The Root

Being Black in America after a tragedy in your community feels like what many would clarify as “the strong friend.” On Monday, Black people from all over had to get up, go to work, and pretend like everything was ok, as if the Buffalo shooting on Saturday didn’t happen. There might be a few “checks ins’ if at all,…Read more...

Nearly three weeks after Netflix laid off, and essentially shut down, their branded content arm, Tudum—which was comprised of predominately Black women and women of color staffers—it appears more staffers working under several other divisions dedicated to promoting and highlighting diverse content have also been…Read more...

Five students from Coosa High School in Rome, Georgia are suing the Floyd County School district on claims of racial discrimination and violation of their constitutional rights, according to CNN. The suit claims school administrators failed to address repeated racist incidents including students reenacting George…Read more...

The Amber Heard/Johnny Depp courtroom drama continues. But this time, it has reached a disturbing low: Heard is being accused of stealing Rihanna’s 2009 account of being assaulted by Chris Brown during her infamous ABC News interview.Read more...

Wrestling fans are used to drama happening during their favorite TV shows. Of course, it generally happens in the ring or in connection with a storyline. On Monday, things went extremely off-script in WWE’s women’s division when two of its champions walked out on Monday Night Raw, deciding not to perform in the…Read more...

Thomas Lane, one of the former Minneapolis officers involved in the killing of George Floyd, has pleaded guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, according to the Associated Press.Read more...

Four former teachers at Sewickley Academic are suing the school for firing them out of retaliation for acknowledging their racial discrimination, reported the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. They said the school’s termination of Black administrators last summer was racially motivated.

In a letter posted Monday to the Starbucks website from Sara Kelly, the acting Executive Vice President of Partner Resources, the Seattle coffee company said it would cover travel for U.S. employees to abortion and gender-affirming procedures if they aren’t within 100 miles of their home.Read more...

The social media platform TikTok says it’s introducing new features to help creators, especially Black folks and other people of color, be recognized for trendsetting on the viral video platform.

Rapper Travis Scott remains tapped into his philanthropy bag. On Tuesday, it was revealed that his Cactus Jack Foundation has awarded $1 million to 100 HBCU students to ensure that they graduate this year.Read more...

Ten people were killed and three were injured by Payton Gendron as a result of his racially motivated shooting in Buffalo, New York. NBC affiliate WGRZ reported 11 of the victims were Black. The names of the victims have been released and their families are expected to receive funds from both donations and a possible…Read more...

The whirlwind romance between Grammy nominated singer Keyshia Cole and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown is over. I’m not exactly sure what she saw in Brown, but that’s neither here nor there. After just a month of dating, Brown dumped Cole on Instagram Live Tuesday.

It seems that another Black student could not escape discrimination at school and allegedly administrators did nothing to help him.Read more...

CBS has traditionally been the network with the most successful comedies, but after a few seasons of big misses, it’s decided to join the competition in paring down on comedy. Its fall schedule doesn’t offer any major changes, but it does include at least one new interesting drama and a few surprising new time slots.

The country’s infant formula shortage has impacted families everywhere. According to research by Datasembly, the nationwide out of stock percentage continues to climb and has reached 43 percent. Last week, we covered how the shortage could hit Black families hardest, as more Black families depend on formula to feed…Read more...

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Florida Gov. Ron Desantis has signed a bill making any protest outside of a private residence illegal, according to the Associated Press. The move is in response to the many demonstrations happening outside of Supreme Court Judges’ homes in response to the leaked memo hinting that Roe v. Wade could be…Read more...

The nonprofit Black Lives Matter foundation that has been under scrutiny over its finances in recent months has finally prepared a federal tax filing explaining many of its financial decisions over the past several years.

As one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2018 and the first Black woman to host Saturday Night Live, Emmy and GRAMMY-award winner Tiffany Haddish has a lot to be proud of. She’s in a new movie, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, has a new children’s book Layla, the Last Black Unicorn, and she’s preparing…Read more...

Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr., sat with The Root for a Q&A following his election as president of the African-American Mayors Association. Scott, 38, took over leadership of the eight-year-old, 106-member group on April 29, and is Little Rock’s first popularly-elected Black mayor. The original interview broached…Read more...

It’s graduation season and the Obama Foundation is ensuring that more kids get their degrees.Read more...

The new BET+ drama The Porter tells the origin story of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which is the first Black labor union. However, that’s just a quick description to get viewers in the door. It’s also a gripping period piece following a Black community’s fight to survive and thrive in 1920s Montreal.Read more...

Last week, we told you about India.Arie’s response to rapper Jack Harlow not knowing that Ray J and Queens star and Grammy-winning R&B artist Brandy were siblings. Now it looks like the B7 artist has entered the chat herself with a hilarious clapback.Read more...

In his visit to Buffalo today, Black residents were hoping that President Biden would explicity call out racism and white supremacy in the wake of the deadly shooting this past weekend. During his speech earlier today, Biden called white supremacy a “poison” in the U.S. as well as denounced the racist white…Read more...

It’s unlikely that last weekend’s racist massacre in Buffalo will stop right wing media from pushing the racist “great replacement theory” but a chorus of hosts, pundits and at least one Republican politician are now calling it out.

Among the five broadcast networks, ABC tends to be the steadiest hand schedule-wise. It doesn’t make a lot of wild, unpredictable changes just for the heck of it. With its new fall schedule, ABC’s biggest shift comes from its normally strong comedies. The network has decided to cut back to one night of comedies.

Howard University just got their hands on over 250 photographs taken by legendary photographer Gordon Parks. The pictures represent over 50 years of Parks’ work and include some of his earliest photos taken in the 1940s, making it the most comprehensive collection of Parks’ artwork in the world. This massive windfall…Read more...

New York Attorney General Letitia James shared a statement warning state residents to be aware of fraudulent charities following the Buffalo mass shooting. James gave a list of action items for people who want to support the families of the victims and ensure the money goes to the right place, via the NY Office of the…Read more...

The Harder They Fall director Jeymes Samuel and Atlanta star LaKeith Stanfield will be reuniting for a new film coming to a screen near us soon.Read more...

On Friday, a woman filed for an emergency protective order against basketball player Rajon Rondo in Louisville, Kentucky. The Cleveland Cavaliers player is accused of pulling a gun out in front of her children.Read more...

Tabitha Brown is taking over the world.Read more...

In the wake of the mass shooting in Buffalo, House Democrats are renewing a push to hold a vote on the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, The Hill reports. A version of the bill previously passed in a voice vote in 2020.Read more...

Despite being an eight-time NBA All-Star, three-time NBA Champion, two-time MVP and NBA 75th Anniversary Team member, there’s one thing that Stephen Curry did not accomplish up until this past weekend: graduate from college.Read more...

Eight Democratic candidates are on the ballot for Louisville’s mayoral race. However, this race has been influenced by the increase in gun violence and tensions around police brutality following the botched Breonna Taylor raid in 2020, according to the Associated Press. Residents and activists continue to apply…Read more...

If there’s one thing we know about Sean “Diddy” Combs, he will never pass up an opportunity to promote himself or his companies. While hosting the 2022 Billboard Music Awards, we heard mentions of Sean John, Ciroc and his new label Love Records. He also took a few moments to introduce his new artist, Jozzy.

The murder of 10 people—who were mostly Black—at a Buffalo grocery store Saturday was a deplorable act of violence against folks who are already incredibly vulnerable. Payton Gendron—the 18-year-old white male terrorist responsible for the gruesome killings—drove over 100 miles to gun down innocent victims in a …Read more...

Over the weekend, the Billboard Music Awards took over social media. Fans were impressed by Megan Thee Stallion’s performance and Silk Sonic’s mesmerizing throwback left everyone in awe. But maybe the most talked-about part of the show, other than Sean “Diddy” Combs’ job as a host, was the inclusion of country music…Read more...

Black residents inside a tight-knit Buffalo community want President Biden to call out hate as he visits and grieves today with victims and their family members, days after a mass shooting at Tops Friendly market rocked the nation.Read more...

Nearly a week after leaked nude video footage of Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams’ performance in the Broadway play Take Me Out went viral on the internet, the actor himself is finally speaking out about the matter.Read more...

Three-year-old Victoria Smith was beaten to death by her foster parents, Ariel and Jerry Austin Robinson Jan 14, 2021.Read more...

The long-gestating Daria spinoff that focuses on one of its supporting characters, Jodie Landon, is finally moving forward. Per a press release provided to The Root, the project, which was originally ordered as a series, will now become an animated film.

Long-time rapper Remy Ma, who is Bronx-born and raised, is now being honored by the borough for her contributions as an artist and activist in the community.Read more...

President Joe Biden acknowledged last week that alleviating the worst inflationary pressure the county has seen in 40 years is a main priority heading into the midterms. Meanwhile, housing prices have hit an all-time high, with mortgage rates rising.Read more...

It doesn’t happen often so we’d be wrong if we ignored it: A Republican in Congress calling out other members of her party for fanning the racism that leads to incidents like this weekend’s mass shooting by a white supremacist in Buffalo.Read more...

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The Women on Boards law signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018 required companies with more than six board members to have up to three female directors. When it was passed, the law was thought to be shaky in terms of the legal challenges it would face. A conservative legal group Judicial Watch claimed it was…Read more...

For the first time in world history, an all-Black team of climbers has successfully summited Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, according to a press release sent to The Root.Read more...

Activist and lawmaker Attica Scott is in close competition for Kentucky’s Democratic congressional primary with Sen. Morgan McGarvey, reported The Associated Press. The election comes after Kentucky’s only Democratic representative, John Yarmuth, announced his retirement last year.

Deshaun Watson, the quarterback who the Cleveland Browns gave the richest contract in NFL history in March, is set to meet with NFL executives this week, The Athletic reported today.

The country is in heavy mourning after the shooting in Buffalo by an 18 year-old-white male who claimed the lives of ten people and wounded three others as the suspect sought out Black neighborhoods to target specifically. As the regular course with these tragedies goes, some politicians will call for “thoughts and…Read more...