The Root

Cops, in my humble opinion, are generally racist. I don’t think that’s a controversial statement, provided you have at least one foot grounded in reality. Need an example? Well, a trove of leaked texts between two ex-Scranton, Pa., police officers revealed that they were hella racist.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) really wants citizens to be able to shoot people. The governor is reportedly proposing “anti-mob” legislation that would expand Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, allowing armed people to protect property by shooting looters, rioters or anyone else displaying nefarious intentions against…Read more...

A U.S. appeals court has rejected a case challenging Harvard’s affirmative action policy.Read more...

If you’re a fan of football and funky musings of unrequited love, then this news is especially for you. Today, the NFL announced its headliner for the 2021 Super Bowl Halftime Show in Tampa Bay, Fla. and it’s none other than the soulful Starboy himself, The Weeknd. (Sidenote, I was today-years-old when I realized…Read more...

I can’t even lie, I’m a bit surprised at Trump supporters inability to act like they’ve been here before. I know for damn sure this is not the first, second, or even third time these folks have been in the loser’s circle, yet, that doesn’t stop people like Brian Maiorana from allegedly threatening large-scale violence…Read more...

On Saturday, Nov. 7, the nation learned that a graduate of Howard University, Kamala Harris, will become the highest-ranking woman in American history when she assumes the vice presidency next January. It’s also a remarkable milestone for the 153-year-old HBCU, which already counts among its extensive cadre of…Read more...

First, there were talks and then the talks were off. Then there were talks about the talks and then those talks were off. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Pelosi’s $3.4 trillion coronavirus proposal was too high. Then Republicans slapped together some bullshit bill that ol’ turkey neck McConnell,…Read more...

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey is pure magic.Read more...

The Louisville Metro Police Department is accused of concealing at least 738,000 records documenting the sexual abuse of minors who participated in the Explorer Scouts Program—the department’s mentoring program for youth considering professions in law enforcement—by two police officers and then lying to keep the…Read more...

If 2020 Emmy-winner and alumni of The Root Cord Jefferson wasn’t already having a bomb-ass year, then this latest announcement via Warner Bros. is sure to seal the deal. It’s been announced that Jefferson has now signed an exclusive multi-year deal with Warner Bros. Television Group, marking it as Jefferson’s first…Read more...

On Thursday morning, as rates of coronavirus infection continued to soar around the country, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, tried to relay just how serious the state of the pandemic is in the United States.

I don’t know much about the spine. I know that it’s like a fuse box inside the body and that all of the central nervous system is hooked into it. I also know that baffling scientists everywhere, one GOP member is appearing to grow one back. Well, kind of.

Remember not that long ago (read: two weeks ago, and throughout the two years before that), when Republicans had nothing better to do than obstruct justice and play fashion police, with freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—she of the red lipstick and Vanity Fair covers—as one of their favorite targets?Read more...

When your dishwasher’s broken and you’re moving apartments soon, with no response from the super, you may be in a weirdly specific situation that I am coincidentally also faced with as of this writing. When I found out countertop dishwashers exist, however, my initial reaction was that of intrigue; finally, an option…Read more...

November is speeding along, which means it’s time to dive into those feel-good (and endearingly predictable) Christmas movies!Read more...

Can “Black don’t crack” be bottled? We’re about to find out, because Pharrell Williams, whose famously flawless skin has yet to develop a crease in years, is making our long-held holiday wishes come true. The multihyphenate hitmaker launching a skincare line by the end of this month—and no, apparently the blood of…Read more...

The phrase “I want off this ride” has never been so perfect for what I’m about to discuss.Read more...

I don’t think powerful white people understand how this works. And, maybe that is America’s fault. Maybe America didn’t do the hard work of teaching them that sometimes things won’t go their way. Sometimes the hero (both actual and perceived) loses. And sometimes, no matter how much of a temper tantrum they throw,…Read more...

It’s about to be a very Mary Christmas, y’all! Amazon has announced that it has teamed up with Mary J. Blige for a roundup of exclusive holiday songs in tandem with its “Delivering Smiles” campaign.

Sen. Kamala Harris made headlines when she pronounced and acknowledged the important role of Black women in both casting their ballots for Joe Biden—thus earning him the title “president-elect”—and also serving as “the backbone of our democracy” during her first speech as vice president-elect.Read more...

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In one of those “Wait, you mean they didn’t do that 50 years ago?” news items, UPS has announced its workers can finally have facial hair and wear their hair in a number of hairstyles. For Black folks, this means afros, braids, and other protective styles can finally be worn with the iconic brown uniform.Read more...

Remember Debbie Allen’s iconic line (as Lydia Grant) in Fame? “You’ve got big dreams, you want fame? Well, fame costs, and right here is where you start paying—in sweat!” Well, 40 years after the film’s debut, Allen still has that same energy.

As we watch history being made with Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, we can’t help but uphold Rep. Shirley Chisholm’s name. Hell, when we talk about any woman (of any color) we have to honor Chisholm’s name. We’ve been “with her.”Read more...

The fate of the Senate is in the hands of Georgia voters, and state Republicans were hoping to bust out their tried-and-true tactics of just straight up not letting people vote. Surprisingly, Georgia’s Republican governor and noted election thief has pushed back against those attempts.Read more...

We live in strange times, y’all—an era of fabricated electoral disputes, a very real pandemic, and seemingly a holiday for every event and demographic imaginable. For instance, here in the United States, November 11 is commonly observed as Veterans Day. But in China, the “Double 11" date is known as Singles’ Day—and…Read more...

Every day, like many American parents, Lucille Bridges walked her first-grader Ruby to school.Read more...

In recent years, we’ve seen countless tragedies result from the response by police officers to people suffering a mental health crisis. New York City is set to launch a pilot program next year that will see healthcare professionals responding to these cases instead of the New York Police Department.Read more...

I’m an Atlanta-area resident who remembers how huge and devastating the 2002 demise of Morris Brown College’s accreditation was in the city and especially around the Atlanta University Center (AUC), so it warms my heart to report that the historically Black college is one step closer to winning back its accreditation…Read more...

The list of things that I don’t know is boundless. Endless. Infinite. There are so many things that I don’t know that the only thing approaching it in scale is the list of things I don’t even know that I don’t even know.Read more...

Former President Barack Obama will sit down with two very familiar faces as his long-awaited new memoir, A Promised Land, launches next week.Read more...

Under normal circumstances, the month of May usually holds a soft spot in my heart every year; birthdays and holidays being the primary reasons. But if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that this year is everything BUT normal. Before the month could even properly wrap up, the world was enraged and provoked to action…Read more...

Unless you live under a rock that has been thrown into the conservative fairytale land where rampant voter fraud exists in the U.S., you’ve likely heard that y’all’s soon-to-be ousted president and his band of cowardly Republican beyotch-babies are refusing to concede that President-elect Joe Biden won the 2020…Read more...

Dean Browning is believed to be a straight white man who unsuccessfully ran for a Congressional seat for Pennsylvania. So why was he tweeting that he was a Black gay man?

The Democrats stole the election for Joe Biden.Read more...

More than six months after 21-year-old Dreasjon “Sean” Reed was fatally shot by an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officer after a live-streamed high-speed chase, Special Prosecutor Rosemary Khoury and other members of law enforcement gathered at the Indiana State Police Museum on Tuesday night to announce whether a…Read more...

This year has been a lot of things (stressful, frustrating, shocking, depressing, anxiety-inducing…to name a few), but 2020 will be bowing out in the last quarter with some love, peace and souuuuuul!Read more...

“One time for the Black Girls!!!” wrote stylist Law Roach on Instagram, debuting longtime client Zendaya’s covers for Elle’s December issue. “[T]his is for all the fly ass black girls that have inspired me over the years,” he added.Read more...

Imagine the president of the United States calling his staff into the Oval Office to show them an imaginary ham sandwich on the Resolute desk. The president wants to know who put it there. One by one, staff members come in and are questioned about the ham sandwich that they don’t see. And one by one, each staff member…Read more...

In June, The Root reported that former Louisville Metro Police Detective Brett Hankison—one of three officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor and the only officer facing charges related to the shooting (essentially for the bullets that missed, but whatever)—was accused of sexual assault by two women who posted about…Read more...

“Little bitty pretty one, come on and talk to me” about that one time a vintage clip of Frankie Lymon performing amid the blandness of several saltines resurfaced on social media.Read more...

In news that may feel long overdue for some Sundance fans, Netflix has recently announced its decision to acquire the Kelvin Harrison Jr.-led indie, Monster, to its platform. (If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because you’re still lowkey traumatized from his emotional performances in the 2019 films …Read more...

LG CX OLED 4K TVs and a sale on Ray-Ban and Oakley sunglasses lead Wednesday’s best deals.

Quawan Charles was a high school sophomore who looked younger than his decade-and-a-half age. Although this tragedy is spreading across social media posts as the story of “Bobby” Charles, only his mother and close family members called him by that nickname before he disappeared.

Another Ta-Nehisi Coates adaptation is on the horizon!Read more...

The United Nations basically told the United States to check its privilege after a human rights review Monday. Specifically, numerous countries, including U.S. allies, criticized the U.S. on its record for police violence against Black people, the death penalty and the separation of immigrant children from their…Read more...

Black women keep making history and I, for one, love to see it. Next spring, Midshipman 1st Class Sydney Barber will become the first Black woman to serve as brigade commander at the U.S. Naval Academy.Read more...

In what might be the most defiant middle finger to President-elect Joe Biden, the voting process, the election, righteous America and Howard University, lame-duck President Trump and his lame-duck staff have instructed federal agencies to continue working on the administration’s budget proposal for the next fiscal…Read more...

I really don’t understand white people, y’all. Like, how are they out here marrying racists and then being all, “Well, I don’t agree at all with what my partner said, but, you know...”Read more...

For months, I’ve been anxious, yet hopeful. Despite all of what we faced this year from the pandemic to the economic crisis to racial violence, I held onto my faith in Black movement.