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The Drinking Gourd

We’re Not the Na’vis: The True Ecology of Avatar

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By Eisa Nefertari Ulen
It is entirely fitting that the character that must risk the most in this film, and change completely, is a white dude. Cameron has explored geo-political realities facing our world that make the politics of color in this film work.



Attorney-General Eric Holder Bids Jake Henderson Farewell

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By Maynard Eaton
The nation’s top lawman cleared his busy schedule on March 1, to travel to Atlanta to attend the funeral of Jacob Henderson, Jr., a pioneering military attorney during the 1960s who became an expert on international travel and a leading Atlanta businessman.



What Civil Rights Organizations Can Learn from Du Bois and the Early Years of the Crisis Magazine

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By Stacey Patton
Late last month my mentor, the great Pulitzer-prize winning historian David Levering-Lewis, invited me to be his special guest at the 100th anniversary celebration of the NAACP’s Crisis Magazine. A rapt audience gathered inside the New York Hilton Hotel’s Trianon Ballroom to hear Lewis and current Crisis editor Jabari Asim have a conversation about the magazine’s early years and its first intrepid editor-in-chief, W.E.B. Du Bois.



A Weusi Reunion at Harlem’s Dwyer Cultural Center

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By Grace Aneiza Ali
“The last time we all got together like this was in 1975,” says Taiwo Duvall as he stands in one of the gallery spaces at the Dwyer Cultural Center. It’s a frigid Tuesday evening in Harlem. It’s been snowing and sleeting for most of the day. Despite the precarious weather, over 200 people have packed the Dwyer, in what looks and feels more like a family reunion than the Center’s opening for the exhibition, Weusi Revisited: 2010.



‘I Can’t Believe You Brought Home a White Boy’

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By Karyn Langhorne Folan
For many black women, dating a white man pushes romance and family toward a head-on collision.



Howard Zinn: The People’s Historian

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By Jelani Cobb
Among Professor Howard Zinn’s numerous accomplishments, none rank higher than his work to breathe life into history. Often when I mention to people that I’m a historian I hear mumbled comments about how the subject put students to sleep or seems like a dry collection of dates, wars and speeches. Not so with Howard Zinn.



My Top 10 African-American TV Shows of All Time

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By Ralph Richardson
Hey ya’ll, I’m back, this time with the Top Ten African-American TV Shows of All Time.



The Business of You: Good Health at What Price?

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By Jackie Jones
A few extra pounds soon could cost you way more than just good health.



Reflections of a Black Pioneer: Two Cases of Integrative Leadership

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By Clifton R. Wharton, Jr.
The unprecedented election of President Barack Obama has provided a dramatic spotlight on the issues of race in America. One aspect of significance is that it represents an important step in the process of racial integration in our nation. His election was the result of the collective decisions by a multi racial and multi ethnic electorate. Both as a U.S. Senator from Illinois and as President, Obama has been what might be called an “Integrative Black Pioneer.”



Is Tiger Woods African American? Of course not.

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By Janet Singleton
In my mind Tiger Woods is a multiethnic, polysyllabic, whatjamacallit, just as he said. “A Cablinasian.” He called himself that in a 1997 appearance on Oprah and disappointed some black people. But I have no problem with that, particularly now. It’s just that the controversial Vanity Fair magazine cover posing Tiger as “thuggish” and therefore presumably blacker, we are invited to consider that issue once again.