Gene Demby

Gene Demby appears in the following:

Flitting Between Solutions For Police Violence

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Take a look at the flier for this weekend's planned "Justice For All March" in Washington, D.C., which is centered on several recent police-involved killings of unarmed black men. There's no specific policy demand on that flier — perhaps because the problem doesn't lend itself to a singular fix.

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Updating Centuries-Old Folklore With Puzzles And Power-Ups

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Never Alone, a new video game by E-Line Media, has been generating a lot of buzz in recent months. Its developers teamed up with the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, a nonprofit that works with Native Alaskans, creating Never Alone as a way to help transmit traditional tribal stories to younger ...

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Who Will Get The Biopic Treatment Next?

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Movie award season is upon us once again, which means that it's peak biopic season. You know what I mean — those big, sweeping epics about the life of a Very Important Person portrayed by a Very Serious Actor.

These blockbuster, wide-release biopics have been reliable vehicles for many actors ...

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Why The KKK Is Reaching Out Beyond White Folks

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

As America's longest-lived white supremacist organization, the Ku Klux Klan has achieved a rare kind of name recognition. You know the way people say "Xerox" when they mean "to photocopy" or "Kleenex" when they mean "tissue"? "KKK" functions something like that, except it shorthands to "racial terrorism and extrajudicial killings."

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Why We Have So Many Terms For 'People Of Color'

Friday, November 07, 2014

A heads-up to our readers: We use some language in this post that some folks might find offensive.

Last week, the Toronto Star found itself in the midst of one of those blink-and-you-missed-it Internet kerfuffles over race.

Here's what happened. The Ontario Human Rights Commission had settled on a ...

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The Creepiest Ghost And Monster Stories From Around The World

Friday, October 31, 2014

It's Halloween — a time for Frankenstein monsters and vampires and werewolves. But many of us have our own monsters from different cultures, and when we threw out a call to our readers asking what ghost stories and folktales they grew up with in their own traditions, we got back ...

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Tips For Avoiding Racial Missteps From The Makers Of 'Dear White People'

Friday, October 24, 2014

By now, most indie film fans have heard of Dear White People, the much-hyped debut feature from Justin Simien. It's out in wide release in theaters today. The movie, which garnered a lot of buzz on the festival circuit, is styled as a satire about being black and navigating life ...

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Apps Make Googly Eyes At Riders Tired Of Being Snubbed By Cabbies

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

One night last fall, I was walking through Chinatown in Washington, D.C., with my friend Terryn. We were not far from a dude who was in his mid-20s — slim, with neat, shoulder-length locks, skinny chinos, loafers and a leather briefcase slung across his torso — standing on the corner, ...

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Watch A Trailer For 'R.E.M. By MTV'

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Oh my god, they look so young! It was 1981 when this little Athens, Ga. based band started making a splash. Over the years that followed they made waves. This small trailer for a larger documentary about R.E.M. is a beautiful peek at innocence, youth, the '80s and MTV. The ...

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Videos Of Deadly Police Encounters Grab The Media Spotlight, But Why?

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Several recent incidents of black men being shot by police have sparked national news coverage and policy debates. We examine what forces in the media and society are fueling this level of attention.

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Black Women's Groups Meet With NFL On Domestic Violence

Sunday, October 05, 2014

The beginning of the NFL's 2014 season has been marked by scandals around players' off-field behavior. But each time the league mustered an official response, it seemed to invite even more criticism — especially in the case of Ray Rice, the former Baltimore Ravens running back who was seen ...

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Muslims In Minnesota Weigh Whether To Expel Or Engage At-Risk Youth

Friday, October 03, 2014

There's a common argument around Muslim extremism that calls for moderate Muslims to denounce and condemn radical adherents of Islam. Many folks push back on that idea by pointing out that Islam isn't a monolith, that there are well north of a billion Muslims in the world, and that it's ...

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Marriage Rates Are Falling, And For Some Faster Than Others

Friday, September 26, 2014

The biggest takeaways from a new study on marriage by the Pew Research Center are these: Fewer Americans who are older than 25 are married than ever before, and by the time they're middle-aged, a record 25 percent will have never tied the knot.

That might not be too ...

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The Pre-Huxtable Golden Age Of The Black Family Sitcom

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

A lot has been made of the suite of shows featuring families of color set to hit the airwaves this fall — ABC's Black-ish, the CW's Jane the Virgin, ABC's Cristela and the network's midseason replacement, Fresh Off the Boat.

This season happens to dovetail with the 30th anniversary of ...

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Bill Cosby's Huge, Complicated Post-'Cosby Show' Legacy

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Sept. 20 marks the 30th anniversary of the premiere of The Cosby Show, the wildly successful sitcom starring Bill Cosby. Depending on whom you ask, that show can be credited with recasting the popular image of black family life, saving the flailing NBC network, or resurrecting the sitcom format itself. ...

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Why 'Is Corporal Punishment Abuse?' Is Such A Loaded Question

Friday, September 19, 2014

Over the past week, Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Vikings' all-world running back and one of the NFL's biggest stars, has become the face of corporal punishment in America. Peterson turned himself in to police over the weekend on charges of child abuse after he allegedly hit his son with a ...

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Overthinking It: Using Food As A Racial Metaphor

Sunday, September 14, 2014

In February, a state-run media outlet in China mocked Gary Locke, who was signing off as U.S. ambassador to that country. "Gary Locke is a U.S.-born, third-generation Chinese-American, and his being a banana — 'yellow skin and white heart' — became an advantage for Obama's foreign policy,' " the editorial ...

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Sagging Pants And The Long History Of 'Dangerous' Street Fashion

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Mary Sue Rich finally had enough.

The council member from Ocala, Fla., was tired of seeing the young people in her town wearing their pants low and sagging, and successfully pushed to prohibit the style on city-owned property. It became law in July. Violators face a $500 fine or ...

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What Does It Mean To Prevent 'The Next Michael Brown'?

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

Since the recent unrest in Ferguson, Mo., there have been a host of changes to the way the local police do business that are meant to prevent another incident like the shooting death of Michael Brown. Gov. Jay Nixon has appointed Dan Isom, an African-American, as the state's new ...

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Which Outlets Aren't Calling The Redskins 'The Redskins'? A Short History

Monday, August 25, 2014

Football season is upon us once more, which means another year of swirling debate around just what to do about the Washington Redskins' name.

Now, the Redskins' hometown paper, The Washington Post, has waded into the fray: Its editorial board announced Friday that the nickname would no longer appear ...

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