culture
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Richard Pryor Created Laughter From Pain
(The Root) — Before there was Tracy Morgan, Dave Chappelle or Eddie Murphy, there was Richard Pryor, one of the greatest comedians to ever live. Now a new documentary about Pryor explores just how much he influenced those who came after him and how much of a toll his groundbreaking comedy took on his life.…
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Jason Collins Is the Envy of Straight Men Everywhere
Sherman Alexie of The Stranger presents a self-deprecating explanation for envy of the NBA player. Once, in a private box at a Mariners game, a dude (married to a woman, who was five feet away) stealthily pushed his crotch against my blue-jeaned butt. That guy wore his closet like it was a pair of khaki…
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Did The Week Cover Just Turn White Bombing Suspects Brown?
Gawker‘s Cord Jefferson says he’s feeling “sort of in the dark” about an illustration of the Boston bombing suspects on the cover the The Week magazine that shows them looking, well, to use the terminology of the infamous CNN slipup, relatively “dark-skinned.” Jefferson’s take on the publication’s perspective: “If the terrorists won’t do us the…
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What's Hot Among Blacks on Twitter?
(The Root) — At any given moment, conversations on Twitter can range from the serious to the intellectual to the absurd — offering a fascinating look into the thoughts, motivations and desires of a diverse swath of people. But break up that group into a specific demographic, and things get even more interesting. According to…
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Chris Kelly: Police Investigate Possible Drug Overdose
Updated Thursday, May 2, 5:04 p.m. EDT: Kelly’s death “may have been a possible drug overdose,” Cpl. Kay Lester, a spokeswoman for the Fulton County, Ga., police, told CBS News. This, she said, was based on statements received at the scene as well as evidence that turned up at Kelly’s home in south Atlanta. Earlier: Chris “Mac…
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Should Mother's Day Be Anti-Gun Day?
(The Root) — BET President Debra Lee and National Action Network founder the Rev. Al Sharpton were joined by Cleopatra Pendleton, the mother of Hadiya Pendleton, to announce the launch of MOM, Mothers on a Mission Against Urban Gun Violence. The initiative is being rolled out in May to coincide with the Mother’s Day holiday.…
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Assata Shakur: 1st Woman on FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists List
Assata Shakur (formerly known as Joanne Chesimard), the Black Liberation Army member who killed a New Jersey state trooper in 1973 and escaped from prison in 1979, has been placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list, New York’s Daily News reports. Officials from the FBI and the New Jersey state police announced on…
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I Sided Against Him in a Family Feud; He's Mad
(The Root) — “My boyfriend invited me to a cookout with his family at his mother’s house over the weekend. It started off OK, but he got into a heated argument — yelling, cursing and all — with some of his family about an ongoing family issue. He was wrong, and I flatly told him…
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Boston Suspect's Friend in Custody: 'I'm an Average Guy'
UPDATED Thursday, May 2, 10:52 a.m. EDT: A YouTube video uploaded last year shows Robel Phillipos, one of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s three college friends currently held by police, CBS News reports. In what appears to be a clip uploaded for a March 2012 school project, Phillipos says, “I grew up in a very…