Later this month, it’ll be exactly 20 years since the world lost Aaliyah Dana Haughton—fondly known as “Baby Girl.”Read more...

Down in Tennessee, a Republican stronghold where GOP lawmakers are going out of their way to strip Black folks and other marginalized people of their right to vote over imaginary voter fraud fears, another conservative conspiracy is underway: fears over critical race theory, an academic framework that explores how…Read more...

After preparing for nearly a decade to dethrone the U.S. men’s basketball team at the Olympics, Australia fell short once again on Thursday with a 97-78 loss to Team USA in the Olympic semifinals. With its latest victory, Team USA advances to the gold-medal game.Read more...

Earlier this year, The Root reported that a racist-as-hell former Wilkinson County, Ga., sheriff’s deputy, Cody Richard Griggers, pleaded guilty in a federal court in Macon to one count of possession of an unregistered firearm. FBI investigators who looked into Griggers’ crimes found that he was in possession of…Read more...

If DaBaby is still looking for some “education” and “guidance” when it comes to the true stats surrounding HIV and its effects on the Black community, I know 11 good places for him to start.

Among the many losses visited upon American society as the result of a global pandemic, there has a been a profound lack of economic security, particularly for women. As The Root has previously reported (and reminded you just yesterday for Black Women’s Equal Pay Day), women left the workforce in droves in 2020, often…Read more...

The Recording Academy—the organization behind “music’s biggest night,” the Grammys—are trying to do better to clean up house, following a string of messy controversies in the past year, including a public boycott announcement from The Weeknd and the former CEO Deborah Dugan accusing the elite organization’s big awards…Read more...

“You can’t just do it alone with just Black people,” says Sean Combs (“Puffy”? “Diddy”? “Love”?) in the cover story for Vanity Fair’s September issue. As The Root reported on Tuesday, the music industry impresario was referring to “saving the Black race,” which is reportedly among his numerous aims at this stage of…Read more...

Let me start by reminding you all how the whole “Karen” thing came to be.Read more...

The Office of the President Joseph Robinette Biden

Maria Taylor’s recent exodus from ESPN has drawn attention to a disturbing pattern of exceptional Black talent departing from the network on questionable terms. In recent years, we’ve seen familiar names like Amin Elhassan, Michael Smith, Cari Champion, Jemele Hill and others exit the network in favor of more…Read more...

Debuts don’t just mean new, fantastic books—but new fantastic authors to read, too.Read more...

If you’ve been burning with “fire and desire” to see the life and career of Rick James played out on the small screen, then boy, have I got some good news for you!Read more...

While I’m still very much concerned and on edge about news about the recent Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago being a potential COVID-19 superspreader event, I admit there is related news with much more lighthearted energy. Besides, we need occasional breaks from the stress.Read more...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was hoping to survive the numerous accusations of sexual harassment levied against him. But New York Attorney General Letitia James’ report on those claims have not only damaged his reputation even more than one could imagine, top Democratic leadership at the state and federal levels are…Read more...

Looks like all that “work, work, work, work, work” paid off.

Barack Obama was ready to have hundreds of his homeboys and homegirls for his 60th birthday bash in Martha’s Vineyard, but the new Delta variant was like, “Naw, bitch. Take y’all happy asses back in the house.”Read more...

In improv comedy, there’s a rule-of-thumb in which comedians introduce an idea that subsequent participants expand upon. This concept is known as “Yes, and…” because you’re never supposed to say, “No” or “This is a terrible-ass idea.” You’re supposed to encourage this free-spirited creative process by going with the…Read more...

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is the answer to the question: Where’s the merit in Critical Race Theory? Because for an academic study that examines how race affects American structures such as our legal system, Parson’s method for how he decides who’s worth his official pardon would make for a perfect case study.Read more...

As previously reported by The Root, the long-awaited trial for R. Kelly is set to begin this month.Read more...

There are few progressive voices on the left wing of the Democratic Party more respected and admired than Nina Turner. Her devotion to Sen. Bernie Sanders during his 2016 and 2020 races and outspokenness against the moderate voices of the party establishment empowered her standing on the far left, but weakened her…Read more...

On the same day we learned that both Simone Biles and U.S. shot-putter Raven Saunders suffered personal tragedies during the Tokyo Olympics—Biles’ aunt died just two days prior to her competing in the balance beam event; Saunders lost her mother shortly after she won the silver medal in the shot put—came the news that…Read more...

Over the weekend, actor, director and martial artist Michael Jai White (Spawn, Black Dynamite, Arrow) confirmed his eldest son had died of COVID-19 at the age of 38. In an interview with VLAD TV, the 53-year-old actor revealed that his son—who was a father of 6—died “a few months ago,” following a lengthy stay at the…Read more...

Sean Combs has entered the “Love Era.”

Lil Nas X is claiming his space.Read more...

In May, we learned that Shaqir O’Neal, son of NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, would be taking his talents to Texas Southern University to play for the men’s basketball team. Now comes the news that Shaq’s daughter, Amirah, will be following in her brother’s footsteps to play at the same HBCU.Read more...

On Tuesday, voters in Northeast Ohio headed to the polls to elect a Democratic candidate for Congress. The hotly contested race between Cuyahoga Councilwoman Shontel Brown and former state Sen. Nina Turner has made headlines for the amount of intra-party shade thrown between the campaigns. Political pundits,…Read more...

The Caramel Curves, an all-Black women’s motorcycle crew from New Orleans, are used to turning heads and taking names through the city as they cruise around each Sunday. Their over-the-top and vibrant fashion gives them a distinct and noticeable edge, sporting only the brightest clothing—think highlighter yellow and…Read more...

On Sunday, Bill Melugin, a correspondent at Republican Disney Plus network Fox News, tweeted video of what he called “the largest group of migrants we’ve ever seen being held by Border Patrol under Anzalduas Bridge in Mission, TX.”Read more...

As previously reported by The Root, the next battle in the Verzuz Cinematic Universe is taking place tonight.Read more...

U.S. middle-distance runner Athing Mu will be the first to admit that while competing in her Olympic debut, a gold medal wasn’t always on her mind. But after becoming the first American woman to win Olympic gold in the women’s 800 meters since Madeline Manning accomplished the same feat in 1968, it’s likely the…Read more...

Move over Leos, it looks like it’s about to be Lizzo season soon!Read more...

Allegations of sexual harassment have been following New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo around since early this year—kind of like he’s apparently been following women around who don’t want his greasy-ass lips on them.Read more...

Hoop heads already know that once NBA free agency officially kicks off, their phones are at the mercy of an endless deluge of notifications from ESPN, Bleacher Report, or whoever else for the rest of the day. And with players officially able to agree to terms on new deals on Monday at 6 p.m. ET, here were some of the…Read more...

Many of you might remember from last year the story of Vauhxx Booker, a Black man in Indiana who said he suffered an “attempted lynching” when five white men—two of whom have been charged with multiple felonies—accused him of trespassing on land he said he didn’t know they owned.Read more...

Fans of the late Aaliyah Dana Haughton will never forget the gut-wrenching news that the beloved songstress had been killed (along with eight others) in a plane crash on Aug. 25, 2001. This month marks 20 years since we’ve lost the artist lovingly referred to as “Baby Girl.”Read more...

Do you want to continue the Yee-Haw Agenda down the “Old Town Road?” Well...now you can do it in Bey style.Read more...

After a year and a half of a deadly pandemic, much has changed in American life, but one thing has not: regardless of occupation, on average, Black women still make 63 cents for every dollar made by her white, non-Hispanic male counterparts. This is why we recognize Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, signaling how much…Read more...

She’s back!Read more...

In DC Comics’ Bizarro World (also known as Htrae), cats chase dogs, jokes make people cry and the Bizarro Joker is the only sane person on the planet. If there exists a Bizarro version of Trump, he would be a smart, educated Black man who still has his hair, speaks in complete sentences and dedicated his life to…Read more...

They say you can always tell the quality of a person’s character by the monuments they topple over.Read more...

There’s probably only a few things more uncertain and unpredictable than the evolution of COVID-19 variants (specifically, whether we’re headed for another lockdown or if we’ll just continue going with business as usual) and one of them is whether Frank Ocean will actually emerge from his secret hiding place and…Read more...

After safely making it through the qualifying round of her first appearance at the Tokyo Olympics, U.S. hammer thrower Gwen Berry, who drew outrage in June for turning her back during the national anthem at the Olympic trials, expressed her pride at donning red, white, and blue in Tokyo.Read more...

Even though invitations to “the cookout” are almost always a topic of contention in our community, I’d like to add yet another person to the guest list: Dolly Parton. Now before you get in a tizzy, allow me to explain why.Read more...

Please tell your lovers and friends, that the music festival with everybody and their momma set to perform is apparently back on again!

Ladies and gentlemen...The Weeknd. Actually, maybe I should say, “Ladies and gentlemen...Abel Tesfaye.” Or both at the same time.Read more...

More than three months after a Black Missouri teenager was found dead at a party hosted by a man whose social media can best be described as “how to be a pro racist,” a Missouri jury has overruled the coroner’s initial findings and declared that the 19-year-old’s gunshot wound was not self-inflicted.

In May, two twin Black girls had the unfortunate experience of being in a social studies class at Sacajawea Middle School in Spokane, Wash., where they and other students were given the ill-advised assignment of cleaning cotton. Apparently, the activity was meant to teach students about the industrial revolution and…Read more...

The federal eviction moratorium enacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to keep people who have lost employment or wages due to the pandemic from losing their homes expired Saturday, but congressional Democrats are keeping the pressure up on the Biden administration to have it renewed. One of the…Read more...

Raven Saunders’ journey to the 2020 Summer Olympics was anything but easy.Read more...