The Root

This week there has been absolutely too much going on—sometimes you just need to rock with your favorite jams of the moment to get through the day. This week’s list is made up of folks’ personal jams. Jam on it.

Police say they saw Harold Easter ingest the cocaine as they stood outside his SUV on January 23. Easter, 41, had just been pulled over in Charlotte, N.C. after officers saw what appeared to be a drug deal.Read more...

If quarantine hasn’t stolen your awareness of time and space and you’ve socially distanced from blocking your blessings, you’ll know that today is October 2, the day we’ve all been waiting for: Robyn Rihanna Fenty’s annual Savage X Fenty show! The show is streaming as we speak on Amazon Prime and is guaranteed to make…Read more...

Depending on who you ask, the 76ers head coaching gig is either a blessing or a curse.

Regardless of my feelings about his politics, Donald Trump is a human first. A husband. A father. An uncle. An American. And today I am deeply saddened by the news that both he and his wife, Melania, have tested positive for COVID-19. Yes, he is an abhorrent person who has said and done terrible things. But I’m…Read more...

As America woke to prepare themselves for the end of the work week, the news came fast and furious: President Donald Trump and first lady Melania had contracted COVID-19.

TGIF—and the ‘F’ stands for female...or maybe femme…due to that pesky misogyny, I can barely read the word “female” without thinking of “feeeeemale” (aka the trying-to-be-slick sexist replacement for ‘bitch’).Read more...

Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order on Tuesday pardoning people who have been convicted for possessing up to an ounce of Marijuana.Read more...

A California man who is accused of plowing his truck through a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in Pasadena earlier this year was preparing for a larger attack, according to federal officials.Read more...

At a health conference on Wednesday, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said the company’s coronavirus vaccine won’t be ready until spring of next year.Read more...

It’s Spooky Season, also known as October! We’re in a new month which means we need to get into what Netflix’s Strong Black Lead has in store.Read more...

A video released by Colorado’s Aurora Police Department on Tuesday shows a former officer ignoring a Black woman’s cries for help while she’s handcuffed upside-down in a police cruiser.Read more...

I want to preface everything I’m about to say by acknowledging the fact that Kyrie Irving is really fucking good at basketball.Read more...

Only the president and America’s most crooked top cop could’ve thought that it was legal to launch a law enforcement commission that only included police and wasn’t open to the public.

*Insecure Mirror Rap* Her name is Issa and she’s here to slay, gonna make sure you remember the name of Rae!Read more...

Beauty emporium Sephora just took another step in fulfilling the promise it made this June when it agreed to dedicate at least 15 percent of its shelf space to Black-owned brands as part of Aurora James’ 15 Percent Pledge. In response, the retailer revamped its Accelerate incubation program for 2021, with an exclusive…Read more...

Last week, The Root reported that the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity at the University of Georgia was suspended and is under investigation after a Black student exposed a group chat by frat members that devolved into a blatant display of racism, misogyny and homophobia. Well, it turns out that the Lambda Chi Alpha…Read more...

Fresh off her historic Emmy win for her starring role in HBO’s Euphoria, Zendaya is now in talks to star as singer Ronnie Spector in an upcoming biopic about the legendary front woman of the girl group, the Ronettes.Read more...

A recently unredacted FBI report revealed a long standing effort to infiltrate law enforcement by white supremacists.Read more...

On Monday, a 29-year-old Black trans woman was fatally shot in Philadelphia, and city officials have called the killing an “epidemic of violence” committed against the city’s trans community. At the very least, it’s evidence that the movement to protect Black lives needs to be more inclusive of Black trans people and…Read more...

...pull your mask down to talk to me. You don’t need to pull your mask down to talk to me. You don’t need to pull your mask down to talk to me. You don’t need to pull your mask down to talk to me. You don’t need to pull your mask down to talk to me. You don’t need to pull your mask down to talk to me. You don’t need…Read more...

Following the shitshow masquerading as the first presidential debate Tuesday night, the Commission on Presidential Debates has promised format changes for the second debate.Read more...

In the canon of interior design, Sheila Bridges is a modern icon, becoming well-known by her trademark of infusing Blackness into the Eurocentric fabric art known as “Toile de Jouy” (most often simply referred to as “toile”). Traditionally, toile depicts pastoral scenes of frolicking French nobility and peasants of…Read more...

On Tuesday, we reported that the Tennessee Titans have shut down their facilities and all in-person work until Saturday in response to multiple players and team personnel testing positive for the coronavirus.

For more than a hundred years, the Los Angeles Times has been charged with telling the story of a city—one that was seized from Mexico in 1848 and has, in the 170 years since, experienced no small number of demographic shifts and racial unrest.

As a White House correspondent for the PBS NewsHour and a political contributor for NBC News and MSNBC, Yamiche Alcindor has fearlessly and consistently challenged Trump and his minions on their dangerous rhetoric and outright lies, helping to maintain the credibility of journalism amid an administration bolstering…Read more...

1. Lonzo Ball’s jump shot

For actor La La Anthony, there is no separating her Blackness from her identity. After all, the Black and Puerto Rican actor knew from the outset that she was just that—Black and Puerto Rican.Read more...

Whew chile. So I’ve been watching Power Book II: Ghost. I have to be honest, I am mostly hate-watching it because it centers Tariq St. Patrick, who I have been WAITING to get killed for seasons now. Instead of killing him off, they turned him into a younger, smarter, more privileged version of his father who is still…Read more...

Being white looks like having a moment, a desperate moment, in which everything inside your brain turns to TV static and you begin to threaten self-harm and you have a weapon and police are called and in the end, you are taken to a hospital for help.

It’s time to pass the Kleenex once again because we came across another heartwarming—and equally tear-inducing—tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman.Read more...

The state of Mississippi is close to 40 percent Black, making it the state with the second-largest proportional Black population in the U.S. Yet somehow, no Black person has ever been elected governor or to any other statewide political office in the state’s history. Mississippi voters are now being given the chance…Read more...

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has been cheating us out of the best version of Russell Wilson for years. And despite a defense that’s doing the team absolutely no favors—and only got worse with injuries to Jamal Adams (groin) and first-round pick Jordyn Brooks (knee) on Sunday—the Seahawks remain undefeated after staving…Read more...

It seems like not that long ago that the artist formerly known as Sean “Puffy” Combs (now “Diddy”) was dancing around in his pajamas. Now his son Christian is following in those sartorial steps, joining the always fashion-forward Rihanna to launch a menswear capsule collection under her Savage X Fenty lingerie line,…Read more...

Whenever a rapper or an NBA player travels, they need a person who is willing to carry the drugs. That person is usually a friend who has nothing more going on in life than being the one who is willing to take the charge so that the “money” doesn’t get arrested. It’s a job; and while it might not be a glamorous one,…Read more...

On March 13, 32 bullets tore through Breonna Taylor’s apartment. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Louisville Metro Police claimed Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker fired first, and that he injured one officer in the leg with that shot.Read more...

Better Love Little Devil | $18 | Ella Paradis | Use Code SPICY

The Delonte West story is defined by both triumph and tragedy.Read more...

It’s been twenty years since the premiere of Girlfriends and one of its co-stars, Reggie Hayes, has some things to say.Read more...

People continued marching through the streets of Louisville Thursday night to protest the meager charges brought against the Louisville Metro Police department in the killing of Breonna Taylor. Among them was one Rep. Attica Scott (D), the only Black female representative in Kentucky’s state legislature and the…Read more...

The Trump administration is skullduggerish AF.

For years, all of us, the collective us that hate everything that Trump’s spray-tanned fingers have touched, have been telling everyone that would listen that Lindsey Graham was the trashiest trash can that ever trashed. Oscar the Grouch literally lives in a trashcan and even he told the Trash Times, (the paper of…Read more...

Autumn has only just begun, but 2020 has already been a study in contrasts: Some of us have taken to the streets, but even more of us spent an unprecedented amount of our time at home this year. Our discourse has unimaginably become even more divided, but we are holding our loved ones and ideals closer. We are both…Read more...

We’ve long suspected Issa Rae might be the busiest Black woman in Hollywood—but unbelievably, she’s equally a multitasker when it comes to her hair. Braids, blowouts, baby fros, big hair...our Insecure It Girl is a bona fide hair icon for #TeamNatural—and as she recently told Allure, it’s a big part of her personal…Read more...

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have come to an agreement with a collective of advertisers on steps to curb hate speech and other harmful content on their platforms. They’re baby steps but steps nonetheless, I suppose.Read more...

Earlier this month, The Root reported that on August 31, 29-year-old Dijon Kizzee was fatally shot by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies. Details as to what happened during the shooting are a bit murky as accounts of what happened that day vary depending on who you ask and when—meaning there are inconsistencies…Read more...

Embiid One | $90-120 | Under Armour

Of course, the tears Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron shed during his press conference this afternoon were a lie. They were also an audition. The audience he was performing for—the people he’s been speaking to with his body language, his haircut, his intonation, his choice of wife, and his wedding date…Read more...

As a team doctor, your job is to preserve the health, safety and privacy of some of the most talented athletes in professional sports. It’s the type of responsibility that should never be taken lightly because if you fuck up, you could completely derail an organization or the trajectory of a player’s entire career.Read more...