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What Is a 'Feminista,' Exactly?
Editor’s note, June 15, 2012: The staff of The Root was saddened to learn of the recent death of writer Erica Kennedy. We will update our readers with more news about this tragic development as it comes in. Erica Kennedy and I go way back … to Facebook. We “met” last year while she was…
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Federal Worker Hanged, 'Fed' Scrawled Across Chest
Good grief. From The AP: The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found Sept. 12 in the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. Investigators have said little about the case. A law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, tells…
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Bitch is the New Black, the Movie
There’s a lot of debate about the movie adaptation for Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” because of Tyler Perry’s attachment to the project. Folks are either supportive or straight up mad. That’s the Catch-22 of turning literary works into movies. It’s great that books, and in…
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Cuba's Real Revolution
You’ve seen ‘em: the crazy Cubans, the flag and placard-waving anti-Commies who shout down any and all opposition, the red-faced exiles who cluster outside Versailles Restaurant in Miami—the epicenter of Cuban-American mayhem—whenever Cuba’s in the news. TV stations love ‘em: They provide great footage of grown men and women screaming, giving each other the finger…
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Obama on Race at the UN
Making his first appearance before the United Nations General Assembly as president, Barack Obama laid out a forceful, well-received case for international cooperation in a globalized world. He laid out “four pillars” that would determine America’s relationship to the diplomatic and peacekeeping body going forward: nuclear disarmament, energy security and climate change, democracy promotion and…
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Complexion for the Rejection: Philly Swim Club Fined for Racism
Sometimes, friends, maintaining “the complexion” of your pool can cost ya. Just ask the Valley Swim Club, who got tuned up recently for its pigment-averse swimming policies. From CNN: The commission ordered monetary damages for humiliation and embarrassment and a civil penalty of not more than $50,000. The decision noted that none of the club’s…
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Fight To Keep Your Home
For those of you facing foreclosure, there may be a way to stall without mace. The Huffington Post has reported on a little-known legal provision that requires challenged bankers to prove they hold the original mortgage documents before seizing property. This practice is referred to as “produce the note” or “show me the note” and…
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Obama to World: America's Awesome, Still Can't Fix Problems Alone
President Barack Obama, determined to get his Fourth Reich off the ground, has taken another page out of Adolf Hitler’s book, suggesting that all nation’s lend a hand solving the world’s problem. From the AP: It is Obama’s first address to the world body, and he is seeking to set a new tone in U.S.…
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Actress MacKenzie Phillips Admits She Had Sex With Father
I’ll tell you what: I didn’t expect to wake up this morning and read Mackenzie Phillips had sex with her father. A headline like that borders on tabloid and maybe a little bit of TMI. It certainly spins one into reality, or nausea, or a private prayer that begins with Dear-God-Will-The-Horror-of-Humanity-Ever-End? Mackenzie Phillips was the star…
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Obama Meets with African Heads of State
After addressing the United Nations on the topic of climate change and having a closely-watched bilateral meeting with Chinese president Hu Jintao, President Obama headed to the Clinton Global Initiative to address conference attendees from businesses, NGOs, and governments around the world. There, he gave a well-rounded, if vague address on the major crises of…