The Root

With absolutely no apologies to Kylie Jenner, Rihanna is actually the country’s youngest woman to become a self-made billionaire.

Conversations about race are never easy. But last week’s murder of Jayland Walker and the racially-motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket in May, are just a few examples of why they are absolutely necessary right now. It was the 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers that…Read more...

A collection of proposals by Congress and the New York state senate are looking to end electric shock as a means of treatment on people with disabilities, The New York Daily News reports. There are two different ways in which the state, the house, and Senate are looking to tackle this issue.Read more...

As Brittney Griner’s Russian trial begins, the WNBA All-Star is using the only outlet she has to communicate with President Biden. She wrote a letter, which was passed on to the White House through the communications company that represents Griner’s family.

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Moments before standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial at the 1963 March on Washington, John Lewis frantically re-worked his remarks in response to organizers’ fears that his words were too incendiary. Among the many changes Lewis made, he replaced the line,

I’ve got bad news for all my Swift fans out there, and I’m not talking Taylor. The Nancy Drew spinoff, Tom Swift, has been canceled after only five episodes on the CW network. The series which just launched on May 31 featured a nearly all Black cast, including Tian Richards who plays the show’s lead. His character Tom…Read more...

After the fatal shooting of Jayland Walker at the hands of Akron, Ohio police, the city has decided to cancel its annual Fourth of July celebration. On Monday, a hail of nearly 90 bullets fell upon Walker, a Black Doordash driver, after what started out as a traffic stop, and ultimately, resulted in the end of his…Read more...

A proposed amendment in California’s constitution that would outlaw involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime failed to pass the state senate. As the Associated Press notes, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration argued that paying prisoners a $15-per-hour minimum wage would cost taxpayers billions.…Read more...

You know the tune. They play it at every millennial pain and sip, the r&b cover concerts, and sometimes at the club before closing when the DJ cuts the vocals, expecting you to know every word, which you do. Tevin Campbell’s classic Can We Talk is the early nineties hit we all know and love, but did you know that it…Read more...

Cancer season has Curtis Jackson, a.k.a. 50 Cent cutting up on the internet in the worst of ways, but then again that’s any day. Following the recent allegations of sexual misconduct against producer, Randall Emmett, 50 has entered the chat, offering opinions that no one has asked for. On Friday morning, the rapper…Read more...

Just a week following the overturn of the landmark ruling of Roe v. Wade, America has become somewhat of a legislative free for all when it comes to women’s reproductive rights. With individual states now having the authority to dictate whether or not to ban abortion, many are scrambling to find ways to ensure…Read more...

The Supreme Court closed out this session with a metaphorical bang, upending fifty years of court precedent by overturning Roe v. Wade, the case establishing the constitutional right to an abortion.Read more...

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Who isn’t on TikTok nowadays? Parents, children, writers, comedians, athletes and singers. Everyone is using the social media platform, most notably some of the biggest celebrities in the world. If you can make it on TikTok, you can make it anywhere.Read more...

The country is getting ready to celebrate the Fourth of July this weekend. For some, it’s a time to remember the birth of our nation. But let’s face it, for Black folks, it’s the perfect excuse to get together with family and friends and eat, drink and laugh at your Uncle Tony when he tries to dance after having a few…Read more...

Religious leaders and local advocates in Savannah, Ga. are calling for the police chief to resign following the fatal shooting of a Black man by police, per The Associated Press. The killing of Saudi Arai Lee, 31, is undergoing a federal investigation but the people are demanding a probe into the other …Read more...

The Bellows Falls Union High School board unanimously voted on a new policy that restricts the school from flying flags other than the US and Vermont state flags, according to the Brattleboro Reformer. Those flags include the Black Lives Matter flag BFUHS and other Vermont schools have flown in support of their Black…Read more...

Wednesday, 20-year-old Azsia Johnson was shot at point-blank range while she was pushing her 3-month-old baby in a stroller on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Her mother, Lisa Desort, alleges the city failed to protect her daughter and prevent the killing because Azsia had previously reported being abused and…Read more...

The cause of death of a Baltimore Ravens linebacker has been determined.Read more...

The Princess and the Frog fans rejoice! Tiana is finally getting her own theme park ride.Read more...

It’s rare that anything Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, says is received with vitriol by Black folks or the political left. She’s been a juggernaut since narrowly losing to current Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in 2018, raising millions for Democratic candidates, erecting a massive campaign to fight…Read more...

Wake up Mr. West! You’re getting sued again!Read more...

If you thought Simone Biles was done making history and collecting medals…not so fast.

Republican-led states are continuing to remake Black history into a clean-cut retelling with anti-CRT laws. According to the Texas Tribute, a group of Texas educators is looking to take this further with a proposal for slavery to be taught as ‘involuntary relocation.’ The proposal was sent to the Texas State Board of…Read more...

Trigger Warning: This article contains graphic details of domestic violence.Read more...

A collection of former and current Black Tesla employees have come together to file a lawsuit alleging they were subjected to various forms of racial abuse and harassment while working primarily in Tesla’s Fremont, California factory. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that in the lawsuit filed at California state…Read more...

Many Americans have grown up with the classic “dun dun” sound echoing from their television screens as scenes from the show Law and Order Special Victims Unit plays in the background at any given gym or waiting room.Read more...

Until yesterday, it was hard to imagine how Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas could have made the Court’s term any worse. Thomas is considered the ideological godfather of an emboldened, far-right majority on the Court that in the past week alone weakened Miranda rights for people detained by cops, removed the…Read more...

The Fourth of July weekend is upon us. And as you’re putting the finishing touches on your cookout menu, you can’t forget to make sure your playlist is on point. The right music can make or break your BBQ, and can mean the difference between a festival worthy of fireworks and one that’s over before the sun goes down.Read more...

Brittney Griner has been wrongfully detained in Russia for 135 days and now the WNBA star is finally having her day in court. On Friday, Griner arrived at Khimki City Court outside Moscow, handcuffed and wearing a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt.Read more...

Usher is such an amazing entertainer and performer, it’s easy to forget that the R&B superstar is a great singer. Well, he used his appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series to remind everyone exactly who he is. To wrap up Black Music Month, Usher and his band delivered a smooth, old school R&B set of six of his…Read more...

Trigger Warning: This article contains graphic details of domestic violence.Read more...

The judge set to preside over former Forth Worth police officer Aaron Dean, who shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson in 2019, has been removed from the case, according to CBS News. The defense attorneys claim Judge David Hagerman treated their team with “anger” and “hostility.”

LeBron James’ hometown is on edge Thursday evening as details of the police killing of a Black man come to light.Read more...

As the Supreme Court nears the end of its current term of rulings, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now has limited tools in the ways it can fight ongoing climate change. The high court placed limits on how the EPA can regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants which will be a significant setback for…Read more...

The general public knows what the ballroom scene is through television, most likely Emmy-nominated show Pose. What some fail to remember is that these visualizations are reflections of real life and real experiences of LGBT individuals. Also, the culture of the ballroom is precious to the community and needs to be…Read more...

Let the madness begin. The NBA offseason hasn’t started until a superstar player asks out of his current team!Read more...

That sound you just heard was the entire world shifting on its axis because Beyoncé has revealed the cover to her forthcoming album Renaissance.Read more...

Former NFL running back Joe McKnight was killed in a 2016 road rage incident in New Orleans, and the Supreme Court ruled that the person who fatally shot him cannot be retried after his previous conviction was overturned, according to the Associated Press.Read more...

Updated June 30, 2022 at 1:24 p.m.

A new report found the country’s increase in gun violence and violent crime has disproportionately affected Black women and girls. According to an investigation by The Guardian, five Black women and girls were killed every day in the US in 2020. About 75 percent of them died by gun violence. This “unspoken epidemic”…Read more...

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is spearheading a $1 Billion pilot program named Reconnecting Communities to help connect cities and roads that were racially segregated and divided by road projects. NPR reports that cities and states can apply for grants that will be provided over a five-year period, which was…Read more...

For the past few years, Black social media influencers and content creators have put social media companies on notice that they play a major role in what goes viral on their platforms and deserve to be recognized (and compensated) for their work. Since then, TikTok, YouTube and others have gone out of their way to…Read more...

The Super Bowl for Black women is here: the 2022 Essence Festival.Read more...

After facing mounting pressure to do literally anything after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden announced that he would support an exception to the filibuster to protect the right to an abortion.Read more...

The government of New Zealand government has officially classified the far-right U.S. extremist group the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization.Read more...

Fans of the 1999 film The Wood are in for a treat, as Showtime is developing a comedy pilot based on the movie and some of the original cast members are involved.

Serena may have been eliminated in her first round match at Wimbledon, but that doesn’t mean the Williams sisters are done competing at The Championships.

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