culture
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Donald Glover Creating New TV Series
Comedian and actor Donald Glover, aka rapper Childish Gambino, will now add showrunner to his growing list of multihyphenates. Glover will executive-produce, write and star in a new television series currently in development with FX, according to Deadline. Tentatively entitled Atlanta, the comedy is set against the backdrop of the Atlanta music scene. Glover grew up…
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Riley Cooper Doesn't Want Teammates' Forgiveness
Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper, who was caught last week on tape saying the n-word at a Kenny Chesney concert, returned to the team’s training camp with a surprising message to the media: He has told all of his teammates not to exonerate him for his remarks, according to ESPN. “I talked to everyone…
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Is Hair Care Oppressing My Black Daughter?
(The Root) — “I’m (white) Latina and my husband is African American. We have little girls the same age from previous relationships. His daughter is with us for the summer, and we are not seeing eye-to-eye on her hair. He and his mother think she should sit to have her hair braided, which hurts her…
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The Many Faces of Idris Elba
(The Root) — For nearly 10 years, Idris Elba has been nothing short of an international star. From his deep baritone as the drug kingpin Russell “Stringer” Bell in HBO’s The Wire to his recent success on the Hollywood circuit, he has become one of today’s most versatile actors. Later this year he’ll star as…
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Issa Rae to Star in HBO Comedy Series
According to Deadline, Internet star Issa Rae and Larry Wilmore, creator of The Bernie Mac Show, have teamed up to co-write a comedy series for HBO. The project focuses on the awkward experiences and racy tribulations of a modern day African-American woman. These are also themes Rae has tackled in her successful webseries, The Misadventures Of…
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Raven-Symoné Privileged to Tweet About Her Sexuality
Actress Raven-Symoné’s established career enables her to post on Twitter about her same-sex relationship, but it’s a freedom that eludes most actresses, Allison Samuels argues in a piece at the the Daily Beast. “Interracial relationships and sex-same relationships are still subjects most famous people of color won’t discuss,” says black film historian and NYU film professor…
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Jazz Legend George Duke Dies at 67
Legendary jazz musician George Duke passed away on Monday at the age of 67, the Associated Press is reporting. He had been receiving treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The keyboardist and producer, who worked in a variety of genres with luminaries ranging from Quincy Jones to Miles Davis, had just released the album DreamWeaver, which…
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Where Are All the Cover Girls of Color?
A study done by the Huffington Post takes a critical look at the lack of diversity on magazine covers. The study tallied the number of white and black women who graced the cover of magazines like Cosmo and Teen Vogue from September 2012 to September 2013. While there was a 50-50 split for some publications,…
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A Glance at Antebellum Black Southern Life
(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 Institute for African and African American Research. Within the plain, candlelit space of a large, open-raftered kitchen, a convivial gathering of…
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Tawana Brawley Needs to Come Clean
(The Root) — In 1987 a 15-year-old black girl from upstate New York became the center of a national media circus. Tawana Brawley had gone missing, which, of course, wasn’t the story. It was when she was found that all hell broke loose. After her four-day absence, a neighbor discovered Brawley, seemingly unconscious and unresponsive,…