The Root

Race is a funny thing.

This weekend, HBCUs will be representing during NASCAR’s regular-season finale. (I know, I can’t believe I typed that myself.)Read more...

Dame Lillard is stuck between a rock and a mediocre team.Read more...

On Thursday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Alberto Milian rejected a “Stand Your Ground” defense claim made by Mark Bartlett, a white man who is accused of brandishing a loaded gun at Black teens and calling them racial slurs.Read more...

Republicans in the Texas House advanced restrictive voting legislation that would impact primarily Democratic voters, particularly those with disabilities and voters of color.Read more...

Ladies and gentlemen!

Nowadays, it seems anyone can go viral and become an overnight sensation, and with the rapid rise of social media, more and more people are putting their talents out there in a way we couldn’t have conceived of a decade or two years ago.Read more...

On Saturday, protestors will gather nationwide to mark the 58th anniversary of the March on Washington during the March On for Voting Rights, a gathering in which organizers will demand that Congress pass both the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act, according to USA Today. The two bills have…Read more...

Kanye, you’ve officially fucked up.Read more...

There is no more quintessentially 2021 story—nothing as on-the-nose encapsulating of this wretched damn year—than the inane melodrama of who will replace Alex Trebek as Jeopardy! host.Read more...

Last time I checked, the job of the vice president of the United States was to do all the goofy press events that the president didn’t have time to do. Need an elected official to come to your school for career day? Send the VP. Need someone to come to your auto plant to promote the passing of an auto factory work…Read more...

Plant-based diets are more popular in Black communities than you might think. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 8 percent of Black Americans consider themselves strict vegans or vegetarians, compared to just 3 percent of the general population. A recent Gallup poll found that nearly a third of people of color…Read more...

Back in the day, before anyone really knew anything about Wakanda and the Black Panther movie franchise, one of the hairstylists on set reached out to Natalie Taylor, founder of the L.A.-based Royal House of Wraps. What did the newly-shorn actresses, including Lupita Nyong’o, need? Head wraps ASAP.Read more...

“Conscious uncoupling” just got Kimye’d. The artist formerly known as Kanye West and his soon-to-be ex-wife, Kim Kardashian West (who will reportedly retain the surname even as Kanye’s legally filed to simply be known as “Ye”), gave fans at Chicago’s Soldier Field a treat on Thursday night as they paid tribute to…Read more...

A growing number of historically Black colleges and universities have been using federal funding to cancel their students’ debt and clear withstanding balances from the past school year. Black students disproportionately owe more in student loans and HBCUs are setting a precedent in evening out the playing field,…Read more...

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Biden administration’s eviction moratorium, a decision that puts millions of Americans at risk of losing a roof over their heads. Activists and lawmakers, led by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), had urged President Biden to extend the moratorium, even if the legalities of such a move were…Read more...

Editorial note: This article includes descriptions of grooming, exploitation and sexual abuse.Read more...

Lt. Michael Byrd, the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed rioter and Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, told Lester Holt during an NBC News exclusive interview that he has been in hiding since that day because of death threats, but feels confident that he did his job honorably.

In footage obtained and published by the Associated Press on Wednesday, Louisiana State Police trooper Jacob Brown was caught on body camera footage beating Black motorist Aaron Larry Bowman with a flashlight during a traffic stop in May 2019.Read more...

What is “Mike Richards’ Redemption Tour”?Read more...

Gulia Dale, a Black army veteran, was killed by Newton police officers outside his New Jersey home on July 4th after his wife made a 911 call about Dale’s mental state and that he had a gun. But Dale’s family and local civil rights organizations are calling out the officers’ response that night and now, the New Jersey…Read more...

I typically don’t have much to say about people who eat Sausage Egg McMuffins with extra salt and a glass of milk, but I’ll make a special exception for Dallas Cowboys dictator Jerry Jones.Read more...

This year’s U.S. Open just lost another big name.Read more...

On Thursday, U.S. Capitol Police officers filed a lawsuit against Trump, his allies and members of far-right extremist groups over the January 6 capitol insurrection. The group of officers accused Trump of conspiring with his supporters to disrupt the certification of the presidential election results.Read more...

The creator of the online platform and marketplace Black Owned Everything now has a Black Owned Emmy! Zerina Akers, who has long been identified as the expert curatorial eye behind Beyoncé’s wardrobe (in addition to stints styling Ava DuVernay, Yara Shahidi, and Niecy Nash, among others) is now getting well-deserved…Read more...

On Wednesday, Black Panther star Letitia Wright was briefly hospitalized after suffering minor injuries while filming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.Read more...

In his latest attempt to “do the right thing,” Spike Lee is headed back to the cutting room floor to re-edit the final episode of his newly released four-part HBO docuseries, NYC Epicenters 9/11➔2021½.Read more...

How young is too young to learn how to be antiracist—and can you learn antiracism without a comprehensive understanding of what racism is? This is arguably the real question undergirding the otherwise inane (and wholly fabricated) fear of critical race theory. The academic field of study has never (ever)…Read more...

A squad of mostly minority cheerleaders from a California high school were called racial slurs and were subjected to monkey noises from the opposing team’s crowd during a football game Friday.Read more...

After Maria Taylor’s much-publicized departure from ESPN in July, many of us were livid and assumed that veteran broadcaster Rachel Nichols had unjustly “won” the silent war between them, which was uncovered by the New York Times. But on Wednesday came the news that there would be no winners, as the sports…Read more...

He may be a bop-producing provocateur, but Lil Nas X also believes pearl-clutching should be equal opportunity. Case in point: on Wednesday, the rapper, who earned both headlines and the ire of Nike earlier this year with the release of a limited-edition line of customized Air Max 97s containing a drop of human blood,…Read more...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is set to name State Sen. Brian Benjamin of Manhattan as her next lieutenant governor, according to various reports. He will be the second Black man to hold the job, making his new role an especially history-making one because Hochul is New York state’s first top female chief executive.Read more...

Wednesday, August 25, 2021, marked the 20th anniversary of Aaliyah’s death.

On Wednesday, R. Kelly’s defense team continued with cross examination of the second witness present in the long-awaited trial of the disgraced R&B singer.Read more...

What’s going on with white people?Read more...

Mass murderer, white supremacist and All-American scumbag Dylann Roof will have to meet his maker for killing nine Black people in a South Carolina church back in 2015, a court ruled Wednesday.Read more...

Another major magazine can now boast a Black editor-in-chief! On Wednesday, Condé Nast was announced that it had found its replacement for longtime Allure magazine EIC Michelle Lee, who announced earlier this summer that she’d be departing for Netflix. Fashionista reports that Lee’s replacement will be none other than…Read more...

The ranks of Black female tennis phenoms with fashion collections just swelled a little. On Wednesday, Coco Gauff joined fellow fashionable ladies of the court Serena and Venus Williams and Naomi Osaka as she introduced her first collection with her sponsor, New Balance.

Anyone who has experienced some form of racial oppression has experienced W.E.B. Du Bois’ concept of “double consciousness.” From code-switching to sinking into the comfort of one’s family history, it’s a persistent concept that plagues and challenges one’s everyday existence.Read more...

In late February 2021, Virgil Abloh’s Off-White released a varsity jacket with a logo that looked similar to the iconic “WW XXL Athletic” design of pioneering streetwear brand Walker Wear—so much so that founder April Walker wrote an essay in March 2021 expressing her concern, contempt and complete shock at the new…Read more...

This offseason, point guard Dennis Schröder gave his NBA peers a master class on how not to properly assess your free agent value. After turning down a four-year, $84 million extension from the Lakers while in search of a bigger payday, he was forced to grovel and beg for a measly $5.9 million salary from the Boston…Read more...

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, was sentenced on Monday to more than 5 months in prison for burning a Black Lives Matter banner during a pro-Trump demonstration last December.Read more...

A new poll shows that Black people are leading white Americans by 10 percentage points when asked if they have been vaccinated. The NBC News poll shows that 76 percent of Black folks said they have received a vaccine. Sixty-six percent of whites answered in the affirmative.Read more...

The House of Representatives passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act on Tuesday, with a 219-212 vote. According to CBS News, the legislation passed along party lines and is headed to the Senate for a tough fight with GOP lawmakers led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.Read more...

Fresh off of collecting her 11th Olympic medal at the Tokyo Olympics and, in turn, becoming the most decorated American track and field athlete of all time, Allyson Felix made an appearance Monday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to discuss her experience in Tokyo as well as her new sneaker brand, Saysh. But instead of…Read more...

In a state Senate hearing on Tuesday, North Carolina lawmakers approved a bill that defines how racism, gender and sexism can be taught in schools and also bars teachers from promoting certain sociopolitical beliefs to their students.Read more...

Chlöe Bailey of the R&B duo ChloexHalle will be making her solo debut at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs).Read more...

Hi, y’all! It’s me, again—Dr. Kinitra, your resident horror scholar. Though I am bummed about the (temporary?) demise of Lovecraft Country (shortsighted reprobates!), we have so much Black horror in the Hollywood pipeline, I’ll be popping up from time to time.

I have never seen a boat shoe fight a Croc and yet here we are after a Twitter feud between Republicans’ favorite Black women not named Diamond and Silk, Candace Owens and Kimberly Klacik, has led to a $20 million lawsuit and not one edge being snatched.

Real Hot BTS Shit!Read more...