culture
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Black Public Figures Are Being Silenced for Calling Out White Supremacy
Blackness is a box. Its sides are close enough that if you spread your arms out far enough, you can touch them with both hands. While its ceiling may be tall, if you fly high enough or long enough, you will eventually crash into it. It is an inescapable boundary that every black person in…
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The White People Are Coming! 6 Signs Your Neighborhood Is Being Gentrified
Centuries before anyone noticed Christopher Columbus wandering around the Bahamas searching for gold and a place to buy caramel decaf frappuccinos, wypipo had long been moving into brown neighborhoods and planting flags. It’s how apartheid started. It’s why people in Brazil speak Portuguese. It’s why the Native American genocide was rebranded as “manifest destiny.” Now…
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I Love Watching Insecure With Twitter and I Hate Watching Insecure With Twitter
I like to watch certain shows alongside social media because it gives me the chance to see what other people are thinking without being burdened by the sound of their voices interrupting the dialogue. This has long been true for me when it comes to reality shows like Love & Hip Hop and The Real…
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A Black Person’s Guide to Happily Watching Football During the #BoycottNFL Era
I spent just about all of Sunday watching football, from the early-afternoon games to the 4:30 p.m. game to that horrible night game (followed by an Insecure season finale watch party with friends—I’m #TeamDaniel). Do I feel guilty? Nah. Do I feel like the guy still taking the 503 line during the Montgomery Bus Boycott?…
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You Ain’t Got the Juice: Why Arrow Has No Business Addressing #BlackLivesMatter
In 2017 the TV landscape, despite the persistent whiteness of some networks like CBS, is looking a bit more … colorful. We certainly have heavy hitters like Shonda Rhimes and Ava DuVernay to thank for this, as their creations are sorely needed, especially as we dwell under the “leadership” (gag me) of the despotic Orange.…
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The Root 100 No. 1s: Beyoncé Will Forever Be Bey-ond. She’s So Fly, They Named a Fly After Her
What can be said about Queen Bey that hasn’t already been said, done, sung, texted, tweeted, explicated, unpacked, imagined? In an age when there are very few true superstars, she stands alone; one of a few black women, one of a few of her generation. Who else but a few aging rock stars is able…
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If You’re a Black Man Watching Football This Sunday, Here Are 25 Things I Already Know About You
The NFL season is upon us, and if you are a self-respecting black man, you don’t give a shit because you’re protesting this season for the way the league has treated Colin Kaepernick, whose silent stance against the killings of unarmed black, men, women and children has led him to being whiteballed by the NFL.…
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From The Wire to The Deuce: David Simon, George Pelecanos and Lawrence Gilliard Jr. Discuss HBO’s Newest Series
In an early scene of The Deuce, premiering on HBO on Sunday night, smooth-talking C.C. (Gary Carr), freshly permed and curled and in a pin-striped suit, spots a fresh-faced white girl to spit that talk. He’s in a bus station in New York City in 1971, and pimping is still a viable living for a…
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Undocumented Black Immigrants May Fare Worse Without DACA Protections
Tobore Oweh knows the next six months of her life will be stressful after Donald Trump’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program Tuesday. She is one of 800,000 people covered under the Obama-era policy who fears the worst if Congress doesn’t come together to resolve the crisis Trump created. She and…