culture
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Issa Rae on an All-Black Version of 'The View'?
Coming soon from Magic Johnson’s Aspire network: a show called Exhale, which Jezebel described on Tuesday as “essentially a View hosted by five black women instead of Elisabeth Hasselbeck and the voices in her head.” Exhale’s five co-hosts, according to Variety, are: journalist Angela Burt-Murray, actress and comedian Erin Jackson, helmer Issa Rae, author and…
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Celibate and Black? There's a Dating Site for You
Dating sites geared generally to singles looking for love are so 10 years ago. At least that’s what it seems based on an Essence interview with the founder of BlackCelibacy.com, which is designed for — you guessed it — people who are not just black, not just black and Christian, but are black and Christian…
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4 Tony Nods Each for 'Motown,' 'The Trip to Bountiful'
The 2013 Tony Award nominations were announced Tuesday morning in New York. Some highlights for African-American theater: Actresses Cicely Tyson and Condola Rashad are up for honors for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play and Best Performance in a Featured Role in a Play, respectively. Plus, the productions in…
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Why Don't All Women Think They Can Lead?
(The Root) — “Can a woman really make a good leader?” I rolled my eyes dramatically and looked out at the Brooklyn, N.Y., skyline. I’d been invited to a rooftop event, a monthly brunch when a group of mostly accomplished women, with degrees and jobs and probably a side hustle or two, gather to network.…
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GOP Strategist: America Is Tired of Right-Wing Radio
In the Daily News, Stanley Crouch weighs in on the leaked comments of GOP strategist Frank Luntz, who said that right-wing radio is keeping moderate Republicans from achieving a compromise on immigration. It’s about time the party recognized the problem. When things are especially harrowing, we hope that our leaders can lead us to the…
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America Gets Outraged Only When Gun Violence Hits Whites
Arguing that Americans get outraged only when gun violence occurs in white neighborhoods, blogger Mia McKenzie rails against the country’s double standard in a piece for the Guardian. On 24 April in the town where I live, a wonderful town that I love, a woman was shot to death in front of her four-year-old son,…
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Jason Collins Says 'I'm Gay' in the NBA: Why This Is Huge
In the Huffington Post, Michelangelo Signorile applauds Washington Wizards center Jason Collins’ decision to announce that he is gay, saying that it will go a long way toward helping to break down barriers for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. The magnitude of NBA player Jason Collins’ coming out today cannot be overestimated. He breaks…
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A Female-Friendly, Fiery Nubian Saint
(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. The legacy of this remarkable black saint, whose story of persecution and victory begins in ancient Nubia, found its…
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North Carolina NAACP Protests GOP Initiatives
(The Root) — Seventeen people were arrested on Monday during a nonviolent “pray-in” at the North Carolina General Assembly, which was held by the NAACP to call attention to the state’s Republican-led assault against the civil rights of poor and minority voters. Ben Wrobel, a spokesman for the National NAACP, said that the men and…
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It's a First: Black Voting Rate in 2012 Higher Than White Rate
The Associated Press is reporting that for the first time, African American voters turned out at a higher rate than whites and other minority groups in 2012, reflecting a deeply divided presidential election in which blacks cast ballots in large numbers for Barack Obama and many whites failed to show up at the polls. Had…