The Root

As the historic campaign to distribute COVID-19 vaccines across the country kicked off this week, many lawmakers, public health experts, and newsrooms across the country have paid special attention to Black Americans’ distrust in a coronavirus vaccine.Read more...

2020 is almost over. Soon, we’ll be embarking on a new year. Now that’s change we can believe in.Read more...

Of all the adjectives we’d use to describe 2020, “good” wouldn’t exactly top the list. But as this most eventful year comes to a close, hosting literary icon and activist Nikki Giovanni on our new podcast, The Root Presents: It’s Lit! will undoubtedly be one of its high points. Ironically, to hear the legendary poet…Read more...

You may have been pleasantly surprised to see Gabrielle Union urging you to make it a #BuyBlack Friday on Facebook Live this year, but like her now-decades-long career in the industry (“I’m almost 50 and [they] treat me like an ingenue,” she jokes), don’t call it a comeback—or a trend. She’s been about that #BuyBlack…Read more...

One would think that seven years of development time would result in one of the most polished games ever, but, uh, nah. The game is so broken on console that Sony has taken the unprecedented step of completely removing it from the PlayStation Store.Read more...

Since March, the coronavirus has unleashed all types of unbridled hell on both professional and collegiate sports. But of all the postponements, outbreaks, and whatever other madness that coaches have faced during this unprecedented time, Houston Cougars basketball coach Kelvin Sampson has been got slapped with a…Read more...

Has anything in the world of politics been more stressful than the 2020 election season? If the reality TV drama that was the presidential race wasn’t enough, the Georgia Senate runoff elections are shaping up to be a battle between folks who just want to cast their ballots and folks who seem hellbent on making voting…Read more...

Once upon a time, when NBA players were still allowed to play defense and the New York Knicks were still a professional basketball team, the Minnesota Timberwolves did a very stupid thing.

Someone get the Psychic Friends Network on the phone and ask them if they saw this coming! Specifically, asking them if they saw it going down this way!Read more...

My homeboy Lavelle and I had this thing we did when a kid wanted to fight me and I didn’t want to fight. I would act like I was taking off my shirt and Lavelle knew that was his cue to jump in and act like he was breaking it up. I was rail-thin growing up. I reached my full man height (6 foot, 2 inches) as a teen but…Read more...

Growing up, I knew the minute the Christmas tree was dragged into the house that Christmas songs would soon follow. And Christmas originals sung by Black artists are more than just fun yuletide ditties. They are immersive musical experiences that make it close to impossible to not get up and dance.

True confession time: I am a veteran “Maxxinista.” If you don’t know what that is, you obviously never had the unique privilege of growing up near a T.J. Maxx—it was even my first part-time job! A decade later, I spent years modeling for the brand, so suffice to say, the Maxx and I—and its equally well-priced sister…Read more...

As the nation waits for congressional lawmakers to reach a resolution on a second stimulus bill—nine months after the coronavirus pandemic began disrupting the lives of Americans around the country—a group of Black female House Democrats is challenging President-elect Joe Biden to offer more substantial relief to…Read more...

In the beginning, God took six days to create the Earth, all of the animals and humans. Adam and Eve, the original Michelle and Barack, were living the life, running around butt-naked until Lucifer, an incredibly talented choir director, ruined everything by convincing Eve to serve Adam a tainted fruit salad. That’s…Read more...

A Black man in Louisiana who was serving a life sentence over two bags of weed worth only $20 has finally been freed from prison after 12 years.

Shaft and The Banker star Samuel L. Jackson is set to star in a new limited series for Apple+ TV, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey. The six-episode limited series is based on the critically acclaimed novel of the same name by Walter Mosley, with Mosley tapped to write the screen adaptation as well executive produce…Read more...

If there’s one gift the work-from-home set would likely love to receive this season, it’s boundaries. While there are definite benefits to eschewing the commute and daily lunch budget for comfortable pants (or none at all) and working from bed (if you insist), there are also significant downsides as the lines between…Read more...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law on Tuesday that would ban hate symbols from being sold on state property.Read more...

Listen: Stories about Black men spending years and even decades behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit are never stories you want to hear. But there are certain stories where the degree of racism, injustice and cruel behavior on the part of law enforcement and the criminal justice system is so inconceivably…Read more...

An independent autopsy has revealed that a Black man who was killed by a Texas police officer was shot in the back.Read more...

“Say what, now?” has been the typical (if not most explicit) response to an announcement made this week that Jenna Bush Hager, former first daughter-turned-Today with Hoda and Jenna co-host, would be hosting “A Celebration of Toni Morrison” on the morning show December 21, 2020.Read more...

On the same day that the NBA Foundation named Greg Taylor its first-ever executive director, it also made another major announcement as part of its mission to advance economic empowerment within the Black community.Read more...

It sounds like something from a nightmare, but it’s what 35-year-old Lionel Womack is alleging he experienced in real life—a cop in Kansas deliberately driving a patrol truck over his body while chasing him through an open field.

If there was ever a collection that made me want to hop in my whip and head to the nearest club or poppin’ post-pandemic function simply to stunt in my ‘fit, it’s this latest one from Lil’ Kim and PrettyLittleThing.

Man...I really hate wypipo apologies.Read more...

Walter Forbes, a 63-year-old Black man in Michigan, is now free to spend the holidays with his family for the first time in over 37 years.

For hoop heads, March 11 is a day that will live on in infamy.Read more...

The National Football League says it doesn’t expect to get—and will not ask for—preferential treatment when it comes to taking the COVID-19 vaccine.

In an attempt to ensure Americans (read anti-vaxers and Black folks) that the coronavirus vaccine is safe, Vice President and sexless robot Mike Pence will publicly get the shot Friday. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to get the vaccine as early as next week.

It’s that time of year again!Read more...

Throughout the course of the past year, we’ve seen the profiles of HBCUs continue to escalate, as everyone from Chris Paul to Pharrell Williams (to even Peyton Manning) has made it their mission to support the next generation of Black royalty. And ever eager to put on for the culture and keep a spotlight on…Read more...

“I was coughing up blood for two days this week,” M said. “I have not seen a doctor. I have been telling sick call but they just walk past me.” M, held at the District of Columbia jail, was describing his life behind bars as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.

Gregory Alan Bush—the white man who walked into a Louisville, Ky., area Kroger supermarket in 2018 and fatally shot two elderly Black people—pleaded guilty to murder on Tuesday and will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. Bush—who is reportedly schizophrenic and was unmedicated at…Read more...

Actor and Let’s Make a Deal Host Wayne Brady is set to star in a new hybrid comedy currently in development for CBS.

A coroner’s court in the United Kingdom has ruled that air pollution was a cause of death in the case of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, an asthmatic 9-year-old girl who lived in southeast London and died in 2013.

Whenever I think of herd immunity, I think of the monkey house at the zoo.

The “Hollywood Reckoning” may have been used as a buzz phrase this year, but it is more than just abstract. It involves the very real lives of Black actors and crew members who have endured (often silently, in order to survive financially) countless microaggressions, full-out racism and other toxic incidents at work.Read more...

Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom starring Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman (in his last role before his death), Taylour Paige, Colman Domingo, Glynn Turman and more comes to Netflix on Friday, Dec. 18 and like many dramatized biopics, the much-anticipated film may incite your eagerness to learn more about the real…Read more...

Dear Prospective SuperNegroes,Read more...

Warning: Light spoilers for Tenet will follow.

The Supreme Court has agreed to take on an antitrust case that could either tighten or substantially loosen the limits of how much student-athletes are allowed to be paid. This will be the first time in over 30 years the court will rule on a case involving the NCAA.Read more...

In 2003, Myron Burrell was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the death of an 11-year-old girl who was killed by a stray bullet. On Tuesday, the Minnesota Board of Pardons commuted his sentence.Read more...

It’s about to be a wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam bomb day for fans of Little Richard and Rick James!

The death penalty—a thing supposedly reserved for perpetrators of the most heinous crimes, typically involving intentional and cold-blooded murder—arguably makes sense in theory; but in practice, its flaws and potential for racial discrimination are undeniable. According to figures compiled by the NAACP, Black people…Read more...

Celebrities have been flinging themselves onto the front lines of Black Twitter with their unfounded COVID-19 theories, and you’d think Tyrese would’ve used the opportunity to not be the target of the platform’s trolling for once. Tyrese could’ve thrown in the tile in this ignorant COVID-19 discourse and slid by…Read more...

Anti-blackness and violent policing may have some of their most visible expressions in the U.S. given the nation’s outsized visibility on the global stage, but by no means are these issues limited to America. The latest evidence of this is the brutal treatment that Insecure actor Kendrick Sampson appears to have…Read more...

On Tuesday night, President Barack Obama returned to The Daily Show (also known as The Daily Social Distancing Show, because, appropriate) to discuss his new memoir, A Promised Land.

America sure seems to spend a lot of time correcting its history of racism and segregation by updating official records to reflect the 21st century. It’s a practice that tends to honor accomplished Black people posthumously with the recognition they should have been able to enjoy while they were alive. Still, it’s a…Read more...

A new bill proposed by a Democratic congressman seeks to create a publicly available federal database that tracks police misconduct allegations and settlements involving police misconduct cases at both the state and federal levels.

Amid increased scrutiny and pressure across media that have led to an unprecedented number of hirings, firings, and leadership roles for Black journalists and execs this year, Vogue and parent company Condé Nast seem to be making good on their promises to diversify their ranks and coverage. Since American Vogue…Read more...