racism
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Guess Who Thinks Black People Aren’t Trying Hard Enough to Succeed?
That’s a trick question, of course. Basically, the whites are at it again, back at it with another “Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps” story. A recent poll published by YouGov (pdf) on Wednesday (h/t Newsweek) showed that some 40 percent of white Americans think that black people are just not trying hard enough…
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North Carolina Mother Upset After 2nd-Grade Son Is Sent Home With Paper Explaining ‘White Privilege’
A Raleigh, N.C., parent is not too pleased after her second-grade son came home from Hunter Magnet Elementary with a sheet explaining white privilege. According to WTVD-TV, the incident occurred last month. Amber Pabon saw the two-sided sheet of paper in her son’s folder, with one side discussing white representation in the government, media and…
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Government Study: School Is Racist
That headline could go down as the greatest clickbait of all time if it weren’t for the fact that a new report found that—regardless of the racial makeup of the school, the type of punishment, the level of poverty in the school or grade level—black students are much more likely than their white counterparts to…
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What We Mean When We Call White People ‘Colonizers’
I’ve included references to East Liberty—a neighborhood in Pittsburgh’s East End—in pieces I’ve written for VSB, Ebony, Slate and GQ, and it’s peppered throughout my book. There’s an entire chapter, for instance, devoted to the changes it’s undergone in the past 20 years. I do this because it’s where I spent many of my formative…
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‘I Hope That Doesn’t Offend Anybody,’ Says White Man Who Repeatedly Uses the N-Word
The city of Griffin, Ga., has a lot going on right now. On March 27, the Atlanta suburb declared the month of April to be Confederate History Month. That same day, the city commission had a meeting to allow the public to voice their concerns, comments and ask questions about the proclamation. One man’s comments…
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White Woman Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for Racist Tirade Appears in Court With … Cornrows
I do not know Vicki Momberg, the South African woman sentenced to three years in prison after her racist tirade toward a black police officer, so I won’t pretend to know why she decided to appear in court Wednesday with fresh cornrows. But I’ve got theories and suspicions! So many theories and suspicions! While in…
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How Racist Would You Be if Black People Could Actually Be Racist?
One of the great disappointments in my life—perhaps the greatest disappointment, really—is that black people in America do not possess the ability to be racist. We can try our damnedest and hate our hardest, but because of the way racism works, we’ll never quite be able to wield the sought-after status of “racist.” Which, in…
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White South African Woman to Spend 2 Years in Prison for Yelling Racial Slurs at Black Officer
In a landmark ruling, for what lawyers believe to be the first time ever in South Africa, a person has been sentenced to prison for verbal racial abuse. According to The Guardian, Vicki Momberg was sentenced to three years in prison (with one year suspended) for hurling offensive, racist slurs at a black police officer…
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Judge of Characters: Learning to Share the Culture When Black Panther Goes Beyond the Black Community
Black Panther has revolutionized superhero movies—well movies in general. The film with the predominantly black cast has broken records, sparked community service and inspired STEM center openings around the United States, and with that greatness comes the responsibility of sharing the culture. It’s very obvious that black people experience T’Challa and his kingdom in a…
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Reverse Racism, Explained
Why not? And by “many people” I assume you mean … That’s OK. You should know that I absolutely believe that black people can be racist. I don’t, however, use the terminology “reverse racism” or believe that using words that offend white people is an act of racism. Most of the time, when white people…