Black Girls Deserve Protection From Police, Too

Cars sit in the parking lot Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, in Columbia S.C. The Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation Tuesday after Senior Deputy Ben Fields flipped a student backward in her desk and tossed her across the floor for refusing to leave her math class. Federal help was sought by Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who called what happened at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, "very disturbing" and placed on Fields leave. (AP Photo/Alex Sanz)

When I first saw the video of Ben Fields hooking an arm around a black girl’s neck, flipping her over in her seat, dragging and throwing her across the room and then handcuffing her, never once did I wonder what she might have done to deserve it. Fields, until recently, was a resource officer at Spring Valley High School in ...

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Students Who Interrupted Hillary Clinton: ‘Rhetoric Is Not Enough. We Need To See Action’

Protesters raise their arms while interrupting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton as she speaks, in the background, during a campaign event at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Friday, Oct. 30, 2015. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

WASHINGTON — Two of the student activists who interrupted Hillary Clinton’s rally Friday at Clark Atlanta University said the title of the event — “African Americans for Hillary” — explains why they decided to drown out the presidential candidate’s remarks. “That raises a question, because I’m wondering, why it isn’t Hillary for African Americans?” Avery Jackson, one of the students, ...

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Here’s A Reminder Not To Wear Blackface This Halloween (Or Ever)

Postcard illustration shows a performer with a banjo in a blackface minstrel show, 1880s. The image was printed by London-based Raphel Tuck & Sons. (Photo by Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)

Halloween is this Saturday. On Sunday, we’ll wake up to a story that reads like this: A photo has surfaced on social media, showing a (probably white, but definitely not black) person wearing blackface as part of their (black person) costume, igniting a firestorm. Always a firestorm. It never fails. Every Halloween, blackface and its racist origins become a topic ...

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The Problem With Romanticizing White Male Criminals On TV

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On Tuesday, ABC premiered its latest dark drama, “Wicked City.” Set in LA in the 1980s, the series chronicles a seemingly “normal” couple’s reign of bloody terror on the Sunset Strip. It’s loosely based on the true story of serial killers Doug Clark and Carol M. Bundy, who together murdered seven women during the summer of 1980. The show joins a ...

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SUNY Plattsburgh Plans Diversity Initiatives In Response To Racist Cartoon

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The president of SUNY Plattsburgh said Thursday that the university would introduce a number of diversity initiatives after a racially offensive cartoon ran on the cover of the college newspaper last week. The illustration depicted a cartoonish character of a black person with bulging eyes and an overemphasized white mouth, in a graduation gown, standing against a background of dilapidated buildings ...

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HBCU Alumni Are Thriving More Than Black Grads Of Other Schools, Study Shows

Members of the graduation class of 2013 stand during the commencement ceremony before US President Barack Obama delivers the key address at Morehouse College on May 19, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN        (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

For years, people have questioned the relevancy of historically black colleges and universities, especially with many of these institutions facing fiscal issues, declining enrollment and cohort default rates. The latest Gallup-USA Funds Minority College Graduates Report, however, finds that HBCU graduates are more likely to prosper after graduation than students who graduate from non-HBCUs. The study examined 520 black graduates of HBCUs and 1,758 ...

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Voting Rights Groups Say Obamacare Should Be Helping Americans Register To Vote

MIAMI, FL - FEBRUARY 05:  Aymara Marchante (L) and Wiktor Garcia sit with Maria Elena Santa Coloma, an insurance advisor with UniVista Insurance company, as they sign up for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, before the February 15th deadline on February 5, 2015 in Miami, Florida. Numbers released by the government show that the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan area has signed up 637,514 consumers so far since open enrollment began on Nov. 15, which is more than twice as many as the next large metropolitan area, Atlanta, Georgia.  (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Voting rights groups are calling on President Barack Obama’s administration to provide better voter registration opportunities to Americans signing up for health insurance in the more than 30 states where the federal government runs exchanges. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which is often referred to as the “motor voter” law, requires that states offer Americans the chance to ...

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‘A Tour Of Burned Churches’ Explores Race, Religion And Resilience In America

GREELEYVILLE, SC - JULY 1:  People pray near the burned ruins of the Mt. Zion AME Church July 1, 2015 in Greeleyville, South Carolina.  Federal and state agencies are investigating a recent string of church fires in the South that have occured since the church massacre in nearby Charleston, South Carolina. Mt. Zion AME was burned twenty years ago by members of the Ku Klux Klan. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

In the 10 days following the June massacre of nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, six other predominantly black churches across the South burned. The causes of the fires differed. Electrical wiring is believed to have started one of the blazes. Lightning is thought to have struck the Mt. Zion AME Baptist Church in Greeleyville, ...

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Amonderez Green, Teen Shot Near Ferguson, Was An Avid Rapper

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Amonderez Green, the 18-year-old who died early Thursday from a gunshot wound to the face in Normandy, Missouri, was an avid rapper who uploaded dozens of tracks to Soundcloud over the past year. The circumstances surrounding the shooting, which took place just south of Ferguson, are still murky. Officers with the Normandy Police Department say Green was suicidal, and that he ...

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Simone Biles Makes History Winning Third Straight Gymnastics Championship (VIDEO)

U.S. gymnast Simone Biles smiles as she trains at the Karolyi Ranch Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015, in New Waverly, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

GLASGOW, Oct 29 (Reuters) – A heart-stopping wobble on the beam and tumble out of bounds on the floor could not wipe the megawatt smile off Simone Biles’ face as she became the first woman to win three straight all-around titles at the gymnastics world championships on Thursday. The gymnast, who has been dubbed a ‘robot’ for churning out one ...

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