death
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Killsplaining: Whether White Supremacist Cop or Wayward Teen, No One Asks to Be Murdered
We are starting to become a nation of excuses. A nation that shoots first and then looks through your personnel file to explain away why the shooting was valid. I am not a fan of uncovering the past of a person who was unjustifiably killed. If a person is killed by a rogue police officer…
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5 Things That Show America Has Gotten Worse Since Dallas Shootings
It has been less than a week since the “newsplosion” of the police-shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and the ambush of five Dallas police officers, and America is still in recovery mode. There have been the obligatory calls for healing, ubiquitous photos of black people hugging white police officers and a few…
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The 2nd Amendment Is So White: What the Past 24 Hours Have Taught Me About Black People’s Right to Bear Arms
In less than 24 hours, two black men have been killed by police officers even though the Second Amendment indicates that they should have been protected. Black America yet again bears witness to state-sanctioned violence at the hands of trigger-happy rogue cops—one in Louisiana, a state that has open-carry laws, and the other in Minnesota,…
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Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby Is Receiving Death Threats
Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who charged six police officers in connection with Freddie Gray’s death, has had to increase her security detail after she reportedly received hate mail and threats at her office. “Our office has received, and she has personally received, a number of offensive and extremely disturbing, racist, sexist hate mail…
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Lee Wesley Gibson, the Oldest Pullman Porter, Dies at 106
Lee Wesley Gibson, believed to have been the oldest living Pullman porter, died Saturday at his home, surrounded by family. He was 106 years old. “He had just celebrated his birthday five weeks earlier and he thanked everyone,” family friend Rosalind Stevenson told the Los Angeles Times. Gibson started working as a coach attendant with…
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Michael Jackson Died 7 Years Ago and His Legacy Still Eludes Us; Maybe That's How He Wanted It
Seven years after his death, Michael Jackson continues to elude and astonish us. But we now know this was how he intended it. Spike Lee’s recent documentary about Jackson’s early years features a letter Jackson wrote in 1979, at age 21. He had just released Off the Wall and was on the Destiny tour with…
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Is Orange the New Black Lives Matter? 6 Moments When OITNB Kept It Too Real on Race
“Can’t we have a race war? It’ll be fun!” Cindy—everyone’s favorite Afro-puff enthusiast—exclaims in the premiere of season 4 of Orange Is the New Black. Be careful what you wish for; this entire season is a study in what happens when microaggressions go macro. Frankly, I wasn’t ready. If you’ve yet to watch the new…
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NYC Mom Indicted After Toddler Dies in Fire
A Brooklyn, N.Y., mother has been indicted on multiple charges by a grand jury after her 2-year-old daughter died in an apartment fire while she was out working, the New York Post reports. Leila Aquino, 20, will now face charges of criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child in the…
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Cedric Robinson, Author of Black Marxism, Died This Month to Little Fanfare, but Not Before He Changed My Life
I know that many are given to hyperbole upon learning that a person they revere has gone to be with the ancestors, but it is not an overstatement to say that Cedric Robinson, who passed away on June 5, truly changed my life. I was a graduate student in 2006 when I came across a…
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‘Project Pat’ Buchanan Really Needs to Stop It With This ‘Death of the White Middle Class’ Nonsense
When it comes to the subgenre of punditry best described as “crotchety, delusional conservative white man,” Pat Buchanan has long been its shining star. To Buchanan’s credit, he’s been consistently curmudgeonly about America’s shifting demographics for decades. In 1992 Buchanan infamously spoke of a “culture war” plaguing the United States during a speech at that…