The Root

On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he is doing what a number of lawmakers and officials have been doing in order to at least appear interested in addressing the whole systemic racism in America thing: He launched a commission. Racial justice commissions seem odd to people who are looking to…Read more...

Earlier this week, Panama Jackson refreshed and reshared a 2017 piece declaring Mark Morrison’s “Return of The Mack” the best song ever that no one acknowledges is the best song ever.

On Tuesday, we told you of the recent autopsy report pertaining to Bobby Brown’s late son, Bobby Brown Jr., who passed away last November.

If there’s one person whose rise to fame I’ve loved being a witness to, it’s Issa Rae.

In news that should be shocking to no one who’s been paying attention, it turns out that weird racists kick it both on Facebook and in real life.

Damian Williams, a longtime New York prosecutor who currently heads the Securities and Commodities Task Force in the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, is now being considered to lead the office.

Venus Williams has earned her way to be one of the most privileged women in tennis (if not the world)—but even her privilege didn’t always add up to equal earnings. As the tennis legend wrote in an op-ed for British Vogue timed in tandem with Women’s Equal Pay Day on March 24, her own battle to close the gender pay…Read more...

In the immediate aftermath of November’s exhibition match between former heavyweight champs Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr., Evander Holyfield made it abundantly clear that he wanted that smoke with Iron Mike, too.Read more...

It’s not the most groundbreaking story: a white woman in New York City has been caught on camera calling a Black person the n-word.

One of my best friends in this life and the next is esteemed college professor, cultural critic and fellow writer Shanita Hubbard. And while I love her dearly, one of our ongoing jokes for years has been how terrible she is at coming up with names for our projects. If it were up to her, the NBA would specialize in…Read more...

The state of Virginia might still be struggling to get the go-ahead to remove the legacy of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from its Monument Avenue, but it is taking what many will see as a much deeper dive into progressivism by becoming the first southern state to abolish the death penalty. Gov. Ralph Northam is set…Read more...

This year, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Pokémon. We’ve already started it with a bang thanks to Post Malone and his Hootie & the Blowfish cover. I’m still not sure why that happened, but I’m grateful nonetheless. Fans will get a more traditional celebration later this year when Poké…Read more...

Regardless of what James Brown said—this is, in fact, a woman’s world.Read more...

Tucker Carlson, former President Trump’s favorite Bass boat shoe, is in love with former President Barack Obama.

Prince Harry may no longer be part of the family business, man—but he’s officially now a businessman. On Tuesday, it was confirmed that Meghan Markle’s husband has accepted a role at a Silicon Valley startup.Read more...

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Given both the speed with which COVID-19 vaccines were made and the overwhelming need for them, it should come as no surprise that there’s been increased scrutiny about their effectiveness and potential side-effects. In recent weeks, AstraZeneca’s vaccine has been on the receiving end of that scrutiny, and Tuesday’s…Read more...

I feel like the reason Facebook was so resistant to implementing restrictions on white supremacists and conspiracy theorists is because that’s largely who its consumer base is now. While the social media company began implementing restrictions on pages that advocate violence and hate, a recent report has found that…Read more...

A small, Illinois suburb has finally done the thing that America has kept hand-wringing about since the end of slavery: reparations.

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The members of the jury for Derek Chauvin’s murder trial have been selected, and the group of 15 who will decide the case appears to be a diverse one.

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After a year of ongoing lockdowns and traumatic racial reckonings, many of us have wondered: When will joy be back on the menu? Now that spring is officially upon us (and the promise of vaccinations, as well) some of us are seeing the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel—and accepting that the world we are…Read more...

We only have a few rules here, at The Root:

Oh, boy.

Some clarity is emerging on the issues Samaria Rice recently raised regarding her discomfort with the more visible activists in the movement to end the deadly police violence against Black people in America.

Stephen Silas doesn’t deserve this.

Whether it’s an aspiring jazz musician, a legendary soul singer, or an exonerated man who finally gets justice after many long years, when it comes to Jamie Foxx, there is hardly any role he won’t authentically embody. With a long-awaited update on his next project, I’m sure we’ll see more of the same.

If you had Boston’s new mayor being both a woman and a person of color, please bring your Bingo card to the front so that I can call you a liar to your face.

As we begin to cautiously hope for the winding down of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, we are also beginning to see the resurgence of another fatal sickness ailing America.

A recent autopsy report has confirmed the cause of death of Robert Barisford “Bobby” Brown Jr., son of R&B icon Bobby Brown.Read more...

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Nadria Tucker writes for TV. She also wants to make sure her own personal story and truth are told, as well.Read more...

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The relationship between poetry and music is intrinsic. While all music isn’t lyrical and poetry isn’t musical, it’s difficult to imagine one without the other—and impossible to imagine Harlem without either. The New York City neighborhood that was home to an iconic “Renaissance” still reverberates throughout our…Read more...

Kitty-cat, kitt-cat, prrr. All the big girls down to the flrrrr.Read more...

In the two months since the Capitol riot, we’ve seen more and more people get arrested and charged for their actions that day. As investigators have gathered more details about everything that went down on Jan. 6, the federal prosecutor overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation has said sedition charges are…Read more...

Considering how police officers have shown they have no problem being blatantly racist in public Facebook posts, it should come as no surprise that a private Facebook group for Pennsylvania cops was found to be filled with racist, transphobic, and just straight up hateful posts.

Time and time again, we’ve seen educators show their complete asses when it comes to doing the bare minimum to not be racist. A white headmaster at a Catholic school in Long Island is on leave after forcing a Black student to kneel and apologize to his teacher.Read more...

Have you ever listened to a song and been so moved that it played on repeat for days or even weeks? I have, and the only thing better than that feeling is finding out the music video for that song is even more mind-blowing than the song itself. We understand things with all five senses, right? So it makes sense that…Read more...

What happens to a potential TV show reboot that dies down before it can properly fire up?

We’ve already written about how vaccination trends across the U.S. have given off more than a whiff of Eau De Colonization, but this story coming out of Chicago—as many stories coming out of Chicago unfortunately do—takes the cake.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn is known for saying insensitive, racist-y, fucked up statements.

Elgin Baylor, who played for the Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers during his illustrious 14-year career, has died. He was 86 years old.

I do not love America.Read more...

This is a Telfar Clemens appreciation post. As of Monday morning, the CFDA Award-winning designer’s little (or large) shopping bag that could was once again breaking the internet—and proving that Telfar not only knows how to set a trend, but also sustain one.Read more...

Thanks to a global pandemic that has completely defecated on how we conceptualize time, December 2019 feels like eons ago. Hell, I don’t even remember what I got for Christmas that year. But with a little help from Blu Ivy’s Internet, I can tell you some of the biggest moments from that month: Google co-founders Larry…Read more...

Do you know what song you know but maybe don’t know that you know? I’m glad you asked: Creative Source’s “I’d Find You Anywhere,” released in 1976 on the group’s final album, Consider The Source.

Kool cigarettes have undergone more makeovers than the Kardashians. Initially they used a cartoon penguin named “Willie,” who was a chef, a soldier and a doctor. Then, in the 1960s, they kicked Willie out into the cold and tried using a country frost approach that included images of water and snow. Then in the 1970s…Read more...

Unlike his obnoxious-ass daddy, Charlotte Hornets rookie LaMelo Ball is a welcomed sight on my 85-inch TV screen and an absolute joy to watch on the court. But because the basketball Gods won’t allow us to have nice things, this happened on Sunday against the Los Angeles Temecula Clippers: