My mother taught English in D.C. Public Schools for more than 50 years. One day, I went to her class to help her carry some boxes down to her car when I saw “Let’s get that pizza” written on the chalkboard. I laughed because my mother, who is a wizard of words and a waste of time to play Scrabble against (seriously, I…Read more...

It’s nearly impossible to adequately express the range of feelings and emotions that occur when we lose someone as pivotal to our history as the late Rep. John Lewis. For creatives, it’s a type of block usually dissolved by expressing oneself in another way—through art.

Hopefully, the third time is the charm for a measure to remove racist language from Alabama’s state constitution.Read more...

Boooooy, when I tell you I can’t stand Trump or his minions.Read more...

An officer for the New York City Police Department was suspended without pay after a video of him saying “Trump 2020,” over the loudspeaker of his patrol cruiser was spread on social media.Read more...

When one considers the scope of white privilege, it’s difficult to imagine any contemporary entity—or historical, for that matter—that encompasses it more broadly than the British monarchy. Throughout history, the family now known as the Windsors has symbolized not only the bastion of whiteness known as the British…Read more...

If you’ve had enough of Kenya Barris, 2020 is really not your year.Read more...

Dozens of ballots were destroyed after a fire was ignited inside a ballot drop box in Boston.Read more...

One of the buzziest stories of the past weekend was no doubt old news to many Black journalists, particularly those who’ve spent time at Condé Nast—or, “Condé Nasty,” the moniker repeated in a Saturday New York Times article titled “The White Issue: Has Anna Wintour’s Diversity Push Come Too Late?” As the media world…Read more...

The superintendent of Virginia Military Institute, the country’s oldest state-funded military college, resigned Monday morning after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and other top-elected officials called for an independent investigation into the school’s “appalling culture of ongoing racism.”Read more...

Under NCAA guidelines, the most serious violation a school can commit is a Level I violation. These typically “undermine the integrity of college sports” and pretty much mean somebody’s ass is about to be fired.Read more...

The theme song for the beloved HBCU-based series A Different World notes that “it’s a different world than where you come from!” That lyric couldn’t be truer than in 2020, where our “different world” consists of virtual events in lieu of in-person events.Read more...

Last summer, Marvel Studios announced the lead of its upcoming Blade reboot and everyone collectively lost their shit with excitement because that person is Mahershala Ali.Read more...

Heeeeeeeeyyy sooooo ... not being able to find any tissue earlier this year really bummed me out. Shit suddenly hit the fan with the pandemic and people absolutely lost it. And by it, I mean their shit—so much so that they bought up toilet paper by the buttload.

White supremacists are America’s greatest terror threat. The Department of Homeland Security has said as much, and the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division has also admitted it. But this year, the FBI is late in fulfilling its legal obligation to release a report detailing the extent of white supremacist terrorism and…Read more...

Another week of football is officially in the books. Let’s get to it.Read more...

Less than a week ago, Tafara Williams saw her boyfriend and the father of her infant child shot dead in front of her. Williams, 20, was in the driver’s seat of a car, while her boyfriend, Marcellis Stinnette, 19, was seated in the passenger seat next to her. Shot by a suburban Chicago police officer on Tuesday,…Read more...

When first hearing about Kate Rubins, the NASA astronaut who’s currently in a space station 200 miles above Earth but was able to vote last week, I was excitedly curious about the process. Did NASA create a hologram Kate to enter a booth and cast a vote? Did a bewinged USPS truck travel to space to pick up and deliver…Read more...

Have you ever wondered what a Black version of Misery (the 1990 classic starring James Caan and Kathy Bates) would be like? Well...enter Spell, directed by Mark Tonderai (House at the End of the Street).Read more...

Unless Seattle Seahawks wide receiver D.K. Metcalf can run down judge Amy Coney Barrett and tackle her before she takes her seat on the Supreme Court, this is a done deal and the fate we all knew was coming has come.

I’m just going to say it: White people stay failing at Halloween.Read more...

For many child stars, their transition into adulthood is rife with financial struggles, diminishing roles and a myriad of other problems that far too often make headlines for all the wrong reasons. So revisiting the origins of that strife can be a painful experience that oftentimes they have no desire to revisit.Read more...

When it comes to handing out our annual accolades, we consider ourselves a pretty discerning bunch here at The Root; with so much Black excellence in the ether, we have to be. So, the fact that Kimberly Drew—also known to hundreds of thousands of her online followers by her “Museum Mammy” tag—has been honored as a…Read more...

It looks like Michael B. Jordan may be following in the helming footsteps of his predecessor, Sylvester Stallone, for Creed 3. Stallone not only starred as the titular character of his 1976 film Rocky but ended up directing its sequels, Rocky II, Rocky III, and Rocky IV.Read more...

The opening lines of one of Lucille Clifton’s best-known poems read: “Won’t you celebrate with me, what I have shaped into a kind of life? I had no model.”Read more...

About five members of Vice President Mike Pence’s inner team now have coronavirus, a troubling outbreak that nonetheless seems not to have thwarted Pence’s plans to travel across the country campaigning in the coming days.

Cardi B and her on-again-off-again boo Offset were caught in the midst of rally of Trump supporters on the streets of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles on Saturday, and the confluence of the two groups ended with cops pulling Offset out of his car and detaining him, on the complaint of someone on the street.

Lexi Underwood, the impressive newcomer who delivered her own acting performance to remember next to Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon’s masterful ones in Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere, is the latest young Black star to be tapped by Disney to play a modern-day princess.Read more...

On the heels of the last presidential debate—in which Trump flippantly dismissed his administration’s cruel and inhumane decision to separate immigrant children from their parents for the crime of being non-white and seeking asylum in America—there are now reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)…Read more...

As we get closer to Election Day, more reports of planned, executed, and nearly-executed violence at the hands of white supremacists keep barrelling in. Deeply insecure white people with weapons have been targeting everyone from Black church-goers and the governor of Michigan, to even their police enablers in…Read more...

In the midst of this year’s massive, nationwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations, Black bookstores have enjoyed a short-term boost in sales they hope to turn into a longer-term renaissance.Read more...

A “Boogaloo Boy” has been charged for firing a gun and helping set fire to a Minneapolis police precinct during the initial George Floyd protests.Read more...

Happy Friday, folks! It’s that time of the week where I try to put you on some good games and save you a little money in the process. While we are still in October, I’m going to ease up on the horror games this week, lest you think I’m in the pocket of Big SpookyTM.

Actress Niecy Nash already has one hell of a resume. The 50-year-old has shown us her comedy chops for years on shows like Reno 911!, Claws and Never Have I Ever. And of course, her roles on When They See Us and Mrs. America put her considerable dramatic talents on display. Now, the gifted entertainer is in line to…Read more...

An investigation has been launched into a series of racist TikTok posts targeting Black students at a Fulton County middle school in Georgia.Read more...

In our neverending quest to bring you exclusive content related to the upcoming election, The Root managed to score an interview with a man who, by all accounts, was widely known as the least racist person who attended Thursday night’s match between WWE RAW (Wypipo Working to Elect a Racist-Ass Wombat) champion Donald…Read more...

Whenever I think of why people vote for Republicans, I always wonder if poverty doesn’t affect them. I wonder if high gas prices don’t hurt their pockets. I wonder if they couldn’t use a bit of a financial pick-me-up during these dark times. And then, I remember the 53 percent of white women in 2016 who voted against…Read more...

While most national office hopefuls are spending a majority of their time on the campaign trail, Dr. Cameron Webb is in the hospital trying to save lives during a COVID-19 pandemic that has taken in excess of 200,000 American lives and infected millions more. In his role as director of health policy and equity at the…Read more...

Fresh off the presidential debate (which, was tamer than that first disaster, yet I was still left wishing the mute button was utilized more), it’s time for some more escapism. In case you missed it, we already wrote special pieces about the trailers for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom starring Viola Davis and Chadwick…Read more...

While inside the NBA bubble, Chris Paul made it a point to express his admiration and respect for HBCUs.Read more...

We should’ve known that once the NFL started loving the movement without the people who helped push the narrative that Black lives matter (yep, Eric Reid and Colin Kaepernick are still without NFL homes) that anything after that was bullshit.

Pictured is a buttermilk pancake and a brussels sprouts bowl. They’re both from a place called The Square Cafe, which used to be in the Regent Square neighborhood in Pittsburgh but recently moved to East Liberty. Although I haven’t eaten inside of a restaurant since March, I still do pick-up orders, and it might be my…Read more...

Much like everything else this year, the NBA Draft is going virtual.Read more...

Every so often, there is a diamond in the rough-ass year known as 2020. This time, it’s Tiffany “New York” Pollard with great news. Thirteen years after its second season finale (a third season was shelved), we are getting a reunion special for I Love New York!Read more...

Triumph amid tragedy is always bittersweet—a unique type of survivor’s guilt many of us have become all too familiar with in recent months, as we reconcile profound loss with the rare but very bright spots that have occurred during this incredibly devastating year. It’s a dichotomy bestselling author and 2017 and 2018 …Read more...

A white 17-year-old girl was sentenced to four years in juvenile detention this week in Georgia after plotting to attack a Black Gainesville church in 2019.Read more...

It only took one practice run, a positive coronavirus diagnosis, the refusal to have a virtual debate, a Black female moderator, and the threat of a mute button to finally have a civilized and adult presidential debate.

If you thought the recent surge in support for Black talent in the fashion industry was a result of the black boxes that peppered our timelines in June as part of #BlackoutTuesday, you obviously haven’t been paying attention. The hashtag may have been trending, but the tidal wave of social responsibility and largely…Read more...

Every week, I come on here to complain about the haters. But as Maya Angelou once said: “Every day, I thank God for indoor plumbing, toilet paper and haters. Because, without them, I’d have nothing to shit on.”

It’s been a wild year for Bubba Wallace.Read more...