The Root

If you are unfamiliar with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, she’s the no-nonsense politician who told her constituents during a pandemic that their jumpshot was always going to be weak and, therefore, they should stay their asses in the house and off the basketball courts.

The death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers has transformed the city into one of the epicenters of the current movement surrounding racial justice and police reform. In a notable step forward, the Minneapolis City Council has voted to shift millions of dollars away from the police…Read more...

Taraji P. Henson’s middle name may be Penda, but for the purposes of this news story, the ‘P’ stands for “Principal Photography!”Read more...

Over the last forty years, state and local police budgets have increased at astounding rates, with billions of dollars going toward military-grade equipment for law enforcement. The premise is simple: a better-equipped police force ought to be able to do their job—protecting the public—better, as well as offer more…Read more...

I’m unofficially on Dionne Warwick’s shit list. She hasn’t called me out personally—yet—but she might as well have following a Monday afternoon video she uploaded to her Twitter account.Read more...

Deadline announced today that Moonlight and All Day and a Night star Ashton Sanders has secured both TV and film rights to Peter Nelson’s nonfiction novel, A More Unbending Battle: The Harlem Hellfighter’s Struggle for Freedom in WWI and Equality at Home. If you’re unfamiliar, the official book description reads as…Read more...

As the Trump administration’s Department of Justice prepares to execute Brandon Bernard on Thursday for participating in the 1999 gang killing of a couple when he was 18 years old, calls are intensifying from various corners for the commutation of his death sentence.

Not only did Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr.’s exhibition match provide us with an endless supply of memes, but it proved that even after a 15-year layoff, boxing fans will still clamor to watch Iron Mike throw hands in the ring.Read more...

1868.Read more...

Black farming and civil rights groups are giving President-elect Joe Biden an earful about his decision to bring former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack back to head up the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a job he held for eight years under former President Barack Obama. According to Politico, leaders of farming and civil…Read more...

The key to a perfect steak? A cast-iron skillet. I bought my first years ago, mostly because I heard of the unbelievable flavor it gave steaks, fish, and pretty much anything else you cooked in it.

Rapper and “On Chill ‘’ singer Jeremih is reportedly now recovering after his battle with coronavirus left him in serious condition and on a ventilator in the intensive care unit last month.

President-elect Joe Biden is getting the band back together.

The family of Casey Goodson Jr., a 23-year-old Black man who was shot and killed by a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy in Columbus, Ohio, last week, is now calling for the cop who fatally shot him to be removed from the force.

Cha-ching!

Yet another person in the entertainment industry has decided to hop on Twitter and showcase their ignorance about vaccinations—IN A PANNY.Read more...

This year may have not been one of our most winning, but there are still achievements to celebrate; particularly the handful of designers who harnessed the energy and activism of the moment to compel substantive structural changes in the fashion industry and beyond.Read more...

Black Lives Matter has become such a mainstream rallying cry and concept that it’s easy to forget it’s also an organization—and one that has grown from a grassroots movement to a global network aimed at the betterment of the Black collective. Since the BLM explosion over the summer, the organization has been making…Read more...

Breakups can be difficult, especially when one side didn’t see it coming.

Actress, author and Grammy-nominated comedian Tiffany Haddish may do a lot of things on the regular, but one thing she won’t be doing is hosting the 2021 Grammys Pre-Telecast Premiere Ceremony—and now we know why.

iRobot Roomba i3+ Robot Vacuum | $499 | AmazonRead more...

While Congress continues to dither over distributing another stimulus check to members of the American public during a pandemic that has stuttered the economy and left many unemployed and unable to meet the cost of their basic needs, it’s become increasingly clear that the Paycheck Protection Program—ostensibly meant…Read more...

In case you missed the memo, Ben & Jerry’s has been about that action.Read more...

Marguerite Ray, most known for being the first Black actress to portray the character of Mamie Johnson on the popular soap opera The Young and the Restless, has died at the age of 89.Read more...

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Just days before the unexpected death of actress Natalie Desselle Reid, Halle Berry shared a video of her and her B.A.P.S. co-star strolling shoulder-to-shoulder Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. The pair were filming a bit for the 1997 cult classic, gold teeth gleaming and giggling into the camera.Read more...

The FBI and the Department of Justice will join the Columbus police investigation into the police killing of Casey Goodson Jr., a 23-year-old Black man who was fatally shot last week in Columbus, Ohio by a sheriff’s deputy.

One would think that after several years of the rallying cry’s existence, racist white people would at least be desensitized enough that the mere words, “Black lives matter” wouldn’t send them into a violent rage on anyone who dares display signs showing support for the movement. Unfortunately, this is not the case,…Read more...

Just last week, we revisited the culture-shifting moment in 1999 when LL Cool J subverted retail juggernaut Gap by sporting a FUBU cap while appearing in a commercial for the brand. The moment was a gamechanger, both for the independent Black brand founded by Daymond John and for the culture, at large; a subconscious…Read more...

Hey y’all, it’s your boy. Today, I come with a public service announcement from your friends at The Root. So take a seat, champ. Today we’re going to discuss why you should probably end the hunt to get the new next-gen consoles.Read more...

Cultural critic Jemele Hill thrives at the intersection of race and pop culture, and her new show, Vice TV’s Stick to Sports—co-hosted by fellow ESPN alum Cari Champion—follows a similar modus operandi.Read more...

I’ve been saying for some time now that Trump supporters are the white equivalents of hoteps. If the wealth of idiotic, pseudo-intellectual conspiracies alleging widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential race wasn’t enough, I’ve recently come across a video that shows two Trump-supporting white women being the…Read more...

Black lives absolutely matter...and so do our vast and rich array of stories.Read more...

Despite there being no evidence of widespread voter fraud, Georgia Republicans are vowing to craft legislation that will make voting harder in the state.Read more...

Back in May, shortly after the murder of George Floyd, the juggernauts of the gaming industry issued statements in solidarity with Black Lives Matter while stating the need to do more to support their Black fans, creators and employees.Read more...

Being one of the greatest athletes in the history of professional sports comes with a tremendous degree of privilege. But at the end of the day, Serena Williams is a Black woman first. And as she explained during a recent sit down on The Kelly Clarkson Show, she hasn’t always felt like herself on the tennis court…Read more...

The post-2020 presidential race is really starting to look like a political sequel to Groundhog Day, where you wake up every morning reading what feels like the same headline from the day before (and the day before that, and the day before that). In this case, the recurring headline is: Trump Voter Fraud Nonsense…Read more...

After openly campaigning to be the first Black woman to lead the Department of Agriculture, Ohio congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D) will be tapped to become the next Housing and Urban Development Secretary, according to multiple outlets.

Prior to being portrayed by Kerry Washington in 2016's Confirmation (HBO), few people would’ve associated esteemed attorney and academic Anita Hill with Hollywood. Understandably, the longtime professor of women’s studies and social policy and law in Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management…Read more...

Cyberpunk 2077 (PS4) | $50 | AmazonRead more...

Earlier this year, The Root reported on a new Facebook Watch series focusing on mental health and wellness, Peace of Mind With Taraji. Hosted by Taraji P. Henson and Tracie Jade, Henson’s longtime best friend and executive director of Henson’s Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, the pair will highlight various mental…Read more...

The AeroGarden Harvest and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 lead Wednesday’s best deals.

I think it’s safe to say that it’s been a challenging year.

Pretty much everyone in Black entertainment has stepped into The Shade Room at one point in their careers—and now it looks like a couple of celebs have stepped into the pitch room in front of development executives with the popular blog’s founder.Read more...

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You don’t need me to tell you that cops absolutely showed their asses during the protests that initially arose from the death of George Floyd. Surprisingly, two Virginia cops are actually facing charges as a result of their conduct during one of those protests.

Last week, a white man admitted to fatally shooting a Black woman in an alley in Enid, Okla., and told police he did it to “teach her a lesson.” An investigation into the shooting is still ongoing, but officials are confident that his arrest will bring “closure” to the woman’s family.Read more...

Georgia Republicans can’t help but be Georgia Republicans, and in what is totally not voter suppression, the third largest county in the state announced plans to significantly reduce early voting locations for the upcoming Senate runoff election.Read more...

Five out of nine surviving jurors who condemned Brandon Bernard to death at the age of 18 say they regret their decision. So, too, does the prosecutor who tried him, saying now that she finds it “morally, ethically and legally” wrong to execute him. But last Wednesday, an appeals judge ruled that the execution of…Read more...