The Root

Nicki Minaj may have planned to spend the week celebrating her big ESSENCE Fest performance, but instead, she’s dealing with the fallout of her husband’s legal troubles.Read more...

The least accurate pontification about the Highland Park, Ill., massacre is that it was somehow made worse by the fact that it happened on Independence Day, as a small town celebrated its version of Americana.

Abortion remains legal in Kentucky despite the state legislature’s attempt to enact a trigger law and the fact that its attorney general, Daniel Cameron, appealed a court ruling that barred it from taking effect.Read more...

The Justice Department is taking the state of Arizona to court over yet another law that tries to codify voter suppression.Read more...

July is Fibroid Awareness Month, which means it’s time to have an open and honest conversation about a condition that has wreaked havoc on women in our community. Black women are nearly three times more likely to have fibroids than white women. They are also more likely to develop them at younger ages and experience…Read more...

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the trailer for Issa Rae’s brand new show, Rap Sh!t, let me first start by giving you a fitting mantra that I feel sets the right framework for what you’re about to read: “WE OUSSIDE!!!!!”Read more...

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas is the second Black man to serve on the nation’s highest court. Unlike his predecessor, the erstwhile civil rights litigator Thurgood Marshall, Thomas began his law career as a pro-Black radical only to morph into one of the Court’s staunchest conservatives. Here’s how…Read more...

After weeks of demands and public pressure, Cherelle Griner, wife of WNBA star Brittney Griner, finally got an opportunity to speak with President Biden and Vice President Harris.

Jada Johnson, 22, was shot and killed right in front of her grandfather while having a mental health crisis. According to CBS 17, Rick Iwanski is calling for the arrest of the Fayetteville officers involved in his granddaughter’s killing. Per Iwanski’s account, Johnson was holding a firearm but threatened to kill…Read more...

After three long years, on Wednesday, Eric Holder Jr.,—the man accused of murdering influential rapper Nipsey Hussle back in March of 2019—was found guilty of first-degree murder in a Los Angeles courtroom.Read more...

To say this last Supreme Court term had a monumental hand in forcing the country backward would be a profound understatement. With affirmative action and voting rights on the docket for the high court in its fall cases, the progressive House caucus is calling for checks and balances to be created, Salon reports.

“We need to end this horror. We need to stop this violence,” Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday to thousands of teachers in Chicago for the National Education Association convention. “We must protect our communities from the terror of gun violence. I’ve said it before: enough is enough.”Read more...

When you think about people most likely to engage in outdoor adventure sports, Black women may not be the first group that comes to mind. But Black Women Who Kayak+ is out to change that. Tanya Walker founded the organization in 2018 to provide a safe space for women of color to connect with nature. And since then,…Read more...

The Woman King trailer is a call to arms for Black women everywhere.

State Senator Tiara Mack is under fire for one of her latest posts on TikTok. In the short video, Mack—who is a Democrat representing District 6 in Rhode Island—can be seen in a bikini twerking upside down.

The Federal Trade Commission and state of Florida are shutting down Grant Bae (yes, that’s the name) and its owner for allegedly giving fake grants to Black owned businesses seeking pandemic relief. Business owners were getting scammed out thousands of dollars on a promise they would be able to access millions.

Between the Cares Act, the Coronavirus Relief Act, and the American Rescue Plan, individual Americans received up to $3,200 in stimulus payments. This is if you met the income threshold to get the last $1,400 in March 2021. Despite inflation which includes the rise in rent, food, and gas prices, Sen. Mitch McConnell…Read more...

As if you needed another reason to love and respect legendary rapper and actor Method Man, the Wu-Tang member has recently come out to apologize to Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child for an awkward encounter that transpired in the early 2000s.Read more...

As WNBA star Brittney Griner’s Russian trial begins, her wife, Cherelle Griner, is no longer remaining quiet about her frustration with the U.S. government’s response.Read more...

That didn’t last long.Read more...

Jayland Walker’s sister, Jada Walker, talked about who her brother was before his life was taken by Akron police just over a week ago. Walker told Good Morning America her brother was kind, had goals for the future and always looked out for his family. She said his killing has brought not only grief but trauma, per …Read more...

Over the last few years, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed laws that changed college tenure systems, displaced Florida universities from commonly accepted accreditation practices, and enacted yearly “viewpoint diversity surveys” from both students and faculty. If the responses are not up to par with the state’s…Read more...

Since the Supreme Court elected to overrule Roe v. Wade, there has been a lot of anger directed towards the Biden administration and its response. The former director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement and top ally of President Biden, Cedric Richmond, says Democratic attacks and criticisms of the Biden…Read more...

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From Bayard Rustin to Audre Lorde to Billy Porter, history is filled with pioneering Black queer groundbreakers. Countless figures started movements and created art that let generations know they weren’t alone. Of course, for every name we all know, there are several equally familiar people who kept their private…Read more...

Nate Looney is a proud Black Jew. But since converting to the faith over a decade ago, he has found that not everyone is welcoming him with open arms. He said he was once told to go to the kitchen when he showed up to a synagogue dressed for Shabbat services. “The last thing you want to happen when you go to a…Read more...

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Today is July 5th, otherwise known as the day after the holiday after one of the most Blackity-black events in this country, a.k.a. the 2022 ESSENCE Festival of Culture.

The Congressional hearings on the Jan. 6 insurrection aren’t the only place that Donald Trump’s cronies are being dragged in to testify about the ex-president’s failed attempt to undo the results of the 2020 election.

I was a teenager before the Internet was a thing, so the inspiration for my hairstyles came from Hype Hair and Black Hair magazine, not Pinterest. Those popular hair magazines that inspired so many young Black girls in the 90s inspired Anita Grant’s new children’s book, Hello Hair.

There are certain movies and TV series that never lose their impact. No matter how much time has passed, they spark an emotional reaction every single time. The truly special ones ignite a new reaction with each viewing. No show embodies this better than HBO’s classic drama The Wire.

Henderson and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police are ponying up $90,000 for their outrageous slip up of mistaking the identity of a Black man...for a white man. Shane Lee Brown (Black) was arrested for Shane Neal Brown’s felony warrant back in January of 2020. Per the body camera footage, the officers seemed unsure about…Read more...

A ruling from the Mississippi Supreme Court found that additional DNA testing will not be able to be presented in a 30-year-old murder case of two college students, the Associated Press reports. In 1994, Willie Jerome Manning was convicted of two counts of capital murder in the December 1992 killings of Mississippi…Read more...

Demariyus Thomas, the NFL wide receiver who died suddenly last month at his Atlanta-area home, had the debilitating brain disease known as CTE when he passed.Read more...

After the Proud Boys were kicked off Twitter in 2018, they retreated to other discreet messaging platforms such as Telegram. However, the extremist group could make a Twitter comeback if Tesla founder Elon Musk follows through with purchasing the platform. Musk would have to drop $44 billion to own Twitter and he just…Read more...

Congratulations are in order for rapper Big Sean and his girlfriend, singer-songwriter Jhené Aiko, as the two are reportedly expecting their first child together.Read more...

The God of Thunder and his closest friends return in Marvel Studios’ latest film Thor: Love and Thunder, hitting theaters July 8. Chris Hemsworth’s hero is joined by Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, Taika Waititi—who once again writes and directs—as Korg, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Florida is home to things such as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, a proposed 15-week abortion ban, the Stop Woke Act, and gerrymandered voting maps. California Gov. Gavin Newsom made a 4th of July ad appealing directly to Floridians to either fight for freedoms in their state or come to California, The Guardian reports.Read more...

Fans and loyal followers of Wendy Williams and her hella popular eponymous daytime talk show will be sad to hear that the online presence for the show is now non-existent.Read more...

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was scheduled to meet with law enforcement this morning after an organized group of as many as 100 masked white supremacists marched through the city’s downtown on Saturday, assaulting a Black man along the way.

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...