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UNCF Announces First African-American Chair of Its Board; Black Twitter Responds With Surprise and Confusion
On Monday, the United Negro College Fund announced that Milton Jones. Jr, a businessman and civic leader in Atlanta, had been named chairman of the UNCF board. It would have been an interesting, though not that remarkable, bit of news—except that UNCF pointed out in the first line of the press release announcing it, that…
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Maryland Legislators Vote to Pay the State's HBCUs $577 Million Over the Next Decade in Massive Civil Rights Settlement
Four historically Black universities and colleges in Maryland will benefit from a $577 million settlement related to a federal lawsuit first brought against the state 15 years ago—that is if Gov. Larry Hogan doesn’t veto the settlement agreement again. Maryland’s state legislators voted on Wednesday to approve a measure to pay out the settlement to…
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TD Bank Teller in Connecticut Refuses to Allow Black Woman to Withdraw $1,000
Racism in America just keeps trucking on in ways big and small. A Black woman who is the president and founder of the Connecticut Parents Union says she was recently denied a withdrawal of just over $1,000 from a business account she holds at TD Bank because a teller at a branch of the bank…
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Watch Whiteness Work: A White Man Kills 6 Asian Women, and a White Cop Says He 'Had a Bad Day'
It’s already been a heartbreaking and devastatingly unrelenting year of blatant, dehumanizing and violent acts of racism. It’s echoed four years of ever-escalating incidents in the same vein, not to mention centuries of a state of rotten affairs that is as American as apple pie. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted and completely…
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Tamir Rice’s Mother Calls Out Tamika Mallory, Then Shaun King Wades In, Exposing More Fractures in the Movement Against Police Brutality
A speech made by Until Freedom founder Tamika Mallory during a performance at the Grammys on Sunday has set off yet another wave of public dissension from people who’ve lost loved ones in high-profile cases of police brutality. Over the last year, Tamika Mallory and her group have been a notable presence leading protests, sit-ins…
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Calls to #FreeHaiti Spotlights Untenable Situation in Caribbean Nation
You may have seen #FreeHaiti making the rounds on Twitter, and though the hashtag has been shared by celebrities like Cardi B and influencers like Karen Civil, it originated from people in the Caribbean republic in response to the fatal outcome of a SWAT operation last weekend to seize gang members in the Village de…
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Virginia Governor Signs Order Restoring Voting Rights to Nearly 70,000 People Previously Convicted of Felonies
While many lawmakers in the South are introducing laws aimed at ensuring fewer people can vote in future elections, at least one state is trying to restore the franchise to more people. Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam on Tuesday announced that he has signed an executive order restoring voting rights to over 69,000 people in…
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Wondering When You’ll Get Your Stimmy? Here’s What the Big Banks Say
Though President Biden signed a landmark $1.9 trillion stimulus bill into law last Thursday, many Americans are still waiting to receive their portion of the COVID-19 relief funds. The White House said that people could expect to start seeing the money in their bank accounts by last weekend, which indicated an understanding of just how…
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Texas Legislators Add to the Republican Party’s Ongoing Rush of Voter Suppression Bills
Republican-led state legislatures have openly been waging war on voting access in the wake of their presidential candidate’s defeat in the 2020 elections. Texas, which tried its very hardest during those elections to curb voters’ access to the ballot box, has now come through with its own slate of voter suppression legislation. On Monday, Republican…
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Why Some Reactions to Kirk Franklin's Leaked Phone Call With His Son Are More Concerning Than These Grown-Folks' Business
Let me start by saying that I am not privy to the details or history of the relationship between gospel music heavyweight Kirk Franklin and his 32-year-old son, Kerrion Franklin. Though Kerrion posted audio on Instagram over the weekend of his father yelling, “I will break your fucking neck,” and calling him all kinds of…
