The Root

The Louisville Metro Police Department has moved to fire an officer who struck a person that was surrendering with a baton during a Black Lives Matter protest last year.Read more...

The Root has so enjoyed kicking off wedding season with “How We Do,” our series of gift guides, style experts and love stories, aimed at helping our readers find some inspiration for their own nuptials and unions. But if you’ve ever planned a wedding, you know it’s not just about you (no really, it’s not). It…Read more...

You’re probably thinking: “Hasn’t The Root already done an explainer on Critical Race Theory?”Read more...

Look, whoever said I have the same 24 hours as Issa Rae lied.Read more...

Darnella Frazier, the teenager brave enough to document the nine minutes and 29 seconds that Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into George Floyd’s neck has been recognized with a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. The honor was announced by Aminda Marqués González, co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, during the…Read more...

Y’all, I have got to admit it: I have been waiting for things to open back up since the pandemic began, but now that it is actually on the verge of happening, I am feeling a little bit anxious and apprehensive.Read more...

While Chiney Ogwumike has made a name for herself during her seven-year stint in the WNBA, it’s off the court where she’s rapidly becoming a household name.Read more...

Earlier this week, we told you about Megan Thee Stallion’s return to social media following a monthlong hiatus. We also mentioned that she dropped a teaser for her new single, “Thot Shit,” that was set to be released on Friday. Well, hotties today is that day, and boy, Tina Snow did not disappoint!Read more...

In 2019, former President Donald Trump signed a law commissioning the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board, which would be granted the power to “declassify government files and subpoena new testimony in the hopes of reopening cases or revealing publicly why many were never fully investigated,” according to a …Read more...

For over 50 years, Drs. Haki R. Madhubuti and Safisha Madhubuti have been building together alongside a community that reads like a who’s who of the Black Arts Movement. Their half-decade together has included raising a successful blended family and launching numerous independent African-centered institutions in…Read more...

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: White people are crazy!Read more...

After exchanging social media jabs for what seems like an eternity, I’m happy to report that Migos standout Quavo and former NBA champ Kendrick Perkins have finally squashed their long-simmering beef.Read more...

Girls Inc., the nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring and empowering girls and women everywhere to be “Strong, Smart and Bold,” has announced its inaugural film festival event, The Root has learned.Read more...

I’m a big fan of sandbox games that give you the tools to make your own fun. Most of my favorite gaming memories aren’t well-crafted story beats but the cool, funny, stupid, and/or amazing things I’ve managed to make happen just by screwing around in a game.

It’s that glorious time of the year where all the biggest game studios wheel out meticulously crafted, gameplay-light trailers for games that will likely be delayed into the next year, a.k.a E3! I’m sure you’ve seen many articles about what might be announced this weekend. Seeing as our play cousins at Kotaku have…Read more...

You don’t need me to tell you that cops didn’t exactly take it too well when thousands of people marched in the streets last year to demand they stop being violent, racist assholes with authoritarian tendencies. Images from protests across the country showed that cops only doubled down on the racist, authoritarian…Read more...

There are some white people in this world who just wake up every morning and choose saltiness over every other flavor on the flavor spectrum. Like, I’m honestly starting to think they don’t cook with spices because they’re already so full of salt that they’re afraid they might spontaneously combust if they even smell…Read more...

Hey, The Whites™. I’m gonna need you to either nut the fuck up or shut the fuck up already. You can’t be out here in your feelings all the damn time, being so offended that people simply think this country isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be, and then turn around and talk about how we’re too sensitive. You wanna talk…Read more...

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day...and thanks to this new collaboration between Dove, Verve Records, UMe and the Nina Simone Charitable Trust, Black women everywhere will hopefully be feeling good—about their natural hair, that is!Read more...

If you have no idea who Lusia “Lucy” Harris is, you’re not alone.Read more...

Maybe it’s because I’m from the South Side of Chicago and vividly remember meeting a pre-parenthood Michelle Obama back in 1994, but like a distant relative who only catches up with the cousins every few years, I have a specific timeframe that flashes through my mind every time I think of the Obama daughters. You…Read more...

A unit of the Louisiana State Police—the same police department that was involved in the in-custody death of Ronald Greene and accused in the merciless beatings of Antonio Harris and Aaron Bowman, all of whom are Black men—is now under internal investigation by a panel made up of other state police officials tasked…Read more...

White delusion is both dangerous and often comical.Read more...

After several books of poetry and essays and a New York Times bestselling meditation on A Tribe Called Quest, acclaimed author and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib was halfway through his fifth offering—an exploration and critique of the history and dynamics of Black performance in America—when he suddenly “shifted…Read more...

As someone who struggles with varying degrees of social anxiety, I find great comfort in familiarity. I eat damn near the same thing almost every single day (either shrimp, a fish of some sort, or chicken), I’ve gone to the same barber for the past seven years (and like an ain’t-shit husband, only cheat on her when…Read more...

When tempted to embark on an office romance, conventional wisdom generally advises against it. But when T. Tara Turk and Scott Haynes met in their New York workplace, there was definitely a spark—though romance wasn’t on the immediate agenda.Read more...

Plant care can be self-care. Taking care of plants does not have to be stressful. In fact, caring for plants can help us deal with all the stress in this crazy world.Read more...

If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the perfect night to whip out those “Long Heel Red Bottoms,” and “Turn Your Swagg On,” then boy, have I got some good news for you!Read more...

Time and time again, we’re told that injuries are part of the game. And while nearly every franchise and professional athlete can attest to this credo, Phoenix Suns “Point God” Chris Paul’s career has been particularly cruel in this regard.Read more...

When it comes to powerhouse music producers, there’s no force greater than the legendary duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.Read more...

I can’t lie to you, folks: I’m not a big Mister Miracle guy. It’s nothing against the character; he just wasn’t prominently featured during the era of comics I grew up reading. When DC Comics hit me up to see if I would be down to speak with Brandon Easton, the writer of Mister Miracle: The Source of Freedom, I said…Read more...

On the ninth day of June 2021, a familiar cry of “Hallelujer!” was suddenly heard by many unexpecting ears from coast-to-coast, which can only signal one thing: Madea is back.Read more...

Loving, losing, growing and regressing are all part of what it means to be alive, but this week’s releases not only explore those themes, they embrace them. For me, it’s hard to imagine the type of bravery and strength it takes to put these words on a page, but authors, and these authors in particular, do it with such…Read more...

Last year, as people grew more and more vocal about not fucking with racism like that, an equal and opposing force of Karens, wypipo, and general assholes alike arose to say the quiet part out loud.Read more...

In Ypsilanti Township, Mich., a 6-year-old Black child was shot in the arm by his neighbor who reportedly was upset that the child’s bicycle was in his front yard. The neighbor, an Asian man, first allegedly threatened the boy with a sledgehammer after he went to retrieve his bike, then the man went inside his home…Read more...

“Fate brought us together,” Rashid Saxton says when asked how he met Naomi Abraham, in what he calls “a chance occurrence on the subway” 22 years ago.Read more...

Fox News is racist AF.Read more...

Shoutout to Verda Tetteh, a recent high school graduate on her way to Harvard University who wants to give a $40,000 scholarship she earned to a community college attendee.Read more...

ABC may have 99 problems, but finding a host to replace Chris Harrison doesn’t seem to be one.Read more...

I’m gonna let y’all in on a little secret: Here at The Root, many of the writers and editors you all know and love are rather big fans of reality TV. Take for instance fellow staff writer Tonja Renée Stidhum, who’s particularly fond of the Netflix series The Circle; or as she once wrote:Read more...

In The Heights, the highly anticipated TV adaptation of the hit Broadway musical from Lin Manuel Miranda, directed by Jon M. Chu, dropped its trailer over a year ago and folks had questions.Read more...

“Get his ass.”

Does absolutely everything need to come to the red table? In what was rightly called “a red table first,” on Wednesday’s episode, Jada, Willow and Gammy did a group vaginal steaming session on camera...because that is the must-see multi-generational TV moment we’ve all been craving.Read more...

Emmy-nominated actress Vanessa Williams is a delight onscreen.

I’m not saying Father’s Day gets the Judy Winslow treatment, but if Father’s Day walked upstairs and never came back, would there be an uproar? I’m not sure there would be based on the effort folks typically put into gifts for dad. Maybe it’s our fault (I’m dad, hear me roar); maybe dads out there play it so cool that…Read more...

“Homesteading” isn’t a term we hear often in contemporary vernacular, but it’s exactly how M Shelly Conner and wife Tiffany Conner describe life on the 15 acres they share with their two-year-old dog Whiskey in central Arkansas. It’s a long way from Chicago, where the couple first met in person in 2016 after…Read more...

Aside from maybe mumbo sauce, former Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome is about the closest thing to God you’ll find in the DMV area. Since stepping down from his position three years ago, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti has struggled to find the right way to honor Newsome’s legacy as one of the greatest NFL…Read more...

Do y’all remember when the guy who used to leave orange spray-tan booty juice all over the Oval Office furniture established “The 1776 Commission” to counter Nikole Hannah-Jones’ Pulitzer Prize-winning work The 1619 Project? Well, President Joe Biden shut that racist ass shit down pretty much as soon as he got in…Read more...

Social media remains free of charge, but you know what else is? Shutting up. Julie Burchill, a now-former columnist for Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, learned the hard way that racism literally doesn’t pay.Read more...

In one corner, we have a grown-ass man worth nearly $200 million who squanders his free time by threatening Michael Rapaport’s life—some would argue that’s a noteworthy cause—and creating burner accounts on Blue Ivy’s internet.Read more...