Free Republic

Sharon Smith has to plunge her toilet to get it to flush. On rainy days, wastewater spills into her yard from nearby drainage ditches. Twice in the last year her house has flooded, leaving behind the sickening smell of sewage, she said. Her carpets are ruined, the floorboards are buckling, the bathroom wall is pulling away from the tub, she said. In the laundry room, the worst-hit part of the house, the smell of mold lingers. “I want to move, because this flooding is ridiculous,” said Smith, 59. For decades, residents of Centreville, a nearly all-Black town of 5,000 in...

Rapper Akon has revealed plans for a futuristic $6 billion city in his Senegal homeland modelled on Black Panther's Wakanda. The R&B star, who boasts two multi-platinum albums, told a news conference on Monday he had laid the first stone for the city in the Atlantic Ocean village of Mbodiene, around 60 miles south of the capital Dakar. The solar-powered Akon City will offer hotels, a university, hospitals, business and leisure centres including a casino, as well as movie studios, all featuring futuristic designs by architect Hussein Bakri, with African sculptures for inspiration.

Chadwick Boseman’s ["Black Panther" star] final tweet was a powerful one, supporting Sen. Kamala Harris and encouraging Americans to vote in the upcoming election.

Denouncing the white privilege from which they've benefited their entire lives, white Democrat leaders announced today they would be resigning from Congress to allow more diverse voices to be heard. Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Joe Kennedy III, Eric Swalwell, Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, and dozens of others formally turned in their resignations today in order to combat the prevalence of white privilege in our country. Elizabeth Warren will remain so as to give Native Americans a voice. "We must make space for people of color to be heard," said Senator Chuck Schumer, who had donned a...

A former national surrogate for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., ripped into white congressional Democrats on Monday after they wore African-patterned garb and knelt in a demonstration against racism and police brutality. "I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that they draped these white people in kente cloth to 'honor' him. This has to be hell," author Frederick Joseph tweeted, also arguing that black Americans are "being pandered to, and ultimately, disrespected." In a tweet thread, he argued that Democrats were failing in their attempts to be helpful amid ongoing strife surrounding George Floyd's death. He specifically took aim...

One United Bank: "Our limited-edition Harriet Tubman Visa Debit Card is a symbol of Black empowerment. Don’t miss out! #GetTheCard today! #HarrietTubman #BlackHistoryMonth #BankBlack"

The United States' Department of Agriculture accidentally listed the the fictional Kingdom of Wakanda as a free-trade partner on an online resource... The department's online tariff tracker listed Wakanda as among its free-trade partners, even listing the types of goods commonly traded (Ducks, donkeys, and dairy cows, were among those listed). A spokesperson for the USDA said the fictional Marvel country was "added to the list by accident during a staff test" "The Wakanda information should have been removed after testing and has now been taken down," USDA spokesperson Miek Illenberg said

New England Patriots defensive end Michael Bennett invoked the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie “Black Panther” during his player intro on “Sunday Night Football.” During the introduction of the Patriots defensive starters, where players typically state their name and the college they went to, Bennett opted for a different idea. “Michael Bennett, Wakanda Forever!” Bennett shouted, crossing his arms to emulate the salute given by characters in the movie.

The first time Calinda Lee saw the “Battle of Atlanta” Cyclorama, she rolled her eyes in disbelief. The colossal 133-year-old panoramic painting of the Civil War battle featured thousands of human figures — soldiers of the North and South fighting, falling, fleeing, along with sundry attendants of the battlefield: stretcher-bearers, cooks, orderlies and more. Yet in the throng of faces surrounding her, there was only one that looked like hers. Only one was African American.

It seems that the Black Panther movie has done such a good job of immersing audiences in its world that many people think it's real. Two hotel booking sites have revealed that site searches for the word 'Wakanda' – the name of the fictional African country the movie is set in – have risen dramatically. Hotelscan.com reported that the number of people landing on its Wisconsin Wakanda Water Park page is up by 620 per cent and Hotels.com reported that searches for neighbouring Wakanda Park are up by 55 per cent year on year. A spokesperson for hotelscan.com commented: 'The...

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) – Greenville police have made an arrest in connection with gunfire Friday night at an AMC Theater. Police say 30-year-old Shameeka Latrice Lynch of Tarboro surrendered at the Pitt County Detention Center Saturday evening. Lynch is charged with one count of discharging a firearm in an enclosure to incite fear and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill. Lynch is currently at the Pitt County Detention Center under a $250,000 bond. Greenville Police Chief Mark Holtzman said they received reports of an active shooter at the AMC Theater on Firetower Road...

Editor’s Note: This story contains spoilers for the film Black Panther. Black Panther’s Wakanda is a near-utopic vision of how a country could look; perhaps the best depiction of Afrofuturism ever captured on film. There were thriving and ideological-diverse cities surrounded by expansive and bucolic countrysides. There was modern technology perfectly weaved in to cultural tradition, a melding that was symbiotic instead of antagonistic. And while I didn’t see this happening during the movie, I’m sure Wakanda has amazing bottomless brunches. Unfortunately, a present-day attempt to recreate Wakanda would be unrealistic. Mainly because we’re roughly 20,000 years behind Wakandan tech....

Journalists Are Being Offered A Reward To Ask Trump About Wakanda What Does Our President Think About Our Relations With The Mythical Country? BY KADY RUTH ASHCRAFT · JANUARY 15, 2018 If the combination of the words “Trump” and “journalists” makes you tense up, you’re not alone. I’m shocked everytime I witness a press briefing in the White House because I was sure they would have eliminated those by now. But while they continue (and continue to horrify us) comedian Sara Benincasa has made an offer to spice things up and give us a much needed laugh.