culture
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Prison Guard Impregnated by Cop Killer Loses Custody of Baby
A family court judge ruled that a 29-year-old federal correctional officer, who intentionally got pregnant with a death row inmate’s baby, repeatedly put the baby in “imminent danger,” the New York Daily News reports. Nancy Gonzalez, 29, lost custody of her 7-month-old baby boy, Justus, after a judge found that she went on an “alcohol…
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Ohio Wal-Mart Hosts Thanksgiving Food Drive for Employees
An Ohio Wal-Mart is asking Wal-Mart employees for donations to help people in need of food this Thanksgiving. Those in need: Wal-Mart employees. In a photo that is being distributed on the Internet by “OUR Walmart,” a labor group that is pushing for Wal-Mart to increase wages and allow employees to unionize, shows several large…
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Man Pretends to Work for Nick Cannon, Steals Jewelry
A man pretending to be an employee of entertainer Nick Cannon just made the heist of the year by stealing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry. According to Hollyscoop, which released the video below, a man who gave the name “Michael” called the Fred Segal store in Santa Monica requesting the jewelry under Cannon’s name,…
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University of Texas Student Group Organizes 'Catch an Illegal Immigrant' Event
The Young Conservatives of Texas, University of Texas chapter, set the Internet ablaze Monday when it was revealed that they were planning a “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” event. According to the Houston Chronicle, the game was set up to be played with five volunteers spread out wearing tags that read “illegal immigrant.” Then if a…
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Officer Shoots at Van Filled With 5 Kids
On Oct. 28, a family of six from Tennessee was traveling near Taos, N.M., when the driver was pulled over by a state trooper for speeding. There was an argument. The driver—the mother of the five children inside, ages 6-18—attempted to leave and was pulled over again. Her 14-year-old son left the minivan and confronted…
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Mother Believes Police Beat Her Handcuffed Teenage Son
The mother of a 14-year-old Pennsylvania boy caught shoplifting believes the police brutally beat her son, causing several cuts, bruises and a broken nose, NBC10 Philadelphia reports. Marissa Sargeant told the news station that her son was arrested for snagging goods at a local Wal-Mart. She claims that once her son was handcuffed, the teen was beaten…
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McBride Shooter Used Shotgun Named 'The Persuader'
The story of Theodore Wafer—a white, suburban Detroit man charged in connection with the Nov. 2 shooting death of unarmed black teen Renisha McBride—has all the elements of an American tragedy: a shooter and victim of different races, living on either side of the suburban-urban divide, in a state with a permissive self-defense code backed…
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Funding Crisis Threatens Black Theater
With the success of films like Lee Daniels’ The Butler, 12 Years a Slave and now The Best Man Holiday, which surpassed box office expectations this weekend, 2013 is being billed as a banner year for African-American films. But while films with predominantly black casts are thriving, live theater featuring predominantly black casts is not.…
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Here’s a Rarity: Blacks Performing in a Painting Free of Racist Overtones
This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black in Western Art Archive at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute, part of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Thomas Eakins was, with Winslow Homer, one of the foremost American…
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Kanye West Done Beefing With Obama
Kanye West probably won’t be making peace with President Barack Obama any time soon, but that doesn’t mean the pseudo-feud between the two men will continue either. “I’m not gonna mention him no more, I’m past that,” West told Hot 107.9 in Philly’s Morning Show interview, which aired Monday. “That’s out my thoughts. That’s lowering my priority of…