culture
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Bride Sentenced for Killing Groom on Wedding Day
In Pennsylvania on Thursday, Na Cola Franklin was found guilty of stabbing her fiance, Billy Brewster, to death just hours before her wedding. The Daily News reports that Franklin was sentenced to life without parole. The couple were arguing at 2 a.m. on the day of their nuptials — Aug. 11, 2012 — after Brewster…
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How the Boy Scouts Are Still Discriminatory
Many have compared the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender struggle for equality to the African-American fight for civil rights, and after the Boy Scouts’ recent decision to admit gay Scouts but ban gay leaders, John Aravosis cites similarities on the America Blog. Whatever. I’m glad the Boy Scouts took a step towards non-discrimination, but telling…
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A Plan for Finding and Keeping Self-Love
Sometimes self-love is tough, especially when you think you might not be the right size or have the right amount of zeros in your bank account. But Jamilah Lemieux writes at Clutch magazine that happiness and security are about loving yourself, all by yourself. You have the sister who shops herself broke trying to keep…
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It's Not Your Grandmother's NAACP
(The Root) — In 2005 the NAACP took a look at its membership and, more important, the people who were not members. There was the robust Youth & College Division, but then, as National Board Chairman Roslyn Brock puts it, “After you’re 25, we lose you — you’re graduating from college, starting your family, starting…
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A Black Hero of the Trojan War
(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 black archer, carrying a short bow and wearing a quiver of arrows on…
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Senate Accepts Proposal to Keep Food Stamps From Ex-Cons
Food stamps are on the chopping block again. This time Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana has presented an amendment to permanently drop ex-violent offenders from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, reports Colorlines. Does this remind anyone else of that other proposal to cut food stamps to families with children underperforming in school? According to…
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How Did Vikings End Up in My Family Tree?
(The Root) — Sometimes DNA testing can yield results that will leave you scratching your head, as was the case with the reader below. “I recently did a DNA test using Family Tree DNA’s service, and the results are 10.53 percent European (specifically Finnish, French, Orcadian, Romanian, Russian, with a margin of error of +0.08 percent)…
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Spanish Teacher Files Lawsuit Over Firing for Saying 'Negro'
Petrona Smith, a New York educator, has filed a lawsuit claiming that she was fired from a Bronx school in March 2012 after she used the word “negro” in class, reports Yahoo. Officials at P.S. 211 have not responded to the charges. The non-tenured teacher, 65-year-old Petrona Smith, maintains that she was instructing her class about…
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Oldest Living Person in US: Be Nice, Worship God and Eat Pigs' Feet
Despite what many doctors advise, 114-year-old Jeralean Talley of Inkster, Mich., America’s oldest living person, says her secret to a long life is to be nice, worship God — and eat pigs’ feet, Time reveals. In a phone conversation on the eve of her 114th birthday, Talley told TIME, “I feel okay.” These days, the…
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Interested in a Real New York 'Ghetto' Bus Tour?
Ever thought of looking at poor families in line for a food bank as entertainment? Well, Real Bronx Tours did. The New York tour-bus company offered, until earlier this week, a sightseeing jaunt featuring “a ride through a real New York City ‘GHETTO,’ ” where tourists could gawk at poor families in line for food banks. But…