The Root

While many lawmakers in the South are introducing laws aimed at ensuring fewer people can vote in future elections, at least one state is trying to restore the franchise to more people.

A Slim Aarons-inspired photoshoot had us swooning over Zendaya, John David Washington and reimagined 1950s glamour this week. The bold colors, the smizing, the effortlessly sexy ways in which these two actors work together? You can’t tear your eyes away.

If you grew up a Black girl in America in the last half-century, there’s a good chance you grew up in tandem with Essence magazine, the pioneering publication for Black women which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020. For over 40 0f those years, Mikki Taylor has been part of that storied legacy, helping to craft…Read more...

20 Questions after watching The Bachelor finale last night while the Nets and Knicks game was on commercial breaks:

It looks like the pressure is on with this latest update between the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Hollywood’s top publicists.

I cannot say that I’m a fan of The Bachelor. I’ve never watched a full season. I couldn’t tell you who my favorite contestants are. And unless Bachelor Nation is anywhere near Wakanda or Zamunda, I can’t tell you how to get there.

The Talk has some explaining to do. The daytime ensemble talk show announced on Monday that it would be on hiatus until Wednesday while it conducted an “internal review” into the heated exchange that took place last Wednesday between Sharon Osbourne and, well, herself (since co-host Sheryl Underwood demonstrated…Read more...

Last summer, in a never-ending attempt to find things for our kids to do that were as safe as possible and also as avoidant of other people as possible, my wife happened upon a petting zoo in Reston, Va., called Roer’s Zoofari. It is about 45 minutes to an hour from my house depending on traffic, so one day last June,…Read more...

Though President Biden signed a landmark $1.9 trillion stimulus bill into law last Thursday, many Americans are still waiting to receive their portion of the COVID-19 relief funds.

The Department of Agriculture is supposed to help farmers.

I don’t consider myself a religious person, but as much as I despise the New England Patriots, head coach Bill Bellicheat is really out here turning water into bottles of Luc Belaire.Read more...

He may be a former “Sexiest Man Alive,” but never forget that Idris Elba is for the children. HarperCollins certainly hasn’t missed the memo, announcing on Monday that the Golden Globe and SAG Award-winning actor, musician, filmmaker, activist, and father of two has signed a global multi-book deal with the publisher…Read more...

We know little to nothing about Them, but we don’t trust ‘em.Read more...

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Yaphet Kotto, the actor known for movies such as Alien and The Running Man has died, The Root has learned.

Republican-led state legislatures have openly been waging war on voting access in the wake of their presidential candidate’s defeat in the 2020 elections.Read more...

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson denied his racist comments made last week were racist and then doubled-down and white-splained why he is no racist.

During the Grammys on Sunday, the Recording Academy paid tribute to music legends we lost over the past year, such as Pop Smoke, Bill Withers, Little Richard, and county legend Charley Pride, but that wasn’t the only tribute the groundbreaking country artist received, because on the same day, the Texas Rangers had…Read more...

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This upcoming weekend, Cynthia Erivo will be debuting her portrayal of the late Aretha Franklin in the upcoming limited series from National Geographic, Genius: Aretha.Read more...

It probably goes without saying that Michelle Obama, while one of the realest to ever assume the role of first lady, is perhaps also the most gracious. Granted, though she’s our big sister in our heads, we don’t know Obama personally, but in the face of any number of challenges, undeserved insults, and indignities,…Read more...

There was a lot of talk about Black people being resistant towards getting the vaccine because the U.S. government has a history of medical fuckery when it comes to Black bodies. There’s less talk about a similar hesitancy towards getting the vaccine among prison employees, who have refused getting vaccinated at an…Read more...

Anita Baker, the legendary singer that brought us “Sweet Love” and the soundtrack to Saturday morning cleaning sprees, is currently embroiled in a fight for her music masters, The Root has learned.Read more...

The last two months saw WandaVision come out of nowhere and become one of the most talked about shows across the internet. One of the more frequent questions I saw from people was “What do I need to watch in order to watch this?” The Marvel Cinematic Universe is made up of over 20 movies across 13 years; it’s…Read more...

Let me start by saying that I am not privy to the details or history of the relationship between gospel music heavyweight Kirk Franklin and his 32-year-old son, Kerrion Franklin.

Thinking Egg II | $16 | KickstarterRead more...

Spring has sprung, and so have a bunch of artists who have been fairly “hush-hush” during the last year. I guess we can give them a pass since we were in a global panorama, but now that the weather is getting warmer and the clothing layers are lessening, artists are coming out with a bang.

It’s been over six months since the death of Chadwick Boseman and grieving that loss is an ongoing process for his loved ones, fans and peers. It’s an especially bittersweet experience to witness the acclaimed nominations the late actor is receiving during this awards season, including his first Oscar nomination for…Read more...

Teena Marie and Rick James are cool, but we all know the greatest duo of all-time is sports and beer. That’s why Anheuser-Busch—more commonly known as the folks behind Budweiser, Bud Light, and your drunken college dorm antics—has joined forces with Panay Films to bless us with Not a Sports Show.Read more...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing non-stop pressure to resign, with seven women now accusing him of sexual harassment—so far. Most of his fellow party members at the state and national levels are abandoning him almost daily. Both of the state’s U.S. senators have called for him to step down and 16 of the 19 of New…Read more...

At this point in world history, it really shouldn’t come as any surprise the lengths to which whiteness—as an institution and colonialist mentality—will go to prove itself right, even when it is so far beyond wrong the hypocrisy is just leaping out.Read more...

Despite many “Blue Lives Matter” flags being flown on Jan. 6, the riot at the Capitol saw many officers facing physical and mental trauma, with Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick dying as a result of the chaos. Federal authorities arrested two men on Sunday for allegedly assaulting Officer Sicknick during the Jan.…Read more...

Whew, the devil is busy.Read more...

The murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd is gearing up to be quite a protracted one. In other words—the process of winning criminal accountability for the heinous killing of 46-year-old Floyd, whose neck Chauvin knelt on for nearly nine minutes last May, is unlikely to be…Read more...

Last week, we told you about Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and the Curious Case of Royal Racism—specifically, Osbourne coming to the defense of her dear friend Morgan and his comments on Meghan Markle and her past mental health struggle.

It’s been documented here before, but the onset of the coronavirus over a year ago seems to have turned everybody and their mothers into sneakerheads (and ultimately rendering most of us winless at the SNKRS app sweepstakes). And while the sneaker culture (and folks attempting to become resellers; good morning to…Read more...

Anyone trying to claim that educational institutions across the U.S. are just innocently bungling the teaching of America’s history of slavery rather than deliberately continuing a centuries-long practice of justifying and diminishing the inhumane treatment of enslaved Black people in this country are, to put it…Read more...

On Sunday, after months of speculation, Drew Brees finally called it a career after 20 years in the NFL. Per ESPN, he retires as the NFL’s all-time leader in career passing yards (80,358) and ranks second all-time in touchdown passes (571) and completion percentage (67.7%). Not bad for a dude who thinks kneeling…Read more...

Growing up, there were two pieces of advice that always stuck with me: Don’t leave one nest until you have another one built and don’t write a check with your mouth that your ass can’t cash. (The latter essentially means that you better be ready to back up what you say with some sort of action.) And now, with the…Read more...

President Joe Biden doesn’t want to rush to judgment despite mounds of accusations, a photo, and seven women claiming that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed them—and don’t even get me started with the claims that Cuomo and his staff mishandled COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.

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On the last month of 2020 (which seemingly lasted longer than a typical year, according to everyone), the Academy shook the awards season table when they announced that the 93rd Academy Awards would be taking place in April instead of the typical February/March schedule. It hasn’t been held that late in the year since…Read more...

If you watched the 63rd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night, you might’ve sensed a theme. In a ceremony full of diverse and necessarily distanced performances, it may have been unintentional on the part of the show’s producers, but it certainly didn’t escape the notice of The Root’s Staff Entertainment Writer Tonja…Read more...

The event known as “the biggest night in music” has come and gone! There were some bumps in the road due to the global pandemic and a globally reported snubbing mishap, but the Recording Academy managed to pull it off.

The “back the blue” community would have us all believe that police brutality is a rare occurrence. But if that’s the case, why is it that many police officers appear to be comfortable discussing their own acts of brutality like it was common water cooler talk?Read more...

On Tuesday, The Root reported that Kenneth Walker, the boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, was permanently cleared of charges of attempted murder and assault of a police officer which he was initially charged with after the deadly raid that took Taylor’s life on March 13, last year.Read more...

Marvelous Marvin Hagler—a man who was so marvelous in his sport that he had his name legally changed to reflect it—died Saturday at age 66, according to his wife, Kay Hagler, who announced his death via Facebook.Read more...

A 70-inch Hisense smart 4K TV and a 25-pack of KN95 masks lead Sunday’s best deals.

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Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson—but not that Ron Johnson—is apparently one of the few GOPhers who is willing to just come right out and say that he’s racist AF.Read more...