The Root

True Confession Time: I am deeply missing my partner this holiday season. Having committed to a long-distance relationship well before the pandemic hit, the events of 2020—which have necessitated us spending far more time apart than together—presented a whole new set of challenges. So, suffice to say that those of you…Read more...

Newly elected Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced plans to enact sweeping reforms— including ending cash bail and the death penalty—while being sworn in on Tuesday.Read more...

If America were truly colorblind, could it see whiteness?

Emmy-award winning actress and director Jackée Harry has been tapped to star in a new role in the long-running NBC soap Days of Our Lives. During an appearance on the Today Show, Harry expressed her excitement on joining the show:

A report in September revealed that nearly 200,000 people have been purged from the voter rolls in Georgia, and investigative journalist Greg Palast, Black Voters Matter and other activist organizations are trying to make sure those folks have a right to cast their ballots in the Jan. 5 runoff, which will determine…Read more...

On December 7, 2019, in San Francisco’s Mission District, a 24-year-old Black man was shot multiple times by two officers with the San Francisco Police Department. Jamaica Hampton—a burglary suspect whose leg was later amputated due to his injuries—allegedly attacked one of the officers with a liquor bottle before the…Read more...

Somebody break out the booze! It looks like fan-favorite Freeform series Grown-ish will soon be back on our screens following that crazy cliffhanger mid-season finale back in March. (Can you believe Zoey’s dropping out? Whew, chile. Kids these days, amirite?)Read more...

The workplace is delicate.Read more...

The “Princess of the Posse,” aka Dana Owens, aka Queen Latifah has been tapped to both star and executive produce in a new thriller for Netflix, End of the Road. According to Deadline, Millicent Shelton is also set to direct, making this her feature film debut. Shelton’s previous directing credits include music videos…Read more...

The critically acclaimed drama series David Makes Man, from Academy-Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney, has revealed its recurring cast and directors for season two.

If the rumors are true, then President-elect Joe Biden will nominate retired four-star Army general Lloyd J. Austin as the secretary of defense. If confirmed, Austin would be the first Black defense secretary of the United States.

Admittedly I don’t watch a lot of white television except for Succession, so I wasn’t aware that Fox News was running a telenovela so compelling that two grown white men were on TV bawling their eyes out—and all this time I thought liberals were the snowflakes.

Apparently, law enforcement officers in Mobile, Ala., don’t know how to read a room. Or at least that seems to be the case for deputies with the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, whose idea of lighthearted holiday humor was to post online a photo of a Christmas tree decorated with mugshots as ornaments and prison…Read more...

If you’ve been impressed with the amount of Black talent making it onto MSNBC’s roster as of late, prepare to be amazed. On Monday, NBC Universal announced that the news channel’s current president, Phil Griffin, will be leaving on February 1, 2021, after a 25-year tenure with the company and 12 as its president.…Read more...

Look, I get it.

My cousin Mike and I have this ongoing argument that goes like this: My cousin is convinced that Trump might be the best politician to ever grace the White House. His argument is predicated on the belief that Trump has elevated politicking. He doesn’t believe that Trump is racist, but he admires how Trump uses racism…Read more...

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Y’all. Listen. The 2024 Summer Olympics are about to be the greatest sporting event in history by virtue of the fact that breaking—competitive breakdancing—is officially an olympic sport.

One of the positives, for lack of a better word, of the renewed focus on systemic racism in America is seeing Black people across the country speaking out about the years of racist treatment they’ve tolerated in their respective fields. A group of Black firefighters in Kansas City, Mo., have spoken out about the years…Read more...

So...Read more...

Since tearing his ACL in October, superstar NFL receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has a lot of damn time on his hands—much more than he already did considering we’re in the middle of a whole-ass global pandemic.

If you’re reading this, at some point you were born—and whether naturally, with an epidural or via cesarean section, it was indisputably a major physical event for the woman who carried you, no matter how much she may have wanted to welcome you into the world. In fact, it may have been so traumatic she simply chose to…Read more...

A Black gym owner in California found a hanging noose and a racial slur carved into the door of his establishment over the weekend.Read more...

Attorneys for Aurora, Colo., police officers and medics involved in the death of Elijah McClain filed several motions with the U.S. District Court of Colorado last week to dismiss a lawsuit brought by McClain’s family in August. The lawsuit alleges that discriminatory practices are what caused officers to put a Black…Read more...

Public health experts and environmental justice advocates have been calling for years for the Environmental Protection Agency to tighten its standards on soot, a deadly air pollutant that has been associated with higher COVID-19 death rates.

As we get closer to the rollout of a number of vaccines developed to protect against COVID-19, the next political and cultural battle around how to best respond to the disease is also shaping up.

In the last week, more data has come out showing the extent that the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated an already-unequal education system.Read more...

Issa Rae is continuing her “No Sleep” tour and has another project in the works!Read more...

Hmmm. Where shall we begin?Read more...

Sunday night, MTV hosted its annual Movie and TV Awards show, only this time with a twist. Instead of the usual format, the network decided to switch things up with the Greatest of All Time honors, highlighting the best of the best, or rather the ‘GOATS’ of the following categories: Scream Queen, Legendary Lip Lock,…Read more...

Natalie Desselle-Reid, most known for co-starring in the beloved Robert Townsend-helmed comedy B*A*P*S (which stood for Black American Princess), has died at the age of 53.Read more...

A Confederate statue on the campus of one of Virginia’s oldest institutions is finally being removed after Black students spoke out about a campus culture that literally and figuratively worshipped the graven image of white supremacy.Read more...

The baseless election conspiracy rhetoric that the outgoing president has been irresponsibly pushing drove a crowd of disgruntled and radicalized white people to gather with guns outside the home of Michigan’s chief election official over the weekend.Read more...

This debate was doomed before it started.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Trump supporters are racist.Read more...

I watched HBO’s The Undoing, and I have questions.

On Friday, to the surprise of many, singer Teyana Taylor announced her retirement from the music industry. Citing her desire to no longer be at the beck and call of a record label that has continuously undervalued her otherworldly talents, The Album songstress has opted to abandon music and instead prioritize her…Read more...

Fans of the 2019 DC comic Naomi will soon get the chance to see their favorite character come alive in a brand new way onscreen. Deadline announced that The CW will develop an adaptation of the series with Queen Sugar and Selma’s Ava DuVernay and former Arrow writer Jill Blankenship with both set to write and…Read more...

I know we’re all bored in the house and in the house bored, but perhaps more people—celebrities especially—should take up reading as a hobby. I hear there’s this awesome book called “The Room”—maybe celebs and other rich and powerful folks should start reading that!Read more...

A Magic Chef Air Fryer and a Buy 2 Get 1 Free next-gen games sale lead Monday’s best deals.

For months, the president and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, have not only openly ignored public health and safety guidelines regarding the coronavirus, but they have both downplayed anything related to the highly contagious virus. Since early February, Rudy Giuliani has refused to wear a mask and has literally…Read more...

Is there a power on Earth greater than Zendaya? The obvious answer is, of course, yes. But if you watched her return to HBO’s Euphoria for the first of its two-part holiday special this weekend (shout out to Colman Domingo’s brilliant performance opposite her), you likely got the reference above. While this year…Read more...

As the death toll of COVID-19 continues to accumulate, some families are bearing an especially horrific share of the pain.

President Trump is still attempting to claim victory in an election that he has indisputably lost, this time by focusing on invalidating President-elect Joe Biden’s win in Georgia.

Police shot and killed a 23-year-old man in Columbus, Ohio over the weekend, claiming they shot him after he drove by them in a car while waving a weapon.

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After initially saying that Black Americans are dying at about two times the rate of their white counterparts from COVID-19, the CDC has updated its publicly reported figures to show that the racial disparity in deaths from the disease is even wider.

When Donald Trump took office as President, his administration began implementing policies driven by bigotry and a seeming desire to target all initiatives put in place by the Obama White House. That was the background of the government’s move to suspend Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the program put…Read more...

An LG 65-inch NanoCell 4K smart TV and discounts on Korean beauty brand Madeca Derma products lead Saturday’s best deals.

Verzuz, the online musical battle series that has offered up plenty of viral moments during 2020, is back with another highly anticipated match-up. Ashanti and Keyshia Cole, two R&B singers with numerous hits under their belt, will be the next pair of challengers.