The Root

It’s a simple equation that becomes more and more urgent by the day: Black women notoriously hold it down in elections, but if Joe Biden is going to emerge triumphant in November, he’s gonna need Black men to show up and show out at the polls—the same way we did for Barak Obama in 2008 and 2012, and didn’t for Hilary…Read more...

I don’t think we ever discussed the similarities between President Trump and boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The prolonged threat of COVID-19 has disrupted many of our regularly scheduled events this year, but fashion waits for no one—and New York Fashion Week (NYFW) will be going on as planned this September 13-16, albeit virtually (which should hopefully make it more accessible to fashion lovers everywhere). The Council of…Read more...

Three days after Kenosha police shot Jacob Blake multiple times in the back in front of his three children, the department finally has its version of events (or, as CNN aptly put it, “their first version”) of the police shooting.Read more...

The creator of Greenleaf has a few more tricks up his sleeves. The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) announced the straight-to-series order of Delilah, a new drama slated to appear on the network in 2021. It is headed by Greenleaf creator Craig Wright, Warner Bros. Television and Winfrey’s Harpo Films. Wright, Charles…Read more...

Words matter.Read more...

In 2012, a young white boy portrayed by another young white boy with a first and last name that can easily be switched gyrated onto the forefront of our screens...and our hearts (OK, loins).Read more...

Despite a week of violent threats from police and armed militias, the residents of Kenosha, Wisc., turned out for a fourth straight night of protests in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was shot seven times in the back as he tried to enter his car on Sunday night. He survived…Read more...

Dusk was waning on June 14 when her friends got the news: one of the two bodies police had found the night before had been identified. It was Toyin. A 19-year-old student living in Tallahassee, Oluwatoyin Salau had met the group of activists during the George Floyd protests, a moment when young people across the city…Read more...

Where, exactly, does social media and movement building intersect?

I had no intention of watching the game.Read more...

You know why conservative white America hates the Black Lives Matter movement so much? It’s because the movement undermines business-as-usual America. And by “business,” I mean this nation’s most profitable enterprise: racism and white supremacy. Why else would anyone—especially law enforcement or any media outlet—go…Read more...

Art often imitates life and social justice is a huge part of our lives right now...in fact, at this very moment. Just ask the NBA.Read more...

The Republican National Convention dragged on into day three and pulled America into an alternate universe in which Chick-fil-A is open on Sunday, some 177,000 people have not died from COVID-19 and the world didn’t watch an unarmed Black man get shot seven times at point-blank range in front of his children.

As The Root Institute winds down for its final day, we’re happy to present a panel and film that is more relevant today in 2020 than it was in 2019 when it was first released. Direct Julius Onah’s adaptation of the play Luce, is a story of race, expectations and identity, wrapped up in a suspenseful, thoughtful film…Read more...

When people my age think of the Black Lives Matter uprising, many picture young people taking to the streets and marching for change.

The ensemble cast for HBO’s special adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me just became even larger!Read more...

Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Tom Wolf included marijuana legalization as part of his legislative agenda for the state’s COVID-19 economy recovery plan.Read more...

There are certain figures that, for one reason or another, get seared in your brain.Read more...

Today’s episode of White people are wildin’ takes us to Florida, where a white woman was arrested after slapping a Black child and calling him a racial slur. Why? Well, because their go-karts bumped into each other.

On Friday, activists from across the country will commemorate the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington with another demonstration in the nation’s capital, this time centering the victims of state-enabled violence.Read more...

On Tuesday, social justice organization Until Freedom led a march for Breonna Taylor around Churchill Downs, the site of the Kentucky Derby. The march attracted hundreds of protesters and resulted in over 60 people being arrested.Read more...

Apparently some Democrats and Republicans have been making fun of Democratic presidential Joe Biden’s respect for the Chevy Tahoe of airborne diseases, COVID-19. There is a movement of folks who believe that with the election less than three months away, Biden should be traveling around the country and social…Read more...

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Idris Elba is hoping to provide seven underprivileged boxers with stability, structure and a chance at victory for his new BBC Two documentary series, Idris Elba’s Fight School.Read more...

In what can only be called a monumental moment in sports history, the Milwaukee Bucks—the national basketball team that plays in the same state where Jacob Blake was shot some seven times by a police officer—have boycotted Wednesday’s playoff game against the Orlando Magic.

Since the NBA resumed play in July, we’ve seen protests, demonstrations and players have been extremely vocal about a multitude of issues that impact our communities.Read more...

I’m reminded this afternoon, when rewatching Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s goofy speech at the Republican National Convention, of Pinocchio. And of Icarus. And of Antonio Salieri. And of Tom Ripley. And of the Chrysler 300. And of so many other people and places and things—fictional and as real as tree…Read more...

Here’s the thing about systemic racism: It’s everywhere. It manifests itself in nearly every aspect of the world Black people have to navigate. Systemic racism in policing is the hot topic right now, but the same implicit and explicit bias that causes the extrajudicial executions of Black suspects by law…Read more...

“Practice?! We talking bout Practice!”Read more...

We typically chill with Netflix, but this is no time to chill—this is not a drill! We have more quarantine content coming up!Read more...

Javicia Leslie may be taking over the leading role of CW’s series Batwoman—making her the first Black Batwoman—but the 33-year-old isn’t planning on making the iconic character all about her. She tells The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview that this has “everything to do with my people and little Black girls,” in…Read more...

Day 2 of Satan’s pep rally couldn’t even get started before it was bogged down in controversy.

Something was wrong with Paul George.Read more...

A Black Lady Sketch Show? More like A Black Lady Success Show!Read more...

Angela Davis has been fighting the good fight for more than 50 years, working as a social justice activist and scholar. Now, she is featured on the cover of Vanity Fair’s September 2020 digital issue, and in a conversation with 13th and When They See Us director Ava DuVernay, she speaks on this year’s “racial…Read more...

Kenosha, Wis., police are searching for a gunman they say fatally shot two people and wounded a third during a night of volatile protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Protests and chaos erupted in Kenosha the night Blake was shot Sunday and continued through Tuesday. According to officials, things went…Read more...

2020 has been the most dizzying year in recent memory, upending much and not enough of our sense of our security, place, and hope in the future.

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The Five Heartbeats, the 1991 movie written and directed by—and also starring—Robert Townsend (Keenan Ivory Wayans was a co-writer) is easily one of my favorite movies of all time. For my money, The Five Heartbeats is the greatest fictional Black music group of all time, and that is indisputable. Sure, there are other…Read more...

Shots were fired at a group of organizers marching from Milwaukee to Washington, D.C., on Monday night.Read more...

I’ve argued countless times that the idea that Black people are loyal to the Democratic party is a fallacy. First of all, if it were true that we were stuck on a “Democratic plantation,” (because I guess we’re pretending that phrase isn’t racist AF in and of itself) then Black people would show up in all local and…Read more...

New body-camera footage released last Wednesday revealed Phoenix police insulted Muhammad Muhaymin Jr.’s faith while he pleaded for help before his death.Read more...

Jacob Blake isn’t supposed to be alive.

Last summer, a Black family was held at gunpoint by Phoenix police after their 4-year-old daughter walked out of a Family Dollar store with a doll. Video of the incident went viral, and the family filed a $10 million suit against the city.Read more...

The fight against systemic racism in policing was never about any one case. Stories like that of Elijah McClain, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor are but raindrops in a sea of incidents involving Black people and the aggressive tactics used against us by law enforcement.Read more...

A global pandemic. Police violence. Protests. An economic crisis. Our democracy at risk—and with it, many of the freedoms we enjoy, tenuous though they may already be. We are facing intersecting challenges at this moment in America, and it’s often difficult to know where to focus our attention and energy, let alone…Read more...

Diversity and inclusion is all of the talk in corporate America, but how does one truly establish an inclusive and intersectional space?Read more...

As an Aaliyah fan, I’m at the point where I’m so frustrated by the runaround in regards to the availability of her music catalog that I want to write a “4 Page Letter” to whoever is in charge. It will not be enclosed with a kiss, by the way, just filled with complaints and frustrations.Read more...