The Root

After spending 45 games watching the Los Angeles Lakers (22-23) cough, sputter, and wheeze on both ends of the court, coach Frank Vogel finally did something on Wednesday night to stop the continuous bleeding: He benched Russell Westbrook.Read more...

Well, I hope everyone still loves watching Black Panther, because at this rate, it may be a while before we all get to see Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

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Morehouse College is one of the most prestigious and well-known HBCUs in the country. They have an amazing track record of teaching and preparing young Black men for the professional world. Now, they are taking another step to ensure their students succeed.Read more...

While Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) is not looking to help advance the Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis voting rights bills, he is making a video series. According to the Associated Press, the South Carolina Republican will realize a half-dozen videos between this week and the end of February’s Black History Month. They are…Read more...

In September 2021, Texas passed a set of voting rights limits restricting when counties can offer early voting and blocking them from sending unsolicited mail-in voting applications. Already, we are seeing a high amount of mail-in ballot applications being rejected due to provisions Senate Bill 1 has enacted. If…Read more...

After postponing its originally scheduled Jan. 31 date due to the ongoing Covid-19 surge, the Recording Academy and CBS have now announced the 64th Annual Grammy Awards are moving to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 3.

Senate candidate Gary Chambers applied some pressure in his first campaign ad. Sitting back in a leather chair in the middle of a field, he puts a blunt to his lips and lights it. In the voiceover, he says say “Every 37 seconds someone is arrested for possession of marijuana.”Read more...

Willie O’Ree is kind of a big deal.Read more...

Last December, an illustration of a Black woman and her brown fetus went viral on social media. On Twitter, the image was liked over 8,000 times and retweeted over 2,500 times. On Instagram, the image was liked over 100,000 times.Read more...

Though he started his career as an outsider, Spike Lee is now considered a bonafide legend who has finally begun to receive his well-deserved flowers.

If there’s a sports figure who deserves flowers while he’s still here, it’s Willie O’Ree. He got a huge bouquet when the Boston Bruins finally retired his number 22 jersey on Tuesday, more than six decades after he broke hockey’s color barrier with the team.

Paramount Plus will continue to boldly go where no one—except several TV series and a decades-long film franchise—has gone before. The streaming network has renewed all of its Star Trek series.Read more...

The story of Claudette Colvin, the 15-year-old girl who refused to give up her bus seat in 1955—nine months before the Montgomery Bus Boycott officially started—will be getting the feature treatment soon, thanks to Anthony Mackie.Read more...

One of Netflix’s best surprise hits of the last few years is finally returning. According to Deadline, Raising Dion’s Season 2 will premiere on Feb. 1.

On Jan. 9, a horrific fire swept an apartment complex in the Bronx, while taking the lives of 17 people, including eight children. Many more people were also sent to the hospital.Read more...

It looks like Madea, aka “Muh to damn D-E-A” will be making her return to a small screen near us soon.

The Associated Press reported Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing a bill to prohibit public schools and private businesses from making white people feel uncomfortable when teaching students or employees about racism. It’s almost as if racism might be uncomfortable to discuss because its impact on Black Americans…Read more...

While the Biden Administration and a Democrat-controlled Congress dilly-dally about protecting Black Americans’ voting rights, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has proposed $6 million in taxpayer dollars to create a 52-person special police force department to patrol voting.Read more...

Three officers involved in the shootout causing the death of 8-year-old Fanta Bility have been charged with 12 counts of manslaughter and reckless endangerment, according to NPR. In November 2021, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer initially charged teenagers Angelo “AJ” Ford and Hasein Strand for the…Read more...

PBS, which is renowned for its countless series chronicling every part of American history, is finally tackling one of the most influential artistic movements of our time.

ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith is notorious for his boisterous thoughts and opinions. And after a scary battle with the coronavirus, in which the popular talking head suffered from chills and a 103-degree fever, the First Take host is being equally as loud about the importance of COVID-19 vaccines.Read more...

One of basketball’s unheralded heroines, Lucia “Lucy” Harris, who became the first and only woman to be drafted into the NBA in 1977, died on Tuesday, per Yahoo Sports and ESPN. She was 66.Read more...

The Root is sad to report that legendary fashion figure and former Vogue creative director André Leon Talley has died at 73.

A preface before you continue:

On MLK Day, the slain civil rights leader’s kin called out the senate to pass voting rights legislation.Read more...

Across the nation, Black churches have shut their doors because of the challenges brought upon from the COVID-19 pandemic. Will these churches reopen? Probably not without help.Read more...

CNBC reported 29-year-old Iris Nevins and her team have launched a new NFT brand (non-fungible token or digital item that can be sold and bought online). The brand is focused on Black art and elevating Black creatives in the NFT space. Nevins told CNBC she found NFT’s to be a more effective way to promote artists…Read more...

The woman in charge of America’s money said on Monday that the U.S. economy “has never worked fairly for Black Americans.”

Since 2016, the song is still a familiar tune. A Trump rally and big lies go together like mac and cheese or better yet, in the case of Trump, potato salad with raisins. Saturday night in Arizona began with election security expert and My Pillow owner Mike Lindell proclaiming the 2020 election will be overturned,…Read more...

Despite what some factions of this country may believe, there’s absolutely no denying this country’s history and legacy of slavery. Its roots are so deep and so intertwined in our nation’s past, present and future that it’s full implications can sometimes be hard to fully explore in just one history class, one book,…Read more...

Sometimes batshit crazy is just batshit crazy. There’s no saving batshit crazy from itself, so all that remains is to distance yourself from the crazy of others before it consumes you.

As much as I love to watch the Los Angeles Lakers meander their way to a 22-22 record, and suffer a fate worse than death by getting blown out by 37 points to the Denver Nuggets this weekend—cue obligatory confetti toss—apparently, the rest of Laker Nation feels otherwise.Read more...

Warning. This is nasty.Read more...

Apparently the NFL has no fear of Covid-19.

The 2014 killing of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old Black teenager, by a Chicago police officer and the eventual release of the video that showed the fatal shooting led to protests across Chicago. People were angry and frustrated with not only his killing, put CPD’s handling of the case and how long it took for the…Read more...

The 53rd annual NAACP Image Awards announced its nominees for this year’s ceremony.

For those of us who could give less than a shit about Novak Djokovic’s refusal to get vaccinated, and subsequent expulsion from the land of koalas and kangaroos, there are far more important things to discuss—like Naomi Osaka kicking ass and taking names at the Australian Open on Monday.Read more...

After six years of evaluations and assessments, Prince’s estate has been valued at $156.4 million, per Variety.

We’re only one month into the new year, and we’ve already seen some daunting cases of wrongful convictions being vacated after exonerees have already spent decades in prison.Read more...

While the Republican Party rolls on with its obstructionist mentality and still believes that losing the presidency in 2020 was a figment of our imagination, I ask that we take a closer look at Virginia. Former Carlyle Group Inc. executive and now newly elected governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, presented himself…Read more...

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Events may be postponed and schedules reshuffled, but awards are still being handed out. Variety reports, the African American Film Critics Association announced its best films and performances of the year, and while there were a couple of surprises, we got a lot of familiar names.Read more...

While Joe Biden was continuing the annual tradition of white politicians embarrassing themselves on MLK Day—“Even Dr. King’s assassination did not have the worldwide impact that George Floyd’s death did,” were his goofy-ass words, not mine—the Los Angeles Rams were doing the Kid ‘n Play Kick-Step all over the Arizona…Read more...

Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee has died at age 102 on Sunday, according to AP News. McGee was a decorated veteran who helped shine light on the racism Black pilots were facing at home while trying to fight for that same home in battle.Read more...

Martin Luther King III responded to the announcement Senator Kyrtsen Sinema will not support a change to the filibuster, reported The Hill. King III respectfully sat her down.Read more...

Trymaine Lee is a Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning journalist who is a correspondent for MSNBC and host of the podcast, Into America. On the podcast, he covers social justice issues and the role of race, violence, politics and law enforcement in America.Read more...

With Martin Luther King Jr. Day just around the corner, Comcast NBCUniversal has just unveiled a new documentary centered around the revolutionary Civil Rights pioneer’s vision and legacy.

There has always been some kind of disparity for Black women in this country. We recently saw the U.S. employment rate drop for all workers except Black women. It’s well documented that violence against Black women has been undercovered by mainstream media forever. So it’s no surprise that Black women face a wealth…Read more...

My first memory of time spent at The Roll Up CLT shakes out to become clearer like a polaroid capture. Through the haze of late summer on southern porches, I recall a curated kinship, community, and a shared love of Black art in close space. In the passing of wine poured into red solo cups, I was introduced to the…Read more...