The Root

Akeelah, spell “leading lady!”Read more...

What happens to a former president who is banned from social media? Does he make a sound? Does anyone give a shit? Does he know how to use Microsoft Word?

Does Black joy exist if there’s no one to share it with?

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Quite a bit has transpired since Ray Fisher first called out Justice League director Joss Whedon—and it looks like things will be heating up leading to the premiere of the original director’s cut titled Zack Snyder’s Justice League.Read more...

As coronavirus cases slowly decline, elementary schools have received authorization to reopen in Los Angeles County.

People have been carrying on with a whole lot of foolery in the year since the coronavirus pandemic has taken the world by storm, and sad to say, Black people have not been exempt from carrying out this foolery.

Former Democratic Virginia delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy almost didn’t live to become a gubernatorial candidate. As she shared with Elle on Monday, she almost died giving birth to her twin boys three years ago, “because, as is the case for many Black women, white doctors and nurses downplayed and dismissed her…Read more...

It’s pretty sad that in 2021, Congress making an effort to not discriminate against Black farmers is seen as “historic.” Yet, legislation introduced by Senate Democrats is just that, as it seeks to both provide relief for farmers as a result of the pandemic, as well as address long systemic racism within the…Read more...

The life of legendary jazz entertainer Josephine Baker will be coming to a small screen near us soon, thanks to ABC Signature and LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s The Springhill Company.Read more...

Much like yourself, I know absolutely nothing about the amount of discipline and sacrifice it takes to become a gold medal Olympian. But in the latest installment of Facebook Watch’s Emmy award-winning series Versus, we’ll get a sneak peek into the day-to-day life of superstar gymnast Simone Biles.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been quite busy since leaving their royal posts in the United Kingdom back in January 2020. Whether it’s their multiyear Netflix deal, Harry’s upcoming mental health series on Apple TV+ or the news of a second baby on the way—needless to say, they have a lot to discuss.Read more...

There are some hopeful indications that the U.S. could be turning a corner in the devastating coronavirus pandemic, though the quickly spreading virus still poses a considerable threat.

“I just don’t get what you get out of watching this” my wife said to me, several times over the past two months, while I watched Showtime’s Your Honor—the Bryan Cranston-led limited series about a series of increasingly terrible moral quandaries a New Orleans judge finds himself in after making a series of…Read more...

Ahead of its 12th annual celebration, the African-American Film Critics Association has announced the 2021 honorees for its Special Achievement Awards.

February is a month to celebrate Black History—and to make a push on advocacy for Black girls. The Black Girl Freedom Fund launched in September 2020 to do just that, with a mission to raise $1 billion to invest in Black girls and young women over the next 10 years.Read more...

In news that is shocking to absolutely no one, misdemeanor charges have been dropped against Amy Cooper, the white woman who called the cops on a Black man in Central Park who asked her to leash her dog last May.

It looks like D’Angelo is about to serve as a true “Black Messiah” of the Verzuz series and will be spicing things up for the popular online battle! The neo soul artist confirmed he’ll be hosting a “D’Angelo Verzuz Friends” on his official Instagram page over the weekend. This ain’t no normal Verzuz, either—D’Angelo…Read more...

I don’t think any of us saw this one coming.Read more...

The NAACP, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, and civil rights law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll figure if Republicans won’t let their ovaries hang and impeach the voice of the insurrection, then they will just have to sue his ass and his supporters’ untanned asses.

In basketball, there’s nothing more embarrassing than pulling out the box score and seeing “DNP”—an initialism for Did Not Play—next to your name. Especially when you’re not hindered by any specific injury and you’re statistically one of the best at your position in the entire league.Read more...

Taxpayers in St. Louis have ended up holding the bag for the actions of local police officers accused of beating and severely injuring one of their fellow cops during a 2017 protest.

2020 was a year. And I don’t mean that in a good way. Because this whole endeavor is about positivity, I won’t even speak on any of the negativity.Read more...

Over the Valentine’s Day weekend, Saturday Night Live announced its newest host for this Saturday’s SNL and it’s none other than Bridgerton Bae Regé Jean Page.Read more...

“Even the sun goes down, heroes eventually die, horoscopes...often lie, and sometimes “why”/Nothing is for sure, nothing is for certain, nothing lasts forever/But until they close the curtain, it’s him and I, Aquemini.”

Former President Donald Trump may just be your average run-of-the-mill racist without any power and a belly that hangs over his belt, but that hasn’t stopped South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) from kissing his ass.

There are a variety of institutions to celebrate and honor during Black History Month, and one of them is a staple of our community—the Black church. Enter the aptly titled The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song, in which The Root’s co-founder Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr. does what he does best—get to…Read more...

We’re so happy to bring you the winners for our 2nd Annual Blackest Awards. Around here, we call them The Skippies because we get down like that. Well, as with most awards shows, some awards are televised—unlike the revolution—while others are awarded before the show. Since we don’t have a show, so to speak, but like…Read more...

YouTube is a wonderful thing, y’all. While, yes, the platform does have a litany of issues and controversies, it’s still one of the coolest hubs of creativity on the internet. While the pandemic has caused a disruptive effect in just about all forms of entertainment, YouTubers have more or less kept trucking along.

It should surprise absolutely no one that America’s oldest and longest-serving juvenile offender is a Black man.Read more...

Now that we have officially entered the second half of Black History Month and made it past Valentine’s Day, it looks like some of our favorite Black musicians decided it was time to let the world know what type of love they’re feeling—and on these new tracks, they seem to be in their bag!Read more...

It’s been a long and wild journey for Tessica “Gorilla Glue Girl” Brown since she posted a Tik Tok video earlier this month explaining that she had run out of Got2B Glued Blasting Freeze Spray to slick down her hair and used Gorilla Glue spray instead.Read more...

In honor of Black History Month, on Tuesday, Facebook Watch will premiere Forward: The Future of Black Music, a new musical special that looks at the legacy, impact and future of Black music.Read more...

Robert Maraj, the father of famed rapper Nicki Minaj, died Saturday after being struck by a vehicle Friday on Long Island, N.Y., in what authorities said was a hit-and-run.Read more...

Black History Month. Valentine’s Day. President’s Day. New York Fashion Week. Mardi Gras. The Golden Globes... For the shortest month of the year, February 2021 sure is jam-packed. While many of us are still living life in our sweatsuits with no major style moments immediately in sight, the fashion industry is still…Read more...

Fresh off the critically acclaimed film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which is currently racking up hella award nominations, Netflix has announced a brand new project from its accomplished director George C. Wolfe.Read more...

I love this album cover for Perfect Angel. For starters, it has an innocent feel to it, but that melted ice cream tells another tale. Plus, she outchea with the overalls with no shirt on. So it’s both innocent and sexy, with an afro for the ages. Once you consider that Minnie Riperton has a voice from the gawds—this…Read more...

Like many a child of the Great Migration, all my extended family actually lived nowhere near me. My mother “escaped” Arkansas for Iowa right after graduating from Philander Smith College in Little Rock to become a school teacher, but Iowa was too cold, too white, and too far from her ancestral home, so she moved to…Read more...

It has been a week full of joy and love for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. On Sunday, February 14, the couple announced their second pregnancy… and they’re having a girl! This past Thursday, February 11, Meghan Markle won the first step in her legal battle against tabloid newspapers that violated her privacy by…Read more...

When it comes to Black Lives Matter protests, a common misconception (among white people) is that the violence that occurs sometimes is always against police officers and it’s never the cops who are willing participants if not the ones who started the violence in the first place. People who believe such “back the…Read more...

Valentine’s Day is a time for couples and lovers of all walks of life to celebrate their bonds through the exchanging of flowers, candy, spa days, hot-oil massages and the like—it’s a day to commemorate love. In fact, officers with the Los Angeles Police Department are reportedly so into the festivities that they…Read more...

Oh my God, I can’t believe we are STILL talking about the racist ode to negroes-as-property that is the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee which continues to take up space in Richmond, Virginia’s Monument Avenue.Read more...

It’s Valentine’s Day so it only makes sense to include an album cover for an album about that good lovin’. Marvin Gaye’s I Want You is that album. And there might not be a Blacker album cover.Read more...

Have you done the #BussitChallenge? Are you enjoying all the #SilhouetteChallenge videos? Do you follow Jay Nedaj on Twitter and get your laugh on? Are you familiar with #DontRush, #Savage and #CaptainHook challenge?

“For better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish; till death do us part.” The vows are familiar, but for many, after a year of the in-tandem epidemics of COVID-19 and a resulting economic crisis, they have been put to the test. It’s Valentine’s Day tradition here at The…Read more...

Welp, the second attempt at convicting twice-impeached former President Donald Trump has ended the only way it was ever going to end as Senate Democrats and Republicans voted mostly along party lines and the impeachment managers failed to get the two-thirds vote they needed to win. In other words: As smart as the…Read more...

The family of Dijon Kizzee has filed a $35 million claim for damages against Los Angeles County accusing the county’s sheriff’s department of failing to train its deputies worth a damn and accusing those deputies of using unreasonable deadly force. If you’re new to Kizzee’s story, the 29-year-old Black man was fatally…Read more...

On Friday The Root reported that Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer hired former University of Iowa strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle o be the Jaguars’ director of sports performance despite the fact that dozens of Black college football players had accused Doyle of racism and abuse in the past. It…Read more...

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Have you ever seen an album cover that had you at hello? For me, that album cover would be Preston Love’s Preston Love’s Omaha Bar-B-Q (featuring Shuggie Otis on Guitar). I’d never heard of Preston Love. Or at least I didn’t know I had. You see, you know Preston Love even if you don’t know you know him. His song “…Read more...