Race Matters
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America Hates Us
I look at it and cuss. There are few human beings on the planet who enjoy receiving an injection with a needle. My sister—a grown-ass-woman who pushed babies out of her body and once fought a mugger who was armed with a kitchen knife — still gets anxiety attacks every time a doctor or nurse…
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Police Investigate Threat to ‘Raid’ California Town’s Only Black-Owned Store If Joe Biden Is Elected
Police in Tiburon, Calif., are investigating a threat leveled against the city’s only Black-owned business. According to investigators, a social media post threatened to “raid” the local clothing store—which made headlines in August after the owners accused Tiburon police of racial profiling—if Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins the presidential election. Yema—a clothing store on Main…
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Louisiana Man Who Burned Down 3 Black Churches in 2019 Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison
23-year-old Holden Matthews—the black metal-loving son of a St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, sheriff’s deputy who wasn’t officially named a white supremacist despite having pleaded guilty to burning down three Black churches in 2019—was sentenced Monday to 25 years in federal prison for his crimes, according to the Department of Justice. CNN reports that along with…
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Civil Rights Groups File Lawsuit Against Trump Administration Over Diversity Training Ban
In September, The Root reported that the commander-in-white-fragility that y’all call president ordered all federal agencies to end anti-racism training and any other training that implements critical race theory. Well now, Trump’s order against hurting white people’s feelings is facing its first legal challenge as three civil rights groups filed a lawsuit Thursday arguing that…
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The Myth of the Black Male Trump Supporter
The following fairy tale is based on a true story. Once upon a time, in a kingdom not so far away, an evil orange emperor ruled the land. With a face resembling an orangutang’s hind parts (except for the chalky ovals encircling his eyelids) and golden windswept hair dyed like jaundiced straw, the king earned…
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Cam Newton Can't Seem to Escape the NFL's Respectability Politics—or Jeff Garcia's Stupidity: 'I’m Not Changing the Way I Dress'
White people looooove to police Black bodies, and within the sports landscape, there’s no greater example of this phenomenon than embattled quarterback Cam Newton. Prior to being drafted in 2011, he met with former Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson—who was forced to sell the team in 2018 after settlements involving sexual harassment and hurling racial…
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Ex-NYPD Officer Ordered to Pay $1 Million to Black Tennessee Woman Whose Home He Broke Into Before Hurling Racial Slurs
Does anyone remember Michael J. Reynolds, the former officer with the New York Police Department who flew to Nashville, Tenn., to attend a 3-day bachelor party in 2018 and ended up breaking into the home of Black woman Conese Halliburton and her four sons, who lived next to the Airbnb he was staying in? You…
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Jared Kushner Implies That 'Complaining' Black People Don't 'Want to Be Successful' Because We Don't Support Trump
Boooooy, when I tell you I can’t stand Trump or his minions. First, let me just state an unassailable fact: White people don’t know shit about the Black community. Certainly, there are white people who were raised in largely Black neighborhoods who have sat in some barber shops, picked up some AAVE, proved on the…
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San Francisco’s CAREN Act One-Step Away From Becoming Law and Holding Karens Accountable for Racist 911 Calls
Imagine an America where you can call the authorities on a Karen for calling the authorities on you just for existing while Black. San Francisco, Calif., may very well be on its way to that reality—or at least one where Karens and their Ken counterparts will be held accountable for their racism. In July, The…
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Iowa Judge Drops Charges Against Black Man Stopped for Jaywalking by Cop Who Waved for Him to Cross the Street
Charges have been dropped against a Black man who was arrested in Iowa City, Iowa, last year after he was stopped by a police officer for jaywalking. Based on police body camera footage, a federal judge decided that what the arresting officer purported to be a legitimate stop was really a clear case of racial…