The Root

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...

Twenty years ago, you could not have paid me to sit on grass, touch anything outside that a bug or animal had itself rested its bottom on or consume something that had grown out of the Earth without it first being rinsed in a sink inside the walls of a well-sanitized building.

‘Twas the Friday before Valentine’s DayRead more...

The Rochester Police Department—like police departments across the nation—is proving itself to be a microcosm of white America in that it appears to be indifferent to Black trauma and blind to Black innocence.Read more...

Another day, another celeb apology. Only this time, it’s LONG overdue.Read more...

The annual SXSW festival and conference series has announced the full keynote and featured speaker lineup and film festival slate for 2021.Read more...

Losing your job is not the end of the world, nor should it be.Read more...

Over the past year, America has gone through a racial awakening of sorts, but that doesn’t mean things have changed all that much. For example, by and large, white people still don’t really believe Black people when we say something racist has happened to us. That’s why Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer has…Read more...

It’s been just over 400 years since the unintentional founding of Black America—when “20 or so odd Negroes” in captivity were delivered to the shores of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. In the intervening centuries, much—and yet, not enough—has changed. This much-needed conversation was only brought into its full…Read more...

When it comes to luxury sex toys, Swedish-based Lelo has led the charge in creating some of the most beloved and beautiful toys on the market. Lelo’s toys have won awards and if you own one, you simply know. Lelo is a sensual luxury in a toy, the preferred addition to your nightstand. Significant research and focus…Read more...

Kyle Rittenhouse is awaiting trial for fatally shooting two people and seriously injuring a third with a rifle he couldn’t legally carry. His multiple charges include two felony counts of intentional homicide. Regardless of how one feels about the circumstances surrounding the Aug. 25 shooting in Kenosha, Wis.,…Read more...

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Children’s books have moved from being about bunnies and flowers (though I dig those) to tackling hard-hitting topics such as race, gentrification and gender. Giving children the opportunity to learn and make their own decisions about those hard-hitting topics through books and reading is powerful...especially during…Read more...

City Girls from the 305 and beyond, we’re about to get a new series from Issa Rae and it sounds lit AF!Read more...

Lovecraft Country is definitely one of those shows you have to rewatch over and over again to get the full scope of what exactly the team in the writers’ room were constructing piece-by-piece. Watching the series, it was readily apparent that every single choice was intentional, making the viewing experience as…Read more...

My Netflix account hates me.Read more...

You know this album. I know this album. Your neighbor knows this album. Everybody knows this album by the Queen of Motown, Diana Ross, simply titled diana. Even if you can’t tell me what songs are on this album title, if you love Black music, I’m about 100 percent sure you know this cover. Everybody’s daddy had this…Read more...

And we back and we back! The second week of Black History Month is well underway and of course The Root is back with another installment of some bomb virtual events to turn up (or turn down) to. We know life at the crib can get a bit mundane. Every now and then you need just a little something, something to make you…Read more...

Love is in the air with pink chocolates, sex toys, lingerie filling Facebook feeds, and gift guides begging you to find the perfect gifts. But what about you? Is lingerie always for your lover, or do you slip into a sexy garment for your own pleasure?Read more...

On Wednesday, the New York Times published a piece chronicling the case of George Floyd and the upcoming trial for the ex-Minneapolis police officer accused of killing him, Derek Chauvin. Mostly, the story by the Times was a recap of things that have already been reported regarding the case, but the report did reveal…Read more...

Black History Month is all about joy at The Root and our Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, has reason to be joyous today as she won the first step in her lawsuit against the Daily Mail on Sunday and Associated Newspapers for violating her privacy. The British tabloid published parts of a personal letter she had…Read more...