The Root

These days it can often feel like we’re in a never-ending cycle of violence, trauma, and general fuckery, so it’s always great when you come across a piece of news that’s just a certifiable dub for the culture. India Walton, a Black woman who ran for office for the first time in Buffalo, N.Y., is projected to become…Read more...

The multi-day celebration that is the 81st annual Peabody Awards continued on Wednesday with some well-deserved flowers for HBO’s I May Destroy You, the much beloved limited series created by and starring Michaela Coel, which won in the Entertainment category.Read more...

Nikole Hannah-Jones is letting it be known that she has had it with board members at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill dragging their feet in making the right decision in granting her tenure along with the five-year contract with the school that she accepted.Read more...

Ciara Princess Wilson’s light shines brightly.Read more...

If you think there “Ain’t Nobody’ on this planet that would pass up a Verzuz battle between Chaka Khan and Stephanie Mills, then I’m happy to inform you that you’re absolutely right.

Earlier this year, Marvin Scott III was suffering a mental health crisis in a Texas jail. Instead of trying to help him, the detention officers in charge maced him and put a spit mask over his face. Scott died shortly after the struggle. While most of the eight officers involved were fired after the incident, a grand…Read more...

When last we left Gwen Berry, the U.S. Olympic hammer thrower was dismissed and disgraced after raising her fist during the national anthem at the 2019 Pan American Games. In response to her decision to protest racial injustice in America, she was slapped with one year of probation for violating the International…Read more...

Kenya Barris spoke out on some things in a recent profile-ish.Read more...

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) has announced the recipients for its Voice of Culture Award, The Root has learned.Read more...

As of Tuesday, most of the votes are in, but the winner of the Democratic primary for New York City’s mayoral race is far from decided. What we do know is that so far, the leading candidate is none other than Brooklyn borough president and former police captain Eric Adams. Between absentee ballots still yet to be…Read more...

Paul George had one job.Read more...

Grown-ish, starring Yara Shahidi, Trevor Jackson, Luka Sabbat, Halle Bailey, Chloe Bailey, Diggy Simmons, Francia Raisa, Emily Arlook and Jordan Buhat, is back this summer for its fourth season and the teaser trailer has dropped.Read more...

As a couple, travel is a huge part of our identity. While we were dating, we made it a point to take trips that were kind to our undergraduate and grad school budgets. Now in our fifth year of marriage and still considering ourselves honeymooners, we take trips that will deepen our love and our commitment to our…Read more...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that whenever a Black person does something, it’s usually cool and changes the world. Just look at TikTok. Or “Gen Z slang.” And, oh yeah, pretty much everything else.Read more...

“Enjoy the opulence.”Read more...

Sharpen your pencils and get ready to take notes because the newest MasterClass instructor is none other than LeVar Burton! If there was ever a person made for this teaching gig, it’s Mr. Burton!Read more...

One of the most frustrating things that arises when trying to talk about race is that white America seems to operate under the assumption that racism is literally just saying the N-word. As we all know, racism is often systemic and it can show up in places you wouldn’t even imagine. Take for instance traffic deaths.…Read more...

The still Mississippi courtroom was suspended in a silence that can only be accompanied by prayer when Mose Wright rose from his chair. He stood slowly, as if his 64-year-old back were being unbent by something up in heavens and pointed his unshaking Black hand.

When he’s not preoccupied with ruling the Billboard charts and collaborating with some of the biggest names in music, super-producer Mark Ronson is the host of the new podcast, FADER Uncovered.Read more...

It seems Chris Brown could still use a little guidance on how to keep his hands off of women and how to prevent frequent run-ins with the cops.

White people en masse seem to be on a crusade to fuck around and find out. Last summer, an Indiana man decided to fuck around and repeatedly racially harass his Black neighbor. He would soon find out he was committing a federal offense, as a judge sentenced him on Friday to 46 months in federal prison after he pleaded…Read more...

On Monday, Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib became the first active NFL player to come out as gay.Read more...

In Today’s episode of White People Are Crazy, rightwing talk radio host Michael Savage took his I-wanna-be-oppressed-so-bad ass on Newsmax, aka Republican Disney +, to turn the dial on his conservative Critical Race Theory paranoia up to 10 by declaring that the teaching of CRT is a slippery slope to *checks notes*…Read more...

Long before he was an award-winning designer and the creator of the “Bushwick Birkin,” 2021 The Glow Up 50 honoree Telfar Clemens emigrated with his family to the United States from the West African nation of Liberia in 1990. The then-5-year-old likely never dreamed that 31 years later, he’d be representing his home…Read more...

Last week, The Root reported that an unidentified Warren, Mich., police officer was under investigation after being accused of posting racist comments on Facebook. Were his alleged comments racist? Well, he reportedly declared: “Glad I wasn’t born [Black]. I would kill myself.” So yeah, I’d say this cop’s comments…Read more...

While it’s great that Juneteenth is finally receiving national recognition, it comes with the unfortunate downside of white people doing the absolute, goddamn most. Take for instance an Ikea in Atlanta that introduced a special Juneteenth menu that just screams “I had one Black friend...in high school...during…Read more...

On Tuesday, “Buy U A Drank” singer T-Pain found himself the topic of the Twitter streets after a clip from the new Netflix series This Is Pop went viral.Read more...

What’s the difference between American history and Black history? And why don’t we teach more white history?Read more...

I’m not sure when news anchors started engaging in the journalistic equivalent of releasing dis tracks, but Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and CNN’s Don Lemon have spent the last year or so cementing themselves as the Drake vs. Pusha T of the mainstream media world. (I was going to go with Dr. Dre vs. Eazy-E, but I have got…Read more...

You’ve watched them on TV, you sure as hell have seen them on your social media feeds, and there’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard their Webby Award-winning podcast, Dead Ass.Read more...

TikTok is a platform full of short-form content...but appropriation and colonization at the hands of white folks is long-form history.Read more...

Today’s piece is brought to you by the letter “T.” And no, that’s not a “T” for Trick Daddy.Read more...

Excuse me, I’m currently cosplaying as a crying white woman and am on the phone with the Hollywood police to file a complaint. Why? Welllllll...Read more...

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who felt the need to point their guns at a group of protesters who weren’t even bothering them last summer, plead guilty to misdemeanor assault and harassment charges and have lost the guns they used in the incident.

Here’s the thing: If white people insist on campaigning to preserve their beloved white supremacy arts and crafts projects monuments honoring the American tradition of keeping negroes in chains the Confederacy, the least they could do is keep their slavery memorabilia-loving asses out of largely Black neighborhoods…Read more...

We’re in a really weird place when it comes to the pandemic. With vaccines widely available, people in America are slowly but surely getting back to gathering, going out, and generally trying to establish a new normal.Read more...

Now I know what you’re probably thinking: Shanelle, what the hell is an NFT and why is Jay-Z suing over it?Read more...

One of the lines that the unseasoned among us like to repeat is that systemic racism doesn’t exist. While I would love to live in that world, the truth is the ongoing effects of systemic racism are easy to see if you’re actually paying attention. While one would hope that segregation is a thing of the past, that’s far…Read more...

A little over a year ago, the music industry joined the swarm of solidarity showcases led by corporate entities during the Black Lives Matter uprisings in 2020, most notably in response to the murder of George Floyd. Using the hashtags #BlackoutTuesday and #TheShowMustBePaused, artists were encouraged to hold off on…Read more...

White people love to join clubs. It’s kind of their thing.

Roses are red.

It’s been nearly four years since three St. Louis police officers were accused of brutally beating a Black undercover officer during a protest taking place over former police officer Jason Stockley being acquitted of murder in the killing of Anthony Lamar in 2017. Last Thursday, one of those officers was found guilty…Read more...

As Division I college athletes continue their crusade to be properly compensated by a billion-dollar entity known as the NCAA, the Supreme Court has jumped into the fray and awarded them a unanimous victory.Read more...

Sha’Carri Richardson, which is Wakandan for “fast as shit,” celebrated the Juneteenth holiday by earning her first Olympic berth on Day 2 of the U.S.A. Track and Field Olympic Trials.

Innnnn West Philadelphia—I mean, at a very famous red table—two Philly natives (born and raised!) sat down to discuss Fatherhood.Read more...

For some reason, the same people who believed a Washington, D.C. pizzeria was the secret meetup for connected pedophiles also believed that former President Donald Trump would somehow be reinstated to his rightful position as king of the white supremacists as president of the United States.

As the state-sanctioned killings and subsequent non-convictions of police involved in the deaths of too many innocent Black people have proved, there is a profound lack of accountability when it comes to policing in the United States. But beyond the incidents themselves, who is tracking police who have escaped…Read more...

On Dec. 22, a Black mother and father lost one of their two children after a New York state trooper rammed the family’s SUV with his patrol car. According to state police officials, the collision occurred when the driver fled after being pulled over, but the driver tells a much fuller story involving a description of…Read more...

Auntie Maxine gets it. She always has.