culture
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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…
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Birthday Party Ends in Shooting, 2 Dead
Police in Houston are still trying to piece together how a teen’s 18th-birthday house party turned into a mass shooting, leaving two kids dead and 22 people wounded. Around 11 p.m. Saturday night the party—which was heavily promoted on Twitter and Facebook—was in full swing. “Out of no apparent provocation, someone discharged a firearm in…
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Incognito: Jonathan Martin Also Sent Threatening Texts
The bizarre story of locker room racism and bullying continues to get more bizarre. Richie Incognito took to Fox Sports to defend using racist and profane language with Jonathan Martin, saying that doing so was a part of the Miami Dolphins “brotherhood.” He also emphasized that he “is not a racist,” and for anyone to…
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Slavery Isn’t Just Black People’s Burden
I don’t have much of a poker face. This became obvious this spring when I toured Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s mountaintop home in Charlottesville, Va., for the first time. I watched a 60ish white tour guide stumble over a question about Jefferson’s black descendants, then awkwardly change the subject. I cocked my head to the left.…