The Root

*deep, heavy, Negro spiritual sigh*Read more...

Since the release of Michelle Obama’s Becoming in 2018, the book has sold almost 10 million copies in the U.S. and has become a topic of study at several universities across the country. As the former first lady continues to promote her memoir, she will soon speak with college students about their experiences in…Read more...

“These. People. Existed.”Read more...

The days of fires and vandalism perpetrated by racists at Black family homes are not long behind us.Read more...

Rev. Jesse Jackson was hospitalized after he fell and hit his head during a visit at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on Monday. The 80-year-old civil rights icon was set to attend a town hall with the university’s president Wayne A.I. Frederick and the students who have been protesting their living conditions on…Read more...

Last week, The Root reported that 82 year-old Claudette Colvin asked a court to expunge her record. She was arrested at 15 years old after refusing to get up from a bus seat in 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks did the same. Colvin’s motion sparked interest in clearing the records for Parks, King and others arrested…Read more...

October wrapped up with new music that was, let’s face it, a bit all over the place. Not necessarily in a bad way—but we have a new disco joint, Alicia Keys in a white gown that looks suspiciously like a wedding dress, and Megan Thee Stallion in some devil’s horn telling you to “Eat It.”Read more...

Anyone who wanted to understand white supremacy could simply look in the Merriam-Webster dictionary for the entry that simply defines white supremacy as “the belief that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races.” If they were more…Read more...

When we look at celebrities, many times we see these larger-than-life figures that are immune to the trials and tribulations that life has to offer; when in fact they are human, too. For a long time, Will Smith has been thought to be one of those people. From winning Grammy Awards to starring on hit TV shows, to his…Read more...

Things got a bit out of hand on Saturday night in Los Angeles, when armed men attempted to rob three women outside of Teyana Taylor’s Halloween party.Read more...

While Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller was finally able to hatch an escape from the Denver Broncos on Monday prior to Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline, embattled quarterback Deshaun Watson won’t be nearly as lucky to follow suit in Houston, according to ESPN.

Normally you’d get some back and forth banter between me and the homie Shanelle Genai. But she’s on vacay, okay?! So alone I stand. But Insecure gon’ Insecure so to the races we go. I’m rocking Crenshawn right now.

Black icons were enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday as part of the most diverse class of inductees to date. Among the list getting their flowers are Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Gil Scott-Heron, Charley Patton, Billy Preston, Clarence Avant and Tina Turner. Other inductees included the Foo Fighters, Carole…Read more...

You gotta give it up to the writers at The Onion.Read more...

If there’s one thing I hate in professional sports, it’s when a team that’s on the receiving end of a vicious-ass beating pads their stats in garbage time. Now, why do I despise this so much? For one, because the opposing team clearly has taken their foot off the gas in order to rest their starters and the losers are…Read more...

Donald Glover dropped us a link on the final day of spooky season and treated us to a new and pretty ominous trailer for the third season of Atlanta.Read more...

It’s Monday morning, so let’s get to it.Read more...

An Alabama ethics court came to the unanimous decision to remove a state probate judge from office after he was accused of violating several ethics guidelines, including making various racist and sexist remarks in the workplace.

A special task force created by the Beverly Hills Police Department to crack down on crime along its iconic Rodeo Drive is under fire for overwhelmingly arresting Black shoppers during its two-month existence.

The New York attorney who appealed on behalf of Bill Cosby and helped get his sexual assault conviction overturned has now joined R. Kelly’s legal team.

A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a Black former track coach for a Connecticut high school alleges that his firing was an act of retaliation for telling police that a student spat on him last year.

The Fugees announced Friday that their hotly-anticipated reunion tour, which was slated to begin Tuesday in Chicago, has been pushed back to early 2022.

Washington state’s Black Lives Matter Alliance has demanded the resignation of Ed Troyer–the county sheriff charged with falsely claiming his life was threatened by a Black newspaper carrier that he accused of being a porch pirate.

Halloween was one of my favorite annual celebrations as a child—until my reckoning with racism almost claimed that joy.

A troubling finding has surfaced about some of what transpired during the January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill, according to a new report by Politico. On January 5, a day before the riot, a U.S. Capitol Police memo asked officers to be ready if an attack occurred, but parts of their planning were misguided.

Black-ish is going out big—as it should. Kenya Barris’ hit ABC series, which spawned the spinoffs Grown-ish and the now-canceled Mixed-ish (with Old-ish and Brown-ish presumably still in development by the network) will end with its eighth season, as The Root reported in May. And though it’s the final season, the…Read more...

Oh Hell No, a new comedy from Sony that was supposed to feature Ice Cube and Jack Black in co-starring roles, just lost Cube because he didn’t want to get vaccinated, which was a requirement for the film’s cast.Read more...

With four Primetime Emmys, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award, Regina King is not only Hollywood royalty; she is one of the most decorated Black actors in history—while still at the height of her already decades-long career. Now, she can add another accolade to her growing list, as King just cemented her legacy in…Read more...

Man, white people are mad this week!Read more...

While some kids get their first job or spend weeks from home at sleep away camp during the summers, others make videos of themselves with a friend playing in a white hood and using the N-word.Read more...

It’s better to stand with her than to stand against her because award-winning New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones is always going to come out on top.Read more...

Jovita Moore, a beloved anchor at Atlanta’s Channel 2 Action News, has died, seven months after being diagnosed with “an aggressive form of brain cancer,” reports WSB-TV. Moore died late Thursday night at age 53.Read more...

Fetty Wap was billed among several headliners at Rolling Loud New York at Citi Field this weekend. Instead, he may be headed to jail. According to Page Six, the “Trap Queen” rapper, born William Junior Maxwell II, was arrested at the Mets’ home stadium by FBI agents late Thursday afternoon, on federal drug charges.Read more...

Everything they own in a box to the left? Not quite, but just in time for spooky season, Beyoncé and Jay-Z are listing their gothic 13,300 square-foot, 95-year-old New Orleans mansion, the church-turned-ballet school-turned-celebrity residence also known as La Casa de Castille.Read more...

Fair Fight Political Action Committee, allied with the Fair Fight organization founded by voting rights activist and political badass Stacey Abrams, donated over a million dollars to help thousands of Americans bogged down by medical debt.Read more...

Queen Sugar is one of my favorite shows. So much so, that I do a whole-ass podcast about it and never miss an episode. I have kept up with Charley, Nova, Ralph Angel, Aunt Vi, Hollywood, Darla, Prosper and the assortment of other folks who weave in and out of storylines since the show debuted in 2016. When people…Read more...

For anyone who supported the George Floyd protests last year and is wondering how you can help support change now, there’s an important election in Minneapolis that you should be paying attention to. If George Floyd’s murder taught us anything, it’s that the police should not have to be experts for every situation. In…Read more...

How you spend your free time is nobody’s business but your own. But as for me and my 85-inch TV? We watch about as much baseball as we do Fox News—which is exactly none.Read more...

On Sept. 18, 1977, a little-known comedian was canceled in real-time.

Throughout the course of my adult life, there have been plenty of times where I watched or read the news and thought out loud, “What the fuck is wrong is with Texas?” But with the state that’s given us Jerry Jones, Ted Cruz, and breast implants taking its ain’t shit-ness to another level by recently passing a series…Read more...

The families of nine people killed in a 2015 mass shooting at the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. reached an $88 million settlement with the Department of Justice, claiming that authorities should have stopped Dylann Roof from purchasing a pistol.Read more...

It’s not exactly a secret that the Rooney Rule is trash. But now the argument can be made that after its latest policy update, it’s somehow even more worthless for the same minority candidates it was designed to benefit in the first place.Read more...

Two officers were indicted by a grand jury on Tuesday for the death of 26 year-old Jamarion Robinson, a Black man who was shot 76 times during a raid on his girlfriend’s apartment in East Point, Ga., back in 2016.Read more...

All aboard, good people!Read more...

Though convicted sex trafficker and disgraced entertainer R. Kelly may be sitting in a federal jail cell in New York right now, to let his most diehard fans tell it, that conviction doesn’t and shouldn’t take away from his many years of accolades and accomplishments he’s garnered throughout his musical career. Chief…Read more...

The civil rights movement was a pivotal time for Black people in America. Cities such as Selma, Montgomery, and Atlanta were placed in the national spotlight not just because of acts of racism that occurred there, but the strength and perseverance of the African American men and women who fought for justice. While…Read more...

When I learned about slave catcher laws from the Civil War era in my ninth grade U.S. history class, the last thing I expected was to be reading about them being used in a legal battle in the 21st century.Read more...

What does it take to build a world? For Namina Forma, it took drawing on both her experiences growing up in Sierra Leone and America to help create the world of her first YA fantasy novel, The Gilded Ones (Penguin Random House).Read more...

Black in the Day is an ongoing series about Black nostalgia that covers very specific topics. This week, it’s all about words or phrases that you might have heard growing up.Read more...

New York Attorney General Letitia James will be running for governor according to sources close to her office. She is expected to announce her bid for the November 2022 election later this week. In 2018, James became both the first woman and Black person elected to serve as the state’s attorney general.Read more...