culture
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9-Year-Old Drives Father to Safety at Hospital
For most children, their parents are their heroes. But John Smith of Panama City, Fla., can proudly say that his 9-year-old daughter, Esteria Smith, is his hero. As he picked up Esteria from her karate class, Smith knew something was wrong, he told WJHG. His daughter also noticed that something wasn’t right with her father.…
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Jamaican Track and Field Feeling Heat
The Associated Press is reporting that the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission has officially been audited by the World Anti-Doping Agency because of inconsistent out-of-competition drug testing in the months leading up to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Jamaica’s Olympic athletes dominated their competition, specifically in track and field, in which the island’s star runner, Usain…
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Hollywood Finally Catches Up With History
(The Root) — Steve McQueen’s masterful 12 Years a Slave has already changed history in two major ways: It is the first Hollywood-backed movie on slavery directed by a black filmmaker, and based on Solomon Northup’s 1853 oral account, it is the first film ever based on an actual slave narrative. While the former results…
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Blackness Portrayed as the Face of Evil
(The Root) — 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. This chilling scene of martyrdom comes from a…
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Light Girls: Don't Buy Into the Privilege
In a letter to caramel-complexioned black girls, Asha French, writing at Ebony magazine, encourages them to recognize the “racial project” that preferenced their light skin tone over a chocolate complexion, and warns them not to buy into the favoritism, guilt or privilege that they may experience because of color. Dear Beautiful Daughters Who Happen to be Racially…
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America Must Address Growing Income Inequality
American society will devolve into broad enclaves of the haves and have-nots if policymakers don’t do something about the increasing gaps in income and opportunity, Columbia University professor Joseph E. Stiglitz argues at the New York Times. Of the advanced economies, America has some of the worst disparities in incomes and opportunities, with devastating macroeconomic…
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When Whites Gawk at Black Performance
In a piece at Slate, Aisha Harris describes how white people are often peculiarly fascinated by black performance, and how their praise and gawking can often be demonstrative of a “fetishization” of black people and black culture. I get it — most white people rarely ever have to consider their whiteness in social settings, so they…
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Another Crisis: Debt Ceiling Looms
(The Root) — The government is facing an economic catastrophe this week that could affect everything from mortgage interest rates to food stamps. If Congress doesn’t reach an agreement on raising the debt ceiling — the amount the country can borrow to pay its bills — the U.S. could begin to default on its loan…
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Rihanna's Tweets Land a Man in Jail
Like most entertainers, Rihanna uses social media to connect with her fans from around the world, as well as promote her entire life to maintain her notoriety and fame in the public eye. But all that tweeting and Instagramming may be doing others more harm than good. A bar owner in Thailand has been apprehended…
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Is Nicole Beharie TV's Next Kerry Washington?
To those who never found the Scandal bandwagon appealing, who think Kerry Washington’s performance as Olivia Pope has always been a tad over the top, yet who feel it’s important to support shows with a person of color in the lead: The people at Fox would like you to meet Nicole Beharie. The Juilliard-trained actress…