The Root

White people (and non-Black people of color for that matter) would do well to just keep Martin Luther King Jr.’s name out of their mouths. This goes especially for conservatives who only seem to know one excerpt of one speech from one civil rights leader and so they invoke their version of MLK every time they feel a…Read more...

The Texas Department of Public Safety responded to police brutality protests and public outcry for police accountability...by spending hundreds of hours investigating, finding and arresting the protesters.Read more...

How is August over? Did August even happen? Let’s focus less energy on things that make our respective brains hurt and get into this week’s roundup of trailers...Read more...

How many of you got beatings when you were younger? How many of you are still trying to heal from them? How many of you are still trying to heal from your childhood period?

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, aka Louis DaFuckboi, claimed that there is nothing to worry about during the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Friday. Sure, mail-sorting machines have been removed, including in places where there were only two machines to begin with, and yes, some…Read more...

It’s time to celebrate the best in Black entertainment, hosted by the African American Film Critics Association!Read more...

Jalen Rose is a man of many talents.

There’s bad luck, “an unfortunate set of circumstances,” being outright cursed and the New York Knicks.Read more...

The Black experience in America is rooted in trauma.Read more...

In what can only be called the longest Zoom conference in the history of small box teleconferences, the first-ever virtual Democratic National Convention has come to a close. All of this was supposed to be an in-person event in Milwaukee, but the president fucked up the handling of the coronavirus and here we are.…Read more...

Blerds! Are y’all ready for DC FanDome?Read more...

For mothers, there is perhaps nothing more important than the health of their children, and when it comes to giving them the most and best nutrients from the very start, research has long proven that breastfeeding does exactly that. While every mother may not be able to breastfeed—and those who are able may find it…Read more...

While the majority of us have enough sense to know that cultures should not be treated as costumes, there are those of us who would much rather dress up as “pow wow princesses” during Halloween or attend Kansas City Chiefs games rocking bootleg war bonnets.Read more...

Despite Anime Avatar Twitter’s claims to the contrary, gaming has one of the most diverse fanbases of any medium. A study by Pew research found that Black teens play more video games than their white peers, at 83 percent and 71 percent respectively. Despite making up a large portion of the player base, more often than…Read more...

Megan Thee Stallion is fed up.Read more...

“Every time we get some, y’all come trying to steal it, putting some blonde hair on it, and calling it something different,” Isis (Gabrielle Union), captain of the fictional East Compton Clovers cheer squad, tells Rancho Carne Toros leader Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) in a confrontational scene during the cult classic…Read more...

In Georgia, an investigation has been launched after a video went viral showing a cop tasing a Black woman on her front porch.Read more...

Officials for Chicago Public Schools have voted to significantly reduce the budget for school resource officers.

A new study has shown that despite the ongoing pandemic, there has not been a significant decrease in fatal police shootings.Read more...

Man, you gotta love Percy Miller.Read more...

If this August has confirmed nothing else, it’s that where women gather, there is power; power often underestimated and underutilized, but capable of transforming the world. We saw it 100 years ago this week with the passage of the 19th Amendment, which enabled (white) women to vote after a decades-long suffrage…Read more...

This headline is clickbait.Read more...

“The city is dead,” I said, aloud, to no one, while each step I took crashed the same cement I’d fallen in love with. The pizza box I lugged with me—filled, just 32 minutes earlier, with a New York City pizza slice—was empty, except for crumbs. Heh. A metaphor, for the dead city.Read more...

President Donald Trump came all the way to New Orleans to get beads but he doesn’t want to show his taxes. Trump will bend over but he refuses to let his knees touch his elbows. Trump will shake it fast, but he will not, under any circumstances, watch himself.

Nichelle Nichols, best known for portraying Uhura in the original Star Trek series in the 1960s, is a global treasure and should be treated as such. And of course, there’s the concept of basic humanity, no matter your stature in life.Read more...

You know what? I think I’ve finally figured it out...Read more...

If real estate is such a lucrative business venture, then can somebody please explain to me how LeBron James has spent so many years living rent-free in Paul Pierce’s head?Read more...

Since the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless others this year, so much has materialized, including a “racial reckoning” of sorts. Large companies and gatekeepers across a myriad of industries have continuously been held accountable for their past and current transgressions in a very loud and public…Read more...

We’re approaching the last few weeks of August, which signals the end of one of the most inconsequential summers in history (that is, if you are properly keeping a safe distance from others).

In October 1999, singer/songwriter/producer Donnell Jones released his second album, platinum-selling Where I Wanna Be. The first single featuring Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes was a hit—his highest-charting hit, in fact—landing inside the top 10 of Billboard’s pop charts. Interestingly, the first record I remember hearing…Read more...

There’s a quote attributed to George Washington Carver that applies to many things: “Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater. Keep your thoughts free from hate, and you need have no fear from those who hate you.”Read more...

It has been 2,309 days—or over six years—since the people of Flint, Michigan have been without a clean and reliable water system. Now, Michigan officials are expected to announce this week that the state will pay around $600 million in damages to the victims of the crisis.Read more...

In front of God and a virtual audience, California Sen. Kamala Harris—the product of immigrant parents, Howard University and AKA—made Fannie Lou Hamer, Shirley Chisholm, and all those who came before her proud as she accepted the historic nomination to become Joe Biden’s running mate and possibly America’s first…Read more...

If a white nationalist robs a racist in the woods, can you hear me not giving a fuck?Read more...

Pharrell Williams curated the latest TIME cover and project, which features a collection of essays and conversations between Black leaders of “The New American Revolution,” such as Angela Davis, Kenya Barris, Yara Shahidi and more. The cover for this issue was done by 23-year-old artist Nneka Jones and features an…Read more...

CBD Gummies for Chillin’ | $15 | Sunday Scaries | Promo Code INVBTL50Read more...

“If you want to feed a person, you pay a man,” says Joy Altimare of EHE Health, one the sponsors of our first-ever Root Institute. “But if you want to feed a village or a community, you make sure a woman is actually enabled to take care of herself and her children.” The direct links between race and gender pay equity…Read more...

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s when I go to write about Donald Trump and the words “serial idiot,” “nincompoop” or “human toilet bowl” magically appear in its place. Autocorrect can be a real Donald Trump bitch sometimes, but the difference is that when this occurs at The Root, I usually get a high five from my…Read more...

Following a frustrating discourse about the pain and emotional trauma she endured, Megan Thee Stallion posted a picture of the gunshot wound she suffered in July while at a party with Tory Lanez, Variety reports.Read more...

The 2020–2021 school year is bound to be very different for teachers and their students due to the effects of COVID-19. Per recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all furniture other than desks and chairs should be removed from classrooms, and desks need to be spaced 6 feet apart if…Read more...

As an ardent supporter of all things Jemele Hill and Michael Smith—His & Hers is the greatest television show in the history of ever and we can fight about it if you feel otherwise—I might’ve cried real tears when the dynamic duo inevitably split after bumping heads with ESPN.Read more...

If you clicked this link, you probably watched “Sundown,” the first episode of Misha Green’s Lovecraft Country on HBO on Sunday (if not, go watch). Now, ahead of next Sunday’s episode, you’re interested in becoming more than a casual viewer as you recognize that the series is an incredibly subversive piece of…Read more...

If you’re reading this, they don’t want to count your vote.Read more...

Arkansas is one of three states that has no laws regarding hate crimes on its books, but a new bill recently introduced by the state’s legislature will hopefully change that.Read more...

A four-day event meant to honor Breonna Taylor and amplify calls for justice is set to take place in late August, in Louisville.Read more...

On Tuesday, a new video was released detailing the 2016 shooting death of an unarmed Black man by an Atlanta Police officer.Read more...

Ever since Mark Meadows left Nickelodeon’s Double Dare his life has been trending downhill.

We are in the midst of a renewed focus upon Black safety and survival—and Black female political power—and yet, as we were reminded by our peers at Essence today, “While Black women have the highest turnout rate at the polls, they also have the [second] highest rates of sexual assault,” eclipsed only by Native…Read more...

Conservatives can be mad at the Black Lives Matter movement—the protests, the civil unrest, the calls to defund the police—all they want, but nobody can deny that the movement is beginning to yield results. A prime example of those results comes to us from the state of Virginia, where a legislative panel approved on…Read more...