The Root

Not only is New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo knee deep in a sexual harassment scandal that includes three women claiming that the embattled old man was mad inappropriate, but now a scathing report by the New York Times claims that Cuomo’s aides altered a state Health Department report to obscure the actual number of state…Read more...

Seven years ago, Maia Chaka was handpicked to participate in the NFL’s Officiating Development Program. And because Black women are resilient, magical beings, she’s now making history as the first Black woman to join the league’s officiating roster.Read more...

It’s called the “Caucasian Corollary.”Read more...

A new bill advanced out of a Kentucky state Senate committee Thursday, and if it passes into law, it would serve as the state’s (and possibly the nation’s) first blue fragility bill. What’s “blue fragility,” you ask? Well, it’s like white fragility, only you add a gun, badge and a massive ego that can’t take an insult…Read more...

The Clapback Mailbag was never supposed to be about me.Read more...

It’s often said that pain and laughter have a symbiotic relationship. And if anybody knows about using humor to anesthetize the bullshit we endure on a daily basis, it’s Black folks.

The more I learn about how horrific the nooks and crannies of this country are, the less I understand how anyone can proudly declare we’re the best in the world. If this country is best at anything, it’s managing to embed racism in just about every facet of American life, including the goddamn environment. A report…Read more...

Many residents in Jackson, Miss., are closing out their third week without clean water after record-breaking freezing temperatures froze plant equipment and burst much of the city’s water pipe systems in the state’s largest city.

In what can only be called the pettiest of petty bullshit, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) forced Senate staffers to read the entire 628-page COVID bill aloud on the Senate floor, Thursday, delaying the debate and vote on the bill.

They say never meet your heroes...but given the chance to meet Alice Walker, the 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple, we’d wager most of the writers we’ve featured on The Root Presents: It’s Lit! would choose to meet her. Since we launched last September, Walker has been the most influential writer…Read more...

As Black folks, we are constantly given sobering reminders that we can’t actually depend on a national organization designed (in theory) to serve and protect us when that very organization is founded on white supremacy and is consistently terrorizing us to this very day. Nah, we just have to protect our damn selves.Read more...

Without question, this past year has been unlike anything any of us have faced before. But each day, we try our best to put those feelings of fear and uncertainty aside in order to trudge forward and provide for our families.Read more...

It looks like things are continuing to go up for Cardi B these days.

The management and distribution of funds held by the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the umbrella organization driving a mission first introduced to the world in a viral hashtag, continues to be a topic of discussion.

Where will you be on Sunday, March 7 at 7 p.m. ET? I, an unabashed royal watcher (by profession and proclivity) will be tuned into CBS, to see what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have to say about their experience in the British royal family. You know, where people stop being polite—and start getting real.Read more...

Lil Nas X could teach a master class on how to effectively navigate social media.Read more...

It’s Friday night, and we just got paid. I mean, I didn’t, but you might have! Hold on to those coins though, because this week’s list is all about those free games.

Fans and followers of Janet Jackson will be getting a closer look into the life of their favorite artist soon, thanks to Lifetime and A+E.Read more...

Happy Black Herstory Month! (or Women’s History Month, as it’s also known.) We’re back with another edition of virtual events, this time spanning across various genres in arts, entrepreneurship and entertainment. I know we’re nothing but four days in, but this month feels like it’s gonna be a good one. How do I know?…Read more...

Proving once more that Florida is always going to Florida, a group of white men was caught on camera yelling racial and homophobic slurs at a Black man just trying to fish.

Living in Arizona is odd, to say the very least. Folks with some of the most progressive politics live side-by-side with people who read about the days of segregation and think “more of that, please.” Unfortunately, a lot of those people go on to hold public office, and we wind up with situations like the one in the…Read more...

Bari Weiss was an editor and staff writer for the New York Times until she resigned last year after she said she was victimized by an “illiberal environment” at the Times that “made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views.”Read more...

The pandemic has helped usher in a decline in new babies being born in America, continuing a trend of diminishing birth rates that threatens the replacement levels of the country’s population.

Well, shit. Where do we start?Read more...

“Back the blue” enthusiasts—as well as a lot of media outlets—often make the mistake of taking things at face value because they’re in a police report or because law enforcement officials said it themselves. “If a cop said it then it must be true” represents a mentality that needs to die and one that is never more…Read more...

You know that feeling when you pick up a book for the first time and think, “yeah, I’m going to read this in all of two seconds” because of how quickly the storyline sucks you in? Well, the books released in just the first week of March will reel you in faster than you can say “literary, literally.”Read more...

Ever since Ricky Baker caught a few 12-gauge shells to the legs and back in 1991's Boyz N The Hood—holy shit it turns 30 this year!!!!!!—and moved on up to that deluxe apartment in the sky, he’s been part of the Black consciousness.Read more...

When you control the narrative, you create the rules. And when it comes to Olympic sprinter Wyomia Tyus, it should come as no surprise that history has tried its best to cast yet another Black woman aside.

If you’ve been following The Root, you’re probably familiar with our popular Black Ass Game, which we’ve hosted here for forever and a day. Speaking of forever and a day, it’s been 33 years since the debut of Coming to America and now, in this year of our Lord, 2021...we’re getting an aptly titled sequel, Coming 2…Read more...

Ettore Ewen, a.k.a WWE Superstar Big E, is a lot of things. He’s a 10-time WWE tag team champion, the current intercontinental champion, a podcaster, a voice actor, an author, and in my brief time talking to him, I learned he’s also a man with a sincere passion for Black history.

Yes, I’m about to make an “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man” lyric reference in a lede about Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter yet again—and no, you cannot stop me. I mean, my editor can, but I digress. (Editor’s note: Go forth and prosper...like Jay-Z.)Read more...

I just…Read more...

On Wednesday, the House passed a comprehensive police reform bill named in honor of George Floyd, the 46-year-old Black man whose brutal death after being restrained under the knee of a Minneapolis cop helped spur a nationwide movement against racism and unjust police practices in 2o2o.

President Joe Biden promised America $2,000 stimulus payments as soon as he got into office. Shortly after Georgia voters came out in force and helped turn the red state blue, ensuring that Biden would be playing to a Democratic Senate, Biden noted that $1,400 was on the way. Then, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin began…Read more...

When former Atlanta Dream guard Renee Montgomery decided to sit out during the 2020 WNBA season in order to focus on social justice issues, it was the officer-related death of George Floyd that compelled her to act. But little did she know that this tragedy would also serve as a catalyst for a series of events that…Read more...

Top Product: L’Oreal Infallible 24HR Fresh Wear Foundation | $15 | Target

Apple’s iPad Air and a TaoTronics massage gun lead Thursday’s best deals.

The primetime plot thickens!Read more...

On Jan. 26, 2021, President Joe Biden signed four executive orders designed to address racial equity in the United States. With one particular action, Biden hopes to right the historical wrongs Black folks have faced when it comes to housing and homeownership in this country.

Powerbot R7040 Robot Vacuum | $249 | Samsung

PlayStation Plus - 12 Months | $27 | Eneba | Use code PS5DROPPED

Ahh, fashion...one day you’re in, the next day you’re out—but for those concerned about André Leon Talley being thrown out of his longtime home in White Plains, N.Y., the icon assures us he’s just fine, thankyouverymuch.Read more...

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: A lot of people need to get it out of their heads that racism will go away once older generations of white people die off.Read more...

In anticipation of the upcoming Coming to America sequel, we decided to devote a week to some observations, questions, and theories we’ve always had about the iconic original.

A Michigan prosecutor has declined to file charges against a man who hung a KKK flag near a Black woman’s home.Read more...

The last two decades and some change have been an arduous journey for Curtis Flowers, a Mississippi man who spent over 22 years in prison for a crime he was wrongfully convicted of. In 2019, the Supreme Court finally granted Flowers his freedom, and two years later, a judge has ordered the state to finally run Flowers…Read more...

There’s still a lot being unpacked regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, and it doesn’t help that white supremacist militia groups are apparently planning another attack in Washington, D.C., tomorrow.Read more...

When you are a man and you’ve fucked up, the manly thing to do is own up to it, apologize, and if the situation requires it, you step down.

As we reach the first anniversary of the start of our year-long, COVID-induced Netflix binge, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Vaccinations, while having a tumultuous rollout, have steadily continued, and nationwide case numbers and hospitalizations have been trending downward. While these are positive…Read more...

We’re mere days away from NBA All-Star Weekend, and while it’s not exactly the brightest idea to host an event that will draw thousands of people to Atlanta in the middle of a global pandemic, that doesn’t mean there isn’t at least some good that can come from the festivities.Read more...