oakland
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When Barbecuing and Living While Black Becomes a Crime
“Pay it forward” is something you hear a lot in the restaurants and shops of Oakland, Calif. If you see a stranger in distress and you can help, you stop what you are doing and support them. The concept of doing for someone as you would want them to do to you is a fundamental…
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Oakland, Calif., Holds Massive #BBQingWhileBlack Festival at Lake Merritt
Hundreds of Oakland, Calif., residents were at Oakland’s Lake Merritt Park over the weekend to prove that one Barbecue Becky won’t stop their grilling show. The festival was a middle finger to the white woman who called police on a family using a charcoal grill at the park two weeks ago. The viral video of…
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I Went to UC Berkeley and Apparently Saw More Black People Than Anybody Ever Has There
I recently got back from attending a race and policy symposium sponsored by the Students of Color in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. I had the distinct pleasure of being the keynote speaker for their conference, titled, “Reclaiming Our Time: The Importance of Identity in Policymaking.” I…
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The Hood Incubator: Oakland, Calif., Organization Empowers Black Communities to Take Ownership of Cannabis Industry [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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Can’t We All Just Get Along? Black Panther Is Revisionist History
Editor’s note: There are spoilers here. I admittedly missed a couple of key details during my first trip to Wakanda. Something about a nerdtastic property holding such cultural significance put me in a state of bliss. So I made a return trip, you know, to make sure I didn’t miss anything. (Yeah, sure. That’s the…
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Former Black Panther Leader Elaine Brown Receives $4,000,000 From Oakland, Calif., Jury for Elder Abuse
Elaine Brown, former leader of the Black Panther Party, was recently awarded more than $4 million by a Northern California jury, stemming from what was determined to be an assault by an Oakland, Calif., councilwoman in 2015. Last week, a jury found that Councilwoman Desley Brooks should pay $550,000 to Brown, who was injured after…
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8 Songs That Were Made for People With Locs
According to philosopher king and wordsmith savant E-40 Fonzarelli of the Vallejo, Calif., Fonzarellis, “Jesus Christ had dreads. So shake ’em.” I ain’t got none, but I’m planning on growing some. Or at least I would if God didn’t feel differently about my hairline and would energize my follicles. It seems rather far down his…
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Watch: In Focus With Director Justin Tipping, Whose Film Kicks Challenges Our Perception of Manhood
Editor’s note: In Focus is a The Root TV series showcasing the new wave of black filmmakers. Justin Tipping is the writer and director of Kicks, a story set in Oakland, Calif., about a young teenager whose dream is to own a pair of fresh Air Jordans. Soon after he gets his hands on them,…
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Punter Marquette King Kicks Balls and Tickles the Ivories
Marquette King is a man of many talents. When he’s not kicking the shit out of a football, he’s making mediocre rap music sound better. Watch King kill this version of Post Malone’s “White Iverson”: He also nailed Anita Baker’s classic “Sweet Love”: And some Maroon 5 song, because apparently Maroon 5 is still…
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33 Confirmed Dead in Oakland, Calif., Warehouse Fire
Updated Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016, at 11:55 p.m. EDT: Searchers have now found 33 bodies in the rubble of the so-called Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, Calif., the New York Daily News reports. Some of the victims have been identified, including a 17-year-old, but many are burned beyond recognition, and authorities will need more time…