By now, you’ve likely seen them, heard about them, and maybe even participated in the conversation about two of August’s most striking—and controversial—magazine covers: Simone Biles photographed by Annie Leibovitz for the cover of Vogue and Viola Davis atop Vanity Fair, photographed by Dario Calmese—remarkably the…Read more...

A family in Florida is outraged after receiving a racist letter last Thursday that targeted their two teenage daughters.

Jagged Edge, easily one of the greatest R&B groups of all time—baby, baby baby, it’s actual and it’s factual—is releasing a new album, A Jagged Love Story, soon. Each member of the group has posted both the album’s cover art and track-listing on their respective IG feeds, noting that the album has been submitted to…Read more...

A Zimbabwe-born medical student living in London is filling in an important blind spot in the medical community: informing healthcare providers and patients how symptoms for a broad range of conditions appear on darker skin.Read more...

“[M]y skincare journey has been quite complex...some parts of my face are oily, some are dry, fatigue from travel, plus I have super sensitive skin, and chile now being in my 30s?!!”Read more...

The Austin Police Department has released bodycam footage and the 911 call from a fatal encounter between its officers and Michael Ramos, an unarmed 42-year-old man, in April of this year.

Although we’re pretty much free to use whichever language we wish within the body of a piece here, headlines are different. Most profanity is fine, in the proper context. But proper context or not, the granddaddy (“fuck”) needs approval from our editor-in-chief. Sexually explicit terms are a no-go, and slurs are, too.…Read more...

Inviting Dr. Anthony Fauci to throw out the first pitch to start the Major League Baseball season was a totally “fuck you” to the president.

For more than a century, no other institution in St. Louis spoke to the criminalization of the poor and marginalized like the “Workhouse,” a jail notorious for housing people unable to pay their bail in deplorable conditions.Read more...

HBO’s Watchmen, which revives the story of the 1921 Tulsa race riots within its adaptation of the DC comic of the same name, was the most recognized show when nominations for the 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were announced Tuesday. The superhero drama is nominated for a staggering 26 awards, including Best…Read more...

Contrary to popular belief, the national anthem and professional sports haven’t always held hands and sucked face in public.Read more...

A few weeks back, chart-topping emcee Megan Thee Stallion revealed via Instagram that she was shot in the foot on July 12 “as a result of a crime committed against [her] and done with the intention to physically harm [her],” despite early reports that she stepped on glass during a night out in the Hollywood Hills.…Read more...

When Eric Garner died after being put in a chokehold by then-New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo on July 17, 2014, his daughter Erica Garner immediately became an activist of the highest caliber. She organized marches, wrote articles, and stood up to demand a conversation with President Obama at the presidential…Read more...

Donald Trump Jr. is an idiot.

Oprah is returning to a role we are very familiar seeing her in, with a new talk show series premiering this Thursday, July 30 on Apple TV+ called The Oprah Conversation.

“I gave up my entire life for this family. I was willing to do whatever it takes. But here we are. It’s very sad.”

As of today, Drake has surpassed Madonna for the record for the most Billboard Top 10 singles in the chart’s 62-year history. This means he has just as many Billboard Top 10 singles as he has bad tattoos.Read more...

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but America has a bit of a coronavirus problem. And if you thought that Major League Baseball or the NFL would provide us with a much-needed escape from the perils of this pandemic, I regret to inform you that COVID-19 isn’t letting sports be great, either.Read more...

We may still be speculating about who presidential candidate Joe Biden will ultimately pick for his running mate, but Mattel’s latest release already has our vote. On Tuesday, the beloved toy brand announced its Campaign Team Set, created “to expose girls to public leadership roles and pique their interest in shaping…Read more...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has acceded to the presence of federal police in her city—the same federal officers who have been tear-gassing and beating men, mothers, and Navy veterans in Portland, Ore.—as part of President Trump’s ridiculously and ominously termed “Operation Legend.”

On her Emmy-winning daytime talk show, Ellen DeGeneres often (if not always) ends an episode with the sign-off “be kind to one another.” However, it’s been a not-so-secret secret that the set of her long-running show is a toxic, unfriendly environment to work in.Read more...

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There’s something about Facebook that just makes white people go, “I’m gonna end my whole career today.” In one of the most inventive instances of playing oneself, a Florida man was arrested after posting, among other things, a racist Cards Against Humanity play.Read more...

In an emotional Instagram Live on Monday, Megan Thee Stallion spoke at length about the July 12th shooting that landed her in the hospital, calling the incident “the worst experience of my life.”

When it comes to saving America, there is only one group that is even remotely qualified to field the call: Black women. Not only are they the backbone of the Democratic party, but they are a voting bloc that cannot be easily swayed or influenced by bullshit.

Last week, two things happened. On Thursday, Xbox gave its full-throated pitch for the Xbox Series X. On Saturday, I turned 28. As I move ever closer towards my impending doom and recent events make me grapple with my own mortality on a daily basis, I keep coming back to this one thought:Read more...

A lot of white people are still very much under the impression that the United States of America is their country and theirs alone. They respond to anyone who doesn’t fall in line with their ideals and traditions to “get out of my country” or “go back where you came from” as if they were kicking houseguests out of…Read more...

President Donald “I’ve Always Been Good to You People” Trump is the Miss Millie of male Karens and the Milli Vanilli of white saviors. Sure, he can make the bold claim that he’s done more for Black Americans than any president since Abraham Lincoln (while citing bare-minimum policies that have mostly proven ineffectiveRead more...

In the fight for racial justice and true liberation, if one of us is not free, none of us are. From fighting for justice in the LGBTQ+ community to fighting for women’s rights, it is important to fight for everyone if we are going to build a truly just and equitable America. One group that is often forgotten though,…Read more...

In the weeks following the first Black Lives Matter uprisings, criminal justice reform advocates scored several major legislative wins. In New York state, one of these was the repeal of Civil Rights Law 50-A, which shielded the misconduct records of law enforcement from the public.Read more...

At this point, it’s common knowledge that protests against police brutality and systemic racism are ongoing across the country, with no sign that they’ll be slowing down anytime soon. Over the past weekend across multiple states, peaceful protests turned violent, with one resulting in a person’s death.

“So,” the moderator asked, during a public (and socially distant) book talk last week—my first time being indoors anywhere other than my house or a grocery store since early March—“what would you change if you wrote that chapter to your daughter today?”

Lou Williams of the Los Angeles Clippers apparently loves the food at the Magic City strip club in Atlanta so much that he’s willing to endure 10 days under quarantine for it.

On July 25, 2005, William Ray Norwood, Jr. better known to the world as Ray J, released his classic single, “One Wish.” Whether you agree or not with this next statement doesn’t matter, for its truth is indisputable: “One Wish” is one of the greatest songs of all time of ever.Read more...

WNBA athletes continue to make it clear that they are all about justice for Breonna Taylor. Over the weekend, members of the Seattle Storm and New York Liberty teams walked off the court as the national anthem was being played ahead of their game in Florida.

It’s no secret by now that the coronavirus has had its most outsized impact on marginalized communities: Throughout the country, African American, Latinx and Native communities have suffered disproportionately from the coronavirus, as structural inequities have magnified the virus’ deadly impact.Read more...

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Legendary rapper, beatboxer and DJ Biz Markie has reportedly been in the hospital for weeks being treated for an illness triggered by complications of Type 2 diabetes. Per TMZ, a rep for the musician says that he is in a Maryland-area hospital, and the status of his condition is unclear.Read more...

These days (well, every day if you’re really about that life), the M.O. is to uplift Black people, our stories and our accomplishments. Via Instagram last weekend, actress and entrepreneur Tracee Ellis Ross announced her new partnership with the nonprofit PushBlack in order to highlight outstanding Black people…Read more...

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Over the weekend, civil rights leader John Lewis took a final journey over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., during a ceremony that recognized the former congressman’s history with the place he memorably marched on Bloody Sunday.

Despite all the warnings and the cautionary tales, President Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien still managed to leave the NBA bubble to get wings from world-renowned Atlanta strip club, Magic City.

White supremacists who tout themselves as arbiters of patriotism while wearing the symbols of forces America went to war against will never not be amusing and aggravating at the same damn time. If they’re not wrapping themselves in the battle flags of Confederate traitors, they’re wearing the mark of the fascist…Read more...

After 20 years of circulation, Business of Fashion reports that Oprah Winfrey’s O, The Oprah Magazine will cease print publication after its December 2020 edition is released. The brand will shift its focus to digital content.Read more...

Here at The Root, we are very particular about how we label people. We know that labels can be damaging and unshakeable so we are careful not to brand a person a thing unless we are sure that they are in fact said thing.

Police in Austin, Texas have a suspect in custody in the shooting death of a man during a Black Lives Matter protest in the city yesterday.

Police have been resisting forcefully to this year’s protests against their practise of brutalizing and killing Black people with impunity, and have also been pushing back against any policy shifts that could require them to face even a modicum accountability for this kind of activity.

Doja Cat, the “Say So” and “Dindu Nuffin” singer, says she was recently diagnosed with COVID-19.

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A mother, a mentor, and a friend to many, Lady Red Couture has died.