culture
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Should a Racist Grade Your Papers? Students Discover White Supremacists Teaching at Their Universities
Whenever I see Ku Klux Klan rallies or skinheads marching, instead of hate, I am always filled with a sense of curiosity. What do white supremacists do when they’re not white-supremacy-ing? There’s only so much time one can fill denying holocausts and soaking crosses in kerosene for nighttime activities. More important, I wonder where they…
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Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith Talk Success of Girls Trip and Sequel Possibilities
It would be an understatement to say that Girls Trip was a blockbuster success this summer. And with an all-star lineup of black woman magic—Tiffany Haddish, Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah—the film proved that black women can bring the funny and the money. The actresses play four lifelong friends who call themselves…
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Michelle Alexander on the War on Drugs: The Color of Drug Users Got Whiter, the Nation Got Nicer [Retracted]
RETRACTED (6/12/18): This story has been removed because we have discovered it was in breach of our editorial standards. If you’d like to know more, you can read an editor’s note here. A cached version of the story is available here for transparency.
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Janaya Khan, Black Lives Matter Leader, Dismantles FBI’s Fraudulent ‘Black Identity Extremist’ Report
From the days of COINTELPRO—the targeting of black human rights leaders and sowing dissent within the ranks of black organizations committed to freedom and liberation for black people—to its unofficial subsidiaries like the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, whose sole purpose was to violently oppress black communities, the FBI has often operated as a terrorist group out…
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#SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, Part 2: On Rose McGowan and the Continued Failure of White Feminism
For once … I’d like to be wrong. For once, I’d like white feminists to not be so damn predictable. For once, I’d like white feminists to prove me wrong and do the complete opposite of what I expect them to do. For once, I’d like them to deviate from their typical play where they…
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Anthems I’d Stand For, Ranked
I have always stood for the national anthem—not because I believe in America and want to honor my country. I did it because … well … being black in America comes with the knowledge that there are certain things you must do just so you won’t piss off white people. But since this whole Colin…
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The Bolshevik Revolution Took Place 100 Years Ago. What Is Its Legacy With Black People?
One of the most powerful proclamations of the Bolshevik Revolution was that it would form a nation where everyone would be treated equally. The Kremlin was eager to exploit Western imperialism in Africa and the United States, where colonialism and Jim Crow were the rules of the land. The pledge was very appealing to black…
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For Dreadlocked Servicewomen, the Fight for Acceptance Is Both a Military and Civilian Battle
First Lt. Whennah Andrews of the U.S. Army National Guard tries to hide her braces while showing off her smile. But four years since first advocating against grooming regulations that barred soldiers from wearing natural hairstyles, her smile hints at relief over one of the final steps in the fight for acceptance. A decade-old ban…
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For Those Considering Blaxit, I Present to You: Japan
If Hollywood is to be believed, then gap years are the sole domain of white folks “finding themselves” in foreign lands. From Sean Penn’s accidental comedy Into the Wild, in which a diary entry that keeps threatening like a storm cloud to be a meaningful anecdote is reduced to an absurd cautionary tale about the…
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Black Heroes for Hire: Scratching the Black Panther Itch
As colorful as comics are, they have not always been kind to people of color. Even though Stan Lee and Marvel were bold enough to create the X-Men in reaction to the civil rights movement, not everyone else was so enlightened or has been so enlightened since (see #DonaldforSpiderman). The gap is noticeably present in…