culture
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The Rape of Recy Taylor Looks Back at a Horrific but Largely Forgotten Case From the Jim Crow South
Say her name: Recy Taylor. In 1944, 24-year-old Recy Taylor and two friends were walking back from a late-night church service in Abbeville, Ala., when seven young white men in a car stopped them and threatened them with a gun. Taylor was forced to enter the car, and the men drove off with her into…
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How to Protest Without Offending White People
Many people were surprised when President Donald Trump suggested that NFL team owners fire players who quietly choose to sit out the national anthem before games, but I was not one of them. Even though they thought they’d solved the anthem problem by blackballing protest starter Colin Kaepernick, the residual insolence displayed by the players…
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10 Things Less Disrespectful Than Kneeling During the Anthem (According to Donald Trump)
According to the twisted logic of Donald J. Trump (the “J” stands for “jerks off to pee porn”), anyone who chooses to kneel during a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is disrespecting the flag, hates soldiers, and was born to and raised by a bitch. While it is understandable that some are protective of the…
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Patriotism Is for White People
The American flag, drenched in the blood of American Indians and enslaved Africans, has been romanticized as a symbol of guardianship for all citizens of this nation. One of the main centerpieces of patriotism encapsulated in the flag’s meaning is military service. Be it the Revolutionary or Civil War, World War I or II, or…
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Best Part of Congressional Black Caucus Week? Exclusive Footage of Marvel’s Black Panther
These are some of the things the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference is known for: policy talk for the black community, mixed in with big parties, behind-the-scenes shenanigans and profilin’ outfits. This year was the same, with one huge exception : The panel put together by first-term Rep. Val Demmings (from Florida’s 10th…
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Black Men Still Watching the NFL Are Running Out of Excuses
On Friday, President Trump gave an impassioned white-power speech during a rally in Alabama. What has been widely reported is that Trump called players who protested “sons of bitches.” “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field…
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This Was Never About the Anthem
When Sharp Cheddar Stalin called the mothers of NFL players “bitches” in Huntsville, Ala., his hillbilly conservative base cheered him on because he vilified the men for disrespecting “our flag.” He castigated them for not showing the proper reverence for the national anthem. Welcome to another game of “stupid or liar.” You already know the…
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Can an All-Boys, Afrocentric Education Close the Achievement Gap?
“I am the pink flower” is not the kind of thing a ninth-grade boy usually says with a straight face, especially not in a room filled with other teenage boys. But the young men in Schalette Gudger’s English class at Ron Brown College Preparatory High School, a new all-boys public school in Washington, D.C., were…
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Is Burning Man Just a White-People Thing?
Last year I attended Burning Man for the first time, convinced by a friend who had returned from the event in 2015 bubbling over with excitement. “You have to come with me,” she told me and another (black) friend. “We’ll make our camp the blackest one out there.” She was only kind of joking. Months…