The Root

The way elections normally work is that both candidates running for office usually wait until there is no clear path to victory for their opponent before they declare themselves the winner.

I know, I know...between the terror of living in the epicenter of a global pandemic and the justifiable fear of voter suppression—or worse, no immediate escape from the horror film that has been a Trump presidency—Halloween hit different this year. I mean, who needs it when we’re living in an actual nightmare?

Joy Altimare is a master marketer and self-described “mommy on a mission.” In her latest position at EHE Health, the company’s Chief Engagement and Brand Officer feels an incredible sense of purpose.Read more...

Shall we begin?Read more...

This blog may be the umpteenth article you will read today about the upcoming presidential election, but I do think this one will at least ease some of the stress because you may get a chuckle out of it.Read more...

Over the last two decades, gaming has slowly but steadily become one of the most consumed forms of entertainment. The New Georgia Project has teamed up with folks like Curren$y, Karen Civil and Tina Knowles Lawson in an effort to utilize that popularity as a force for change.Read more...

In today’s episode of You Know...I’m Starting to Think Republicans Really Don’t Want Democrats Voting, on Sunday, the Texas Supreme Court rejected a request from a group of Republican activists and candidates to throw out well over 100,000 ballots cast from drive-thru polling sites in largely Democratic Harris County.Read more...

Looks like the president is building that wall after all.

We are on the eve of the presidential Election Day, y’all—and Tamika Mallory wants us to participate.Read more...

America is not a “civilized country.”Read more...

Sony 55" 4K UHD Smart TV | $600 | Best Buy

At least one part of this week’s election whirlwind will feel like déjà vu: Comedian Dave Chappelle is returning to the SNL stage again this weekend, taking the helm of the show post-Election Day just as he did in 2016.Read more...

When Carol Bradley-Cousins got her voting rights restored in 2015, she had already paid nearly $15,000 in fines to the Commonwealth of Virginia and was denied twice before succeeding on her third try. Since then, she has voted in every election, with 2016 being the first in which she cast a ballot.

Hey, American Music Awards (AMAs) fans, you are in for a treat—a cookie, specifically!Read more...

Fenty Mattemoiselle Plush Matte Lipstick | $13 | Sephora

I am admittedly a Beyoncé stan, and so hold the artist in very high esteem and consider her talents in singing, dancing, internet-breaking, and general Lemonade-ing to be unmatched.

When Trump said Make America Great Again, many of us wondered about the specifics of the great past he was seeking to bring the country back to. Was it when the law designated people with melanin as second-class citizens? Was it when the state would brutally subdue those people at will, by cracking skulls and…Read more...

After a year that’s seen white men increasingly using their vehicles to run into people whose politics they don’t agree with, I guess it shouldn’t surprise us that similar vehicular-violence is revving up in the little time left before Election Day.

Though this year’s Halloween celebrations will be unconventional—at least for those decent souls still observing social distancing guidelines—that hasn’t stopped diehard fans of the season from pulling out all the stops when it comes to their costumes.

“I think I’m relevant past Halloween,” laughs Rachel True, who first broke into our pop-cultural consciousness as “Rochelle” in the 1996 teen witch thriller The Craft. With a now decades-long career in Hollywood, that is, of course, true (pun intended); but as The Craft has now been a cult classic long enough to…Read more...

Though this year (this horrid, horrid year) has been punctuated with ever-multiplying police killings of Black people, you may be one of the depressing faction of Americans who are steadfastly-dedicated to denying that systemic racism is a problem with law enforcement in this country—or in this country at all.

In case we needed any more evidence that the Trump administration is working overtime to protect police officers in this country from facing any repercussions for killing Black people, news has now come to light that the Justice Department has deliberately blocked a federal inquiry into the killing of Tamir Rice.

If the events of the current year haven’t driven the point home, cops are fucking trash. They’re also fucking liars. The latest instance of cops being trash-ass liars occurred in Philadelphia, where cops yanked a Black woman out of her car, attacked her, and then used her son in what was basically a propaganda photo.Read more...

Wooooo! Ya boy is going full Ric Flair because it’s mother, fucking, Halloween bay-beeeeeeee!Read more...

No matter how next Tuesday turns out, the days and weeks following Election Day are going to be wild. Citing fears of civil unrest, Walmart made the decision to remove guns and ammo from the sales floor of all its stores, only to strangely quickly reverse it.Read more...

Now more than ever, some dudes need to be reminded that shutting the hell up is not only free but a wonderful exercise—particularly if you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.Read more...

The wait is over.Read more...

There’s B’Day, and then, there’s Bey Week—which is a bit like Shark Week, but with much more buzz. Beyoncé kicked off the week building the buzz about her latest (and already sold out) Ivy Park drop with Adidas—her second since the label’s relaunch—and is ending it with the debut of three covers of British Vogue’s…Read more...

The last four years have given us disaster after disaster: unprecedented natural calamity, worsening racial tensions, the rise of right-wing militias and terrorism, a global pandemic—just to name a few. Through all this, CNN viewers have also witnessed the radicalization of anchor Don Lemon, who under the Trump…Read more...

Shut up and dribble.Read more...

When attempting to explain, during a university-sponsored book talk a few weeks ago, the difference between truth and honesty to the students, I posed a scenario where Jeff Bezos decided to buy a house on my block and live there. With him as my new neighbor, if you took the newly combined net worth of each of the…Read more...

When The Root first spoke to George M. Johnson (one of our longtime contributors) just ahead of the release of their debut book, All Boy Aren’t Blue: A Memoir Manifesto, we had a feeling they were on the cusp of something groundbreaking. Borne from their own reflections on growing up without the language and…Read more...

In 2019, many of us learned the story of Kevin Richardson, who was one of five teenagers wrongly convicted for the 1989 rape of a white woman jogging in New York City’s Central Park.Read more...

There are unwritten rules in just about everything in life.

Laverne Cox is already well-known to body an over-the-top look—it doesn’t hurt that the statuesque actress has the stage presence to match. Accordingly, it’s no surprise that the Emmy-nominated breakout star of Orange Is the New Black donned a series of dramatic looks for Paper magazine’s “America” issue, released in…Read more...

Apparently Republicans have never been invited to a fashion shoot or don’t understand how fashion shoots work or tried to create a mess where there was none as a bunch of assholes (just another word for Republicans) got their amish crafted panties all in a fucking bunch because Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)…Read more...

Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, the Louisville Metro police officer who earlier this month claimed that the cops’ biggest mistake the night they barged into Breonna Taylor’s home was not going in sooner, is suing Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker for “severe trauma, mental anguish, and emotional distress” he experienced as a…Read more...

It’s the time of year where I try to decipher whether I’d prefer to channel my inner pumpkin or Catwoman. It’s always one of the two. I’ve never tried to dress up as anything else for Halloween. Though I’m in complete awe of people who get really creative and can make costumes, I’ve never been that crafty. And I’m way…Read more...

iTeknic Water Flosser Kit | $24 | Amazon | Promo code KINJAPIK + clipped couponRead more...

Today’s mailbag is just one long story that’s actually three long stories that began a few months ago. when I wrote an article about Pete Buttigieg:Read more...

You know, I thought Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice would remain the most offensive thing DC Comics would ever do, but alas, I was wrong. Two former Black comics editors have revealed they experienced multiple instances of racial discrimination during their time at the legendary comics publisher.Read more...

Andre Abram, the Arizona man who was told he was in a “no nigger zone,” says he has forgiven the man who insulted him.Read more...

So apparently, extremist groups in Michigan are a real problem.Read more...

It’s already a well-documented fact that the outbreak of the novel coronavirus has disproportionately affected Black communities in almost every way imaginable—including Black-owned businesses, 41 percent of which have closed permanently since the initial lockdown in April, compared to only 17 percent of white…Read more...

In July, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade joined forces to launch the Social Change Fund. Its purpose? To address social and economic justice issues facing the Black community and to tear down the discriminatory barriers that far too often impede our success.Read more...

In case you haven’t noticed, the Dallas Cowboys (2-5) are pretty fucking bad this season. And while the offense has had more than its fair share of troubles, it’s the defense that should be charged with treason.Read more...

Fuck Georgia Sen. David Perdue and his family’s chickens.

Last week, The Root reported that 19-year old Marcellis Stinnette was fatally shot by a police officer in Waukegan, Ill.—a suburb of Chicago—while sitting in the passenger seat of a car his girlfriend, Tafara Williams, was driving on Oct. 20.Read more...

Breonna Taylor’s mother has expressed her disapproval of how the Kentucky attorney general handled her daughter’s case and has formally requested for the case to be presented to a new grand jury by an independent prosecutor.Read more...

We know, we know—Halloween hasn’t even arrived yet, but we all know it’s a swift slide from there into Christmas, Kwanzaa and the new year, even in an already decade-long year like 2020. With COVID-19 spikes occurring around the country as we speak, we already know our holidays are going to look dramatically—and for…Read more...