The Root

I don’t know why I honestly thought that the wildest story I would ever hear regarding a Republican lawmaker from Kansas was the one where Kansas state Senate Majority Leader Gene Suellentrop led a police officer on a high-speed chase while driving drunk on the wrong side of an interstate and called the cop who…Read more...

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell—the guy Kentucky senator whose face always looks like it’s melting off of something—is continuing the Republican war on Blackness in education after joining fellow members of the white nationalist circle-jerk party in urging Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to help them ban…Read more...

In today’s episode of White People Are Addicted to Thinking They’re in Charge of Shit, a white woman in Berkeley, Calif., went after a Black Amazon driver for allegedly speeding and ended up charged with a hate crime. And of course, a story like this wouldn’t be complete without free use of racial slurs allegedly…Read more...

We really need to talk about how basic white conservatives are when it comes to making an argument. That they are racist white nationalists is a given, but what really gets me is the fact that when it comes to thinking critically, they possess all of the depth of an inflatable kiddie pool before it has been inflated.…Read more...

In today’s episode of White People Who Have No Business Teaching Black Students, a New Jersy high school teacher has been suspended after two separate videos surfaced that showed him all in his Klan-ish feelings while shouting at and cursing at students during a virtual class—all because he’s sick of hearing about…Read more...

Every now and then I choose a story to write up, not because I think the story is particularly important in and of itself, but because it provides me with an opportunity to make a point. I’d like to thank Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves—who recently declared on Fox Noose that systemic racism isn’t a thing while having…Read more...

After former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation into the city’s police department to determine whether it “engages in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or…Read more...

Raise your hand if you have been told that you are vitamin D deficient! Never before have we heard so much talk about vitamin D, how important it is, and how many of us walk around with much less of it than we should have—seems like something we should’ve known a long time ago! But here we are, and here’s all you need…Read more...

The levels to this story are just—wow. A Florida high school teacher has sued the school district after being told to take down a Black Lives Matter flag.Read more...

It’s been quite the week in the Black Hollywood trades, and while I always love to see it (truly, I do!), I don’t always love the practical limits of production bandwidth. This is a small but mighty staff at The Root and we’re not always able to cover every bit of news—leading us to sometimes resort to compacting news…Read more...

Happy Friday, folks! I don’t know about y’all, but I love a good fighting game. While I barely have the time these days to stay in the lab like I used to, I still try to pick up my fight stick from time to time. This week has quite a few fighting games on sale across all consoles, so I figured why not celebrate the…Read more...

Last June, a couple from New York was caught on video attacking a Black hotel clerk in Connecticut. An attorney for the victim, Crystal Caldwell, said he believes the attack was racially motivated because “racial comments and slurs” were made while she was being beaten by the white man who is also alleged to have made…Read more...

On the eve of America’s new favorite holiday and the release of a new DJ Khaled album, football connoisseurs far and wide were treated to a beautiful evening of tears and triumph as the 2021 NFL Draft gave us all everything we needed and more—unless you’re The Root Senior Editor Stephen Crockett Jr., who was last seen…Read more...

“Zazie has such a power and presence about herself that is so undeniable.”Read more...

Everyone has a breaking point. Janet Mock may have hit hers at the premiere party for Pose’s final season on Thursday night, as she gave a speech that can only be described as—in the words of The Root’s Entertainment Staff Writer Tonja Stidhum—a “PLOT TWIST.”Read more...

Just after midnight on Monday, a mother and her two children were awakened by sounds of intruders breaking into their Walled Lake, Mich., home. The mother’s 13-year-old son heard the commotion and swiftly woke up his 9-year-old brother. Moments later, the two boys’ mother was in their room armed with a gun and…Read more...

While I’m generally known for my quiet, kind-hearted demeanor and as someone who accepts racism quietly and would never push back when someone else says or does something stupid or racist, beneath this placid, compassionate exterior lies a heart that constantly asks the same question over and over again. (Why are you…Read more...

Hearing the guilty verdict handed down to Derek Chauvin last week brought up a lot of emotions for all of us. One of those emotions was relief—and nothing showed that relief more than the faces of the Floyd family. Despite the facts and video capturing all 9 minutes and 29 seconds of the murder of George Floyd, it was…Read more...

Kandi Burruss has been in the game a long time. She has had success as a member of the group Xscape; as a songwriter who has penned such eternal classics as “Bills, Bills, Bills” for Destiny’s Child and the girl anthem “No Scrubs” for TLC; as a member of the fan-favorite Real Housewives of Atlanta franchise; as the…Read more...

I don’t enjoy violence.

The University of Pennsylvania has issued an apology after it was discovered that one of its museums stored remains of a MOVE bombing victim for more than 30 years.Read more...

Shame is a universal condition—no one is immune. In fact, it might be argued that shame is also one of the strongest drivers of human behavior, often causing our worlds to revolve around it. We have it inflicted upon us—especially those of us in already marginalized groups—and in turn, inflict it upon others. We live…Read more...

Content Warning: The following article contains details of alleged sexual misconduct, including unauthorized sharing of explicit photos, groping, harassment and bullying.

The Big Lake School District in Minnesota is responding to outrage after a photo of a racist “promposal” has gone viral.

This month makes 10 years from the weekend I drove from Pittsburgh to D.C. for a party to celebrate both the three-year anniversary of the launch of VerySmartBrothas—the blog Panama Jackson, Liz Burr, and I created in 2008—and the release of Your Degrees Won’t Keep You Warm At Night, a self-published compilation of…Read more...

The families of Black men killed by police spoke with White House officials and senators Thursday about the passage of a meaningful reform bill that will address police brutality, with the May 25 anniversary of George Floyd’s death being the goal date.Read more...

On Thursday, Billboard announced its nominees for the annual Billboard Music Awards. This year’s ceremony will air live at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles and will include fan-voted categories for Top Social Artist and Top Collaboration. Because y’all know how we get down ‘round this way, let’s go ahead and get into…Read more...

What type of mom do have? If she’s a great one, the question isn’t whether she’s biological, adoptive, bonus, spiritual, or chosen (We see you, house mothers!); a great one has a vital role in creating the person you are—and loves you unconditionally through all your growing pains. Chances are, she cherished every…Read more...

Welp, it looks like Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz better start working out so that he can fight off attackers in prison because he’s about to lose his job and go straight to the pokey if anything in his former friend’s letter is true.

Black Panther 2 will soon begin production in Atlanta, and director Ryan Coogler recently made headlines when he penned an op-ed explaining exactly why he wasn’t boycotting the state of Georgia after the passing of voter suppression bill SB202. Of course, many fans are likely curious about the cast and crew as they…Read more...

The recently passed COVID relief bill had $5 billion in provisions intended to help Black and brown farmers who have historically been the victims of systemic racism within the Department of Agriculture. Predictably, white folks have a problem with that and have filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming…Read more...

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability has just completed its 16-month-long investigation into the February 2019 raid conducted by Chicago police officers into the home of 50-year-old Anjanette Young, who was made to wait handcuffed and naked while officers searched her home for a suspect who did not live there.…Read more...

As a card-carrying member of the “Teyana Taylor Can Do No Fucking Wrong” fan club—“Issues/Hold On” or “Wake Up Love” will immediately bring you to your senses if you feel otherwise—I was on the brink of writing my senator when I learned in December that the same angel that gave us “Come Back to Me” was retiring from…Read more...

T-Pain’s internet presence is truly one of the most delightful things we’ve got going for us. If you weren’t aware, the R&B singer is an avid gamer who streams on Twitch from time to time. When he recently encountered a group of racists in the lobby for a match in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, well, shawty snapped.

The debate team for Atlanta’s Morehouse College recently withdrew from a tournament for reasons that, as far as I can tell, boil down to one thing: Black people can’t exist in predominantly white spaces without battling racism.Read more...

You ever had that friend that just can’t get right?Read more...

There has been a lot of talk about meditation in recent years. Everyone claims to be doing it, and countless apps have been created to help people with their practice, and introduce newcomers to its benefits. But what is meditation, exactly? According to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of meditation is: “to…Read more...

To kick off the month of May, Pose fans will be living, werking and posing for the very last time.Read more...

On this fifth anniversary of Drake’s fourth studio album Views, I think it’s high time we say what needs to be said.Read more...

This whole Non-Fungible Token (NFT) craze has me convinced that rich people just don’t know what to do with their money. The more I research it, the more the concept seems like one that managed to teleport from the year 2000 just as the dot-com bubble was bursting. Considering that the whole idea is the epitome of…Read more...

Here at The Root, we don’t do house negro shame. Sure, there are plenty of Black people who sit comfortably at the feet of white men waiting all day for a pat on the head and “good boy,” but we don’t call people out on it. OK, maybe we do but that was mostly Omarosa and she earned it.

I’m part of the liberal media.Read more...

The death of Marvin David Scott III, a 26-year-old Black man who was first arrested and taken to a Texas detention facility in March and ended up dead, has been ruled a homicide.Read more...

A former Wilkinson County, Ga., sheriff’s deputy was fired in November after the FBI contacted his sheriff and informed him that his deputy is being investigated for possessing illegal guns and potential ties to white supremacist terrorism. On Monday, the former deputy pleaded guilty in a federal court in Macon to one…Read more...

Florida Republicans are up to their anti-voter rights bullshit again and they aren’t pretending to hide their disdain for democracy. They have been fine-tuning their bill SB 90, which will make voting in the state much more difficult and passed it in the House on a party-line vote of 77-40 Wednesday.Read more...

The only thing better than waking up yesterday and hearing that Rudy Giuliani’s Upper East Side apartment was raided by the feds is waking up today and remembering that we’re less than 12 hours away from the 2021 NFL Draft. And because I’m such a kind, giving soul, here are your answers to some of the biggest…Read more...

If the jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin had found the former Minneapolis cop who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck until he died not guilty or if a mistrial was called, the Department of Justice planned to arrest him and charge him with federal police-brutality violations.

Being a Black person in the film industry often means having to create your own lanes in a highway filled with whiteness.Read more...

A number of former Jeopardy! contestants are demanding action from the show’s producers following a recent disturbance from a current player that was caught live on television.

What does it cost a culture to ignore or outright deny its most marginalized and abused? One need look no further than America, which struggles under the weight of its hypocrisy each time it claims to be the “land of the free.” Simply put, it’s an integrity issue: How can you trust a country that refuses to prioritize…Read more...