The Root

You cannot read Ethan Strauss’s piece on the NBA’s rating problems without a subscription to The Athletic. Fortunately, you do not need to read it to have read it, because his 25-character tweet accurately synopsizes the 2,000 words behind the paywall.

Season Four of Insecure was not the best for Molly Carter. Fans of the show took to the Twitter streets to discuss how poorly Issa Dee (Issa Rae) was treated by her lawyer best friend, and Yvonne Orji—the now-Emmy-nominated actress who portrays the fictional character—often found herself having to explain that the…Read more...

“Pour it up,” indeed.Read more...

There are two groups of people that I don’t trust under any circumstances: cashiers when they say I can’t have extra napkins (y’all greedy with the oxtail gravy, too) and police officers when they insist that they’re acting in the best interest of Black and Brown folks.

Can y’all keep a secret?Read more...

Day 1 was the day. The tone was set. The big Joker was played. They could’ve dropped the mic and walked off after one day of a virtual Democratic National Convention and America would’ve been just as hype and ready to take down one of the worst administrations this side of Belarus.

In today’s episode of Now, Sis, a Black Army veteran learned a valuable lesson after she showed up to a Back the Blue rally on Sunday in Wayne County, N.Y., and was met with an unexpected discovery—they racist AF up in there. Just as Black people discovered long ago that not all skin folk are kinfolk, this proud…Read more...

Another woman has come forward with accusations against Cuba Gooding Jr.Read more...

Tyler Perry will receive the prestigious Governors Award at the 2020 Primetime Emmys, which is granted to an individual who has provided outstanding contributions to the television industry.Read more...

Stick to sports.Read more...

The Issa Rae machine won’t stop, y’all!Read more...

Planes, Trains & Automobiles—the 1987 Steve Martin and John Candy-led comedy film from the late John Hughes—is set to get a 21st-century reboot, with Will Smith and Kevin Hart reportedly locked to star and produce. The original film is centered around two men attempting to use various modes of transportation in order…Read more...

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Multiple homeowners in Cleveland, Ohio, have reported their Black Lives matter signs were set on fire.Read more...

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but...Read more...

Neo (Keanu Reeves) may be “The One” of The Matrix franchise, but we can’t ignore the impact of the one and only Morpheus, portrayed by Laurence Fishburne. Whether it was his wise words or his royal style (shout-out to those sunglasses without temples), Morpheus was the man.Read more...

On Monday evening, a Texas federal judge ruled in favor of a Black teenager who was told he had to cut his hair or he couldn’t attend school.Read more...

If there is one thing white people refuse to do, it’s let Black people live in peace.Read more...

You can take the woman out of Hollywood, but you can’t take the Hollywood out of the woman—or, at least that seems to be the case with Los Angeles-born actress-turned-duchess-turned-prodigal daughter Meghan Markle, who returned to her home state with her royal husband and son earlier this year. Newly settled into what …Read more...

My grandmother once said: “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything.”Read more...

In 2005, I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder while staying at UCLA’s medical center in Los Angeles for several weeks over Christmas. Back then, to me, the severity of my diagnosis was already scary, but what was even scarier? Feeling I was alone.Read more...

For Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) our economic plight is a political issue.Read more...

There is little to be found in the way of pick-me-ups during these dark days, but if there’s one beauty staple that reliably turns this writer’s frown upside down, it’s red lipstick. So imagine how wide I’m grinning at the news that my favorite makeup maven, Pat McGrath has teamed up with legendary streetwear brand…Read more...

I’m sure you’ve heard this before—more than likely here at The Root—but the NCAA is big business for everybody but Black players.Read more...

I knew it would happen.Read more...

Dear Evan Hansen, the Tony Award-winning musical centered around a teenager’s life experiences while struggling with anxiety and depression, will be getting the film treatment. Actress and singer Amandla Stenberg will reportedly take part in the musical’s big-screen adaptation.Read more...

Of the several nits I have to pick with Watchmen—a show I am still infatuated with—the most prominent (and also the pettiest) is that the murderous racists didn’t die violent and painful enough deaths.Read more...

Despite the multitude of stories popping up in our newsfeed that show white people facing consequences after their racism was caught on camera, a lot of white people still appear to be comfortable showing off the extent of their bigotry even after they realize they’re being recorded.Read more...

G.I. Ken and Karen, the white St. Louis couple who had trouble sitting in their living room and minding their own business, the same cop-loving couple who felt deputized by their whiteness to pull guns on Black Lives Matters demonstrators—who weren’t even fucking with them—will participate in the virtual Republican…Read more...

I have a thing about being touched.Read more...

Gosh, I really miss Barack Obama every single day. Every time he posts on Instagram, I’m quick to “double-tap” whatever he’s put up, solely based on the fact that it’s Barack Obama who posted it. However, on Monday, I ‘liked’ what he posted because it shows his incredible musical palate.Read more...

Turn the page and get into this news! Netflix has announced it will debut Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices, a new young children and family series hosted by author and activist Marley Dias!Read more...

As the 26th annual—and first virtual—Essence Festival dawned this year, #BlackFemaleAnonymous, a group of “former and current employees” of the 50-year-old magazine published an indicting missive titled “The Truth About Essence.” The open letter (subsequently legally referred to as “the Article”) alleged a toxic…Read more...

Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award-winning actor and singer Billy Porter closed out Night One of the Democratic National Convention with his rendition of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” likely better known as “Stop, Hey, What’s That Sound?”Read more...

We all saw this coming.

It only took a global pandemic, a four-month hiatus and a tab of approximately $150 million, but all is right in the world because the NBA Playoffs have officially begun. To the delight of sports fans far and wide, August Madness kicked off on Monday, and here are some takeaways from Day 1.Read more...

White conservatives have to be some of the most manipulative, delusional and disingenuous people on Earth. They’ve made being deliberately obtuse an art form, and you could almost admire them for it if their willful ignorance superpowers weren’t used almost exclusively to perpetuate white supremacy while denying that…Read more...

It’s week three of The Root Institute, meaning it’s time to talk about the health of our minds and our finances featuring actress Taraji P. Henson and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).Read more...

Quinn Coleman, the Senior Director of A&R at Capitol Records and son of former BET Chairman and CEO Debra Lee, has died at the age of 31, Billboard reports. Coleman’s cause of death hasn’t been confirmed at this time.Read more...

I am a 23-year-old Black man from Cobb County, Georgia, and it cost me $64 to vote in the Georgia primary elections.

Police unions are the fucking worst. Any request for cops to do their job even slightly more responsibly is met with what can only be described as pouting and temper tantrums. Take, for instance, the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police, who are big mad over perfectly reasonable legislation to ban the use of no-knock…Read more...

In Missouri, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department is searching for a man who called a Black woman the n-word multiple times before pistol-whipping and shooting her.

The Amos ‘n’ Andy versions of The Simpsons characters Patty and Selma—you might know them as Sunken Place landlords Diamond and Silk—are apparently finally convinced that racism is real.Read more...

COVID-19 has taken an unrelenting toll on this country in the five months since the pandemic began. As deaths hit 1,000 per day over the last month, new data suggests that COVID-19 has become the third leading cause of death for Black people.

After watching a recent viral video showing a white woman biker getting her pants ripped by a buffalo at South Dakota’s Custer State Park, The Root decided that we must take action.Read more...

Let’s face it: Sometimes toilet paper just isn’t enough for that squeaky-clean feeling. After you’ve taken care of business, the goal is that fresh, just out of the shower feeling. Those rolls of Charmin aren’t working quite hard enough, no matter what the packaging says. That’s where bidets come in. They may not be…Read more...

In Jackson, Miss., three police officers accused of causing the death of a 61-year-old Black man on January 13, 2019, are now charged with second-degree murder.Read more...

It’s been a chaotic year, and now more than ever, we need someone to come and make us feel a bit better. Thankfully, comedian Katt Williams stepped up to the plate and provided his signature bluntness in a new, six-minute Supreme stand-up style advertisement, where he berates Donald Trump, discusses the importance of…Read more...

I did something recently that I haven’t done in probably 10 years—I made two compact disc (CD) purchases. That’s right, in the year of our lord 2020, I purchased Adriana Evans 1997 self-titled debut album and De La Soul’s Five-Mic classic, 1991’s De La Soul Is Dead. I spent $21 and $25, respectively, of my hard-earned…Read more...

Monday marks the start of America’s push towards a new day and much like the rest of 2020, that new day is going to look mad different.