say that burglars robbed the home of retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu the same day that he spoke at the service, the Associated Press reports. Robbers broke into Tutu’s Cape Town home Tuesday night while the 82-year-old was attending…
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Guilt Over Sleeping With Best Friend’s Man Is the Least of Your Problems
“I slept with my best friend’s boyfriend. The guilt is tripping me out. The boyfriend is acting so normal about it, too. Today he proposed to her! I don’t know what to do. I can’t let her marry him knowing what happened between us. How should I go about fixing this? “She and I are…
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Whisk: The Eatery Where Ex-Offenders Are Starting Over
At Whisk, a great bistro in Boston’s North End, chef Jeremy Kean is helping ex-offenders get their lives back on track through a re-entry program that offers both food and food for the soul. I paid my first visit to Whisk after it was recommended to me by The Root’s editor-in-chief, Henry Louis Gates Jr.,…
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10 New Foods We Loved in 2013
Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s choice to go vegan may spark the next culinary trend, but for black America, 2013 was already an interesting food year. Here are some nontraditional foods that sashayed their way into the African-American diet, because who says black people can’t be foodies? 1. The Cronut Questlove was so excited about this croissant-doughnut…
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Man Set Free After 30 Years in Prison
A man who spent 30 years behind bars walked out of prison a free man and into the arms of his two daughters, lawyers and friends earlier today, the Associated Press reports. Fifty-nine-year-old Stanley Wrice has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in 1982. Wrice was accused of rape, yet he claimed he had…
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Jon Stewart Pokes Fun at McCain’s Obama-Hitler Comparison
Comedian Jon Stewart had a field day Tuesday, poking fun at the American media and others for blowing the handshake between President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro out of proportion. “Barack Obama [was] at a memorial celebrating the life of Nelson Mandela, a man whose legacy is that he forgave and embraced his…
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NAACP Petitions Department of Justice to Investigate Alleged Miami Gardens Police Abuse
The Florida State Conference of the NAACP and the Miami-Dade County branch formally issued a letter on Tuesday requesting that Attorney General Eric Holder push the Justice Department to investigate allegations of police abuse in the city of Miami Gardens. Miami Gardens in particular has been plagued with accounts of police allegedly abusing their authority…
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‘Fake’ Sign Language Interpreter at Mandela Memorial Causes Outrage
An imposter interpreter has sparked outrage, especially in the deaf community, for fake-signing at South African icon Nelson Mandela’s memorial service. According to Yahoo, an Australian website obtained confirmation of the deception from the World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section board member Braam Jordaan. The interpreter was faking it. “The structure of his hand,…
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Photographer: Obama Selfie Not What It Seems
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but in the case of the “selfie seen round the world”—which showed President Obama taking a cellphone photo with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt, while the first lady looks away in apparent disgust— it wasn’t so. “Photos can lie,” wrote…