culture
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2 Arrested in Houston House-Party Shooting
Two young men have been arrested and charged in connection with a shooting at a Houston house party over the weekend that left two people dead and 19 wounded, authorities announced Monday. According to the Associated Press, Willie Young, 21 and Randy Stewart, 18, were arrested Monday morning. Young was charged with deadly conduct, while…
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Dolphins Owner to Address Martin, Locker Room Culture
Jonathan Martin, the Miami Dolphins offensive lineman who left the team after claims of being bullied, has most likely played his last downs with the Dolphins, a source told ESPN. Martin is expected to meet with Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who has been in communication with Martin via text messages since he left the team.…
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Removing Klansman’s Name From School Is Long Overdue
Since Barack Obama made history as the nation’s first black president in 2008, efforts to whitewash all the other history that the nation had to overcome to get to that moment have been leaking into lesson plans. Two years after his election, Texas made massive changes to its textbook curriculum that, among other things, watered…
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Having a Black Name Isn’t the Issue
Last week the Kansas City Star published “Burdened by Bigotry, a Girl Born Keisha Changes Her Name.” A 19-year-old woman born to a single white mom (and a seemingly absentee black dad) explained to the publication why she opted to switch from what is widely considered to be a black name to a name—Kylie—that’s, let’s…
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At UCLA, Black Men Only 3.8 Percent of Population
The University of California, Los Angeles, has a diversity problem, and some students aren’t going to let it rest without speaking up. Sy Stokes, a third-year student at UCLA, posted a video to YouTube last week highlighting the lack of diversity on campus. Stokes and a few other black men at the campus showed signs…
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Posthumous Retrial Possible for Black Teen Executed for Murder in 1944
In 1944 a 95-pound 14-year-old boy was strapped to an electric chair in South Carolina for murdering two little girls, ages 7 and 11. He is the youngest person ever to be executed in the United States in the last 100 years, The Telegraph reports. George Stinney, an African American, was accused of killing two…
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Clotting Gene Gives Clue to Black Heart Disease
Black Americans are twice as likely to develop heart disease as white Americans, and a gene may yield a clue as to why, a new study has found. According to the New Scientist, the fragments in the blood, or platelets, form blood clots—components of heart disease and heart attack—more easily in African Americans. “Unexpectedly, we…
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Thousands of Parolees Wrongly Jailed, Lawsuit Claims
Professors at Northwestern University Law School and an attorney at Uptown People’s Law Center have issued three class action lawsuits against the state of Illinois alleging that the parole system is running a scam to keep parolees locked up needlessly, the Chicago Tribune reports. Forty percent of the current Illinois prison population consists of people…
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America’s Oldest Known WWII Vet to Meet With President
President Barack Obama is slated to meet with the oldest living World War II veteran in honor of Veterans Day, USA Today reports. Richard Overton, 107 years young, wondered out loud one day last May while touring the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., what it would…
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With Police Closing In, Teen Updates Facebook
A 16-year-old was arrested early Sunday morning and charged with attempted murder after a standoff with police. The teen continuously updated his Facebook status while police were outside his door, the New York Daily News reports. Corey Dunton has been charged in a shooting at Bryant Park ice rink in Manhattan that left one person…