culture
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Tyson Gay Tests Positive for Doping
Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay tested positive for an unnamed banned substance on Friday, PBS Newshour reports. The 30-year-old athlete had a reputation for being clean. Gay announced the news himself and said that he had trusted someone who failed him. CHRISTINE BRENNAN [sports journalist]: … Tyson Gay was known as Mr. Clean. This is a…
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Hope for Hate-Crime Charges Against Zimmerman?
Update: The Department of Justice announced on Sunday, after George Zimmerman’s acquittal, that it would restart its investigation into the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin and consider possible separate hate crime charges against Zimmerman. “Experienced federal prosecutors will determine whether the evidence reveals a prosecutable violation of any of the limited federal criminal civil rights statutes…
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Doctor Diagnoses Patient With 'Ghetto Booty'
Lumbar lordosis is the technical term for a curve in the lower spine, which can cause a protrusion of the buttocks. But when Terry Ragland of Jackson, Tenn., was diagnosed with the condition, Dr. Timothy Sweo chose to phrase it differently. “He said, ‘I know what the problem is. It’s ghetto booty,’ ” Ragland told…
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'Trayvon, Redux,' by Rita Dove
Rita Dove, former poet laureate of the United States, penned a poem inspired by George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of unarmed African-American teen Trayvon Martin. Trayvon, Redux It is difficult/to get the news from poems /yet men die miserably every day/for lack/of what is found there./Hear me out/for I too am concerned/and every man/who…
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Soul Singer Attacked for Dedicating Song to Trayvon Martin
When 73-year-old soul singer Lester Chambers took time out of his performance to dedicate his rendition of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” to the life of Trayvon Martin, there was a chance some people would walk out in protest. What he didn’t expect was one audience member to charge the stage instead, but that’s exactly…
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After the Shock, Some Reflection
(The Root) — I wanted to write something eloquent about George Zimmerman being found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter. It’s all that’s been on my mind since I was scanning Sirius stations Saturday night as I drove back to New York and heard a DJ repeating, “Not guilty? Not guilty? Not guilty?” Each…
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Everyone Is a Victim of Racism
In her piece for Salon, Roxane Gay argues that racism hurts everyone. She explores the racism that led to the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. A young and unarmed black man was walking home from a convenience store and was murdered by a man with a gun who claimed he was defending himself.…
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Killing in Self-Defense: You Better Be White
(The Root) — It doesn’t hurt to have a little white privilege on your side. If you can get it. And George Zimmerman got the most out of what privilege he had after being found not guilty in the murder of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. After the verdict, Zimmerman’s attorneys held a press conference, and…
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Attorney General Has a Case Against Zimmerman
The Justice Department would have a strong civil rights case against George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin, if it chooses to file charges, Earl Ofari Hutchinson says in a piece for the Huffington Post. The moment George Zimmerman was acquitted, the NAACP and the Reverend Al Sharpton immediately called on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder…
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White Folks Riot, Too
In light of the assumption that black people would riot after the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, Edward Wyckoff Williams writes in Salon, it’s important to remember that whites have their own history of violent rioting. If there is no justice, there can be no peace. But in the American South it seems…