culture
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NYPD Data: Majority of Shooting Suspects in 1st Half of 2013 Were Black
As a black person, you are 25 times more likely to be shot in New York City, and also more likely to be arrested for pulling a trigger, than a white person, the city’s Police Department statistics show. Of the 567 shooting victims in the first half of 2013, 74 percent were black, 21.5 percent…
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Ebony Magazine and the Grio Sponsor a Makeover for Rachel Jeantel
After dealing with the trial of George Zimmerman, charged with the murder of her best friend, Trayvon Martin, and facing an onslaught of criticism (and some praise), Rachel Jeantel is getting a makeover, compliments of Ebony Magazine and the Grio. According to the Huffington Post, the teen is looking forward to entering the next stage…
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Watch This: Michelle Obama Talks Education and Worst Outfit on 106th and Park
Pretty sure the first lady’s appearance last night on 106th and Park marks the first time a member of the presidential family guested on the video talk show. Making the rounds to push President Obama’s “North Star” Goal—that by the year 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the…
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Government Worker Keeps Job After Racist Email
He sent a racist and homophobic message from his work email, but in Montana, Yellowstone County Treasurer Max Lenington does not need to fear for his job, KTVQ reports. In a memorandum and legal analysis from Monday, the county’s attorney’s office stood by the treasurer, saying that the offensive email and repeated personal use of…
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NYPD Says Stop-and-Frisk Numbers Have Plummeted
Stop-and-frisk numbers have plunged 80 percent in the past few months, in comparison with around this time last year, according to New York Police Department data, the Associated Press reports. For the months of July, August and September, there were slightly more than 21,000 stops, since the police changed their training methods after heavy criticism…
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Another Failed Michael Jordan Paternity Suit
For the second time in recent months, an Atlanta woman has claimed that NBA star Michael Jordan was the father of her child. It is also the second time that the suit has been tossed out and the accuser made to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees for Jordan. Laquetta Theus, the 30-year-old mother…
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Zimmerman Choked Girlfriend a Week Before Pulling Gun, Threatened Suicide, She Says
George Zimmerman’s girlfriend said that he choked her a week before she called police screaming that he had pointed a gun at her “fricking face,” a prosecutor told a judge on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports. The one-time neighborhood watchman became infamous when he was acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin, 17, earlier this…
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A Fallen Black Girl: Remembering Latasha Harlins
Latasha Harlins would not live long enough to witness the birth of Twitter or the era of the hashtag. Yet it’s difficult not to summon her name—or her story—amid hashtag memorials for another dead black girl, 19-year-old Renisha McBride, who was shot in the face earlier this month after knocking on a door in suburban…
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White Wedding, Black Servers: Bad Optics?
“I’m writing to ask your advice about my upcoming wedding. We have asked our favorite jerk-chicken takeout restaurant, run by an immigrant Jamaican family, to cater a BBQ picnic for our wedding. Their food is fantastic, and we feel good about this. “However, we (the couple) are two half-Jewish white women, and the optics (h/t Ralph…
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Why I Decided to Do a Reality-TV Show
Monday morning, entertainment trade magazine the Hollywood Reporter broke the news of an upcoming reality show, Blood, Sweat & Heels, which will debut on Bravo on Jan. 5. Since taping began in the spring, I’d been biting my tongue for months, alternately excited to reveal the news to my readers and, to be honest, afraid…