The Root

New year, new Netflix Strong Black Lead content.Read more...

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A 30-year-old Black U.S. Army drill sergeant was fatally shot on New Years Day in San Antonio, Texas, in an unsolved incident that has cut short a promising career in the military and the soldier’s life with her young son.

Malachi Love-Robinson, the Florida man who spent much of his teenage years posing as a medical doctor, is again in trouble with the law.

The new year started for many of us with the long-debated $600 in stimulus money from the federal government landing in our bank accounts. It’s an appreciated return on our own taxes paid into the government’s coffers, and so I personally give thanks for it.

Whenever Black people collectively and specifically speak to the realities of anti-Blackness, there is often outraged and offended backlash from people who would rather racism continue unabated and—importantly—unacknowledged as racism. Because to acknowledge racism would necessitate people who consider themselves…Read more...

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but 2021 won’t be that much different from 2020 if the country (and the world for that matter) doesn’t get its vaccine act together.

Before the close of last year, Minneapolis police recorded the fatal police shooting of a Black man named Dolal Idd. Idd was the first person killed by cops in the city since George Floyd in May of 2020.

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Kirby Fighters 2 came out recently (see: 3+ months ago), and while it’s not my thing at all, it did remind me that there hasn’t been a memorable, mainline Kirby game since 2016's Planet Robobot for the Nintendo 3DS. And that got me thinking about how much Kirby shit I bought in 2020 despite not enjoying a single entry…Read more...

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If “Karens never learn” was a person, she would have to be the white woman who accosted Jazz musician Keyon Harrold and his 14-year-old son at the Arlo Hotel in Soho, New York, over a cell phone she loudly and wrongly accused the teen of stealing.Read more...

If you weren’t one of the millions resigned to spend New Year’s Eve alone this year (thanks again, COVID), you may have placed special significance on who joined you to welcome in 2021, a year we hope will guide us out of the darkness, despair and disillusionment of that year (come through, Age of Aquarius!). For us…Read more...

By now you have all seen the viral video of the “Twisted Tea” incident in which the tea is a white man got shit twisted and then got his cap twisted after twisting his mouth to say the n-word to a Black man several times. Now, that Black man has spoken publicly to fill us in on what happened before a bystander started…Read more...

This past Halloween, Hip Hop lost one of its greats. MF DOOM, aka Metal Face, aka King Geedorah, aka Viktor Vaughn, aka The Villian was as eccentric as he was talented and through both traits, he built an underground following and a Hip Hop legacy that is literally like nothing we’ve seen before. This is a man who…Read more...

Having faith in those around us is the backbone of building community. In a year that has kicked Black people down over and over again, it is crucial that on Imani, the seventh day of Kwanzaa, we continue to build faith in the places that build up the community around us. The following places focus on providing faith,…Read more...

The story of Anjanette Young—the 50-year-old social worker who was undressing when Chicago police officers barged into her home in February 2019 and made her wait handcuffed and naked as cops ignored her pleas to get dressed while they searched for a felon who did not live there—has become another upsetting example of…Read more...

It appears that for years and even decades the Philadelphia criminal justice system has shown a pattern of locking up Black men for crimes they didn’t commit based on the work of corrupt police officers and conviction-happy courts that never really consider that a Black defendant might be getting railroaded despite a…Read more...

For better or for worse, in many ways, 2020 was defined by capitalism, a system unprepared to provide as many hospital beds as there are sick people during a pandemic. Or PPE gear to health care workers exposed to those sick people. Or even face masks to those ordinary people just trying to shop for groceries who are…Read more...

An LG 4K monitor and Google Nest Audio 2-pack lead Thursday’s best deals.

The Dec 22 shooting of 47-year-old Andre Hill in Columbus, Ohio, is arguably among the most reckless acts of police brutality we’ve seen this year—and that’s saying a lot. As the investigation into the incident—in which a white police officer opened fire on a Black man who was standing in a garage clearly holding a…Read more...

Black-owned businesses breathe creativity. The sixth day of Kwanzaa, Kuumba, represents creativity and is a time for celebrating the radical Blackness that comes from multiple countries and cultures across different platforms. The following Black-owned businesses show their creative instincts in their hand-made and…Read more...

As celebrations around the world rang in the new year on Jan. 1, 2020, no one could have imagined—let alone predicted—the staggering loss and grief that would come to define the year.Read more...

A few months back, we reported here at The Root that there were talks of Michael B. Jordan potentially directing the third installment of the Creed movie franchise. But now it looks like those talks were actually true!Read more...

Since this is yet another short work week for the staff at The Root due to the holiday, I’ll keep this introduction short and sweet, using the energy of one Tiffany “New York” Pollard: BYE, 2020! BYE, PUMPKIN!Read more...

There’s been a curiously quiet reaction to the Christmas Day RV bombing that took place in downtown Nashville last week, injuring three people, damaging over 40 buildings in the area and leading to massive disruptions in AT&T cell phone communications and 911 phone lines.

In society, we have this thing called “pretty privilege.”Read more...

Last week The Root reported that the president of pardoning despicable white people has been spending his last weeks in office doling out absolution to allies, white-collar criminals and war criminals like he’s the Grinch that stole clemency and now he’s giving it all back.Read more...

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As cases and deaths from COVID-19 surge throughout the state, California’s most densely populated counties are set to remain under a strict lockdown for the indefinite future.Read more...

The best way to educate ourselves is by listening to those around us with shared and different experiences. Each person serves a different purpose in this world, and it is important to pay attention to what they say. The fifth night of Kwanzaa represents Nia, or purpose. In a time when we can’t attend talks in public…Read more...

The NYPD is planning to lay assault charges against the woman captured on camera over the holiday weekend aggressively going after the 14-year-old son of jazz musician Keyon Harrold at a hotel in New York on the false accusation that he stole her phone.

There are few certainties in life, but I’m quite confident that there will never be a day in which former teammates Terrell Owens and Donovan McNabb don’t despise each other.Read more...

If I could sum up 2020 in one phrase, it would be “whew, chile” (see also: “I hate it here” and “I’m tired of this church.”) As we near the end of this unprecedented year, I can’t help but reflect on all the tumultuous things that have transpired up until now. Actually, I take that back. I don’t want to reflect—living…Read more...

This morning, I began the celebration of my 42nd year on Earth with Esomeprazole (for acid reflux), Lisinopril (for blood pressure), a vitamin C pill, a vitamin D pill, and a zinc supplement. At some point today, I will drink a cup of bone broth. And maybe this evening I will eat a gluten-free slice of cake…Read more...

A Black man in New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against police and county prosecutors after a misidentification by facial recognition technology resulted in him being jailed for 10 days.

Do you remember Alicia Keys’ “Unbreakable”?Read more...

For all intents and purposes, 2020 was the worst fucking year. At least it wasn’t a bad year in gaming, though? While it didn’t quite hit the highs of 2013—the last transition between console generations—there were still some solid bangers to drop. Even better, you can grab most of the year’s best games at heavily…Read more...

Breonna Taylor may never receive the justice she and her family deserve, but the fallout from the March 13 botched drug raid in Louisville, Ky., continues as two more officers involved in the raid are set to be fired. Until now, officer Brett Hankinson was the only officer to be fired and to face criminal charges…Read more...

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The year is ending on a less than hopeful note in terms of justice for Black lives taken by police.

Joe Louis Clark, the no-nonsense disciplinary high school principal who inspired the classic 1989 film Lean On Me, has died at the age of 89. According to an official press release, Clark succumbed after a long battle with an illness on Tuesday at his Gainesville, Fla., home, surrounded by family.Read more...

Today I learned that a statue depicting a freed Black man kneeling before President Abraham Lincoln stood in Boston since 1879, further proving that America has had a white savior complex since before any of us were born.

During a year that’s presented an endless succession of unprecedented challenges, LeBron James and Naomi Osaka dug deep and still managed to dominate both on and off the court, and for their accomplishments in both sports and social activism, the Associated Press has named them the Male and Female Athletes of the…Read more...

Man, I know the Georgia GOP is probably tired of the Abrams sisters right about now. Stacey Abrams’ work in combating voter suppression was essential in turning the state blue, and her sister, a federal judge, has blocked an attempt to purge over 4,000 voters from the rolls ahead of the state’s Jan. 5 runoff election.Read more...

Far too often, Black and other Film/TV crew members of color often hear a variation on trite excuse, “We keep hiring this white person because there aren’t a lot of [insert specific POC identifier here] directors, producers, cinematographers, production designers, costume designers, editors, etc.!”Read more...

Let me first just say that we at The Root do not promote violence. We believe that you should use your words and that “an eye for an eye leaves everyone’s sticks and stones unturned.” (I don’t think that’s how it goes, but whichever adage means “don’t punch people” is what I’m saying.) We believe that before one…Read more...

The more I hear about the Pacific Northwest, the more I’m good on ever checking it out. Everything I’ve been told by people who live in the region just makes it sound like white liberal hell. The fact that an elected prosecuting attorney in Washington state resigned from his job due to “racially motivated attacks”…Read more...

Every week, just outside of Charleston, S.C., hundreds of (mostly white) people pay for tours of the beautiful antebellum home that housed generations of white enslavers at the Magnolia Gardens Plantation. The home is located on the Ashley River, surrounded by a romantic-style botanical garden that was built and cared…Read more...

The need to stay the hell apart from humans this year resulted in a sweeping halt on the production of movies, television shows and the like. It also means no festivals, concerts or trips to the silver screen. Fortunately, making music doesn’t require a mess of people congregating—especially if you have skills with…Read more...