culture
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From Miss America to Republican Congresswoman?
Erika Harold reportedly ran for Miss America (and won) in 2003 as a “dry run” for a political race. Now the Harvard Law School graduate, who has spoken at the Republican National Convention and who combined abstinence-only education with an anti-bullying message (she says she was “racially and sexually harassed” as a child) in her…
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I Went to an HBCU to Experience Being a Minority
Writing at The Root DC, Alyssa Paddock explains why, despite being white, she chose to attend a historically black college. There’s the obvious: She got a lacrosse scholarship. And then there’s another reason: The self-imposed challenge of being a racial minority for the first time. Plus, Paddock says, her view of race as a nonissue…
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What Lautenberg's Death Means for Cory Booker
The death of New Jersey Sen, Frank Lautenberg, the “liberal lion” who served five terms, has changed the political landscape of the Garden State, especially for Newark Mayor Cory Booker. While Booker is praising the late politician as a “true champion” who “worked to make America a stronger, healthier and safer place to live,” others…
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George Zimmerman Will Go on Trial, Not Trayvon Martin
The Huffington Post’s Mark I. Pinsky is dishing out legal analysis about the George Zimmerman defense team’s attempt to make use of Trayvon Martin’s past bouts with marijuana use and fighting. Pinsky also explores the relevance of the case’s racial aspects to the legal proceedings. At a May 28 hearing, Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson ruled…
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Who Cares If Women Are the Breadwinners?
(The Root) — A couple of weeks ago, a frustrated single woman wrote into Ask Demetria, the other column I write for The Root each Thursday, to, well, ask if she should only date men who made as much as, or more money than, she does. She has been open to entertaining men whose income…
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Black Power, 19th-Century Style
(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. A superbly muscled black man lies on a featureless terrain, his face fixed on…
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Michael Steele and Reince Preibus Judged by Different Standards
In a piece for Ebony, Michael Arceneaux sheds light on former Chairman of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele’s problem with his successor. Arceneaux describes and sympathizes with Steele’s frustration that Reince Priebus is not being taken to task for once supporting some of Steele’s unpopular decisions. Two months ago, Steele gave an interview…
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I'm Pregnant, and I Have a Mother-in-Law From Hell
An expectant mother has concerns about bringing a child into the world while a war with her overbearing mother-in-law rages on. She describes her battle to writer Danielle T. Pointdujour at Ebony. From the minute I walked through the door she was on me. She attacked everything from my hair to my major at the…
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Michael Steele 'Looking at' a Run for Governor
A role as an MSNBC contributor evidently isn’t enough to satisfy former (and first African-American) Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s appetite for politics. Plus, he says, he loves his home state of Maryland. Steele, who has recently had his share of blunt commentary about his party’s relationship with minority voters, told Chuck Todd that…
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Supreme Court OKs Warrantless DNA Collection
In a 5-4 decision announced on Monday that created what the American Civil Liberties Union called “a gaping new exception to the Fourth Amendment,” the Supreme Court ruled that police can use cheek swabs to take DNA from people they arrest, the Washington Post reports. It’s “like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that…