The Root

White people, on the whole, haven’t been doing too well this last month. If it’s not going full tilt Karen at black people for just existing, or having breakdowns over not getting a McMuffin, it’s going onto social media and saying some truly wild shit.Read more...

For people who want so badly for black people to just forget about slavery, conservative white people sure seem bound and determined to hold on to the very monuments that immediately remind black folk of what our ancestors endured. Many of us were beside ourselves with joy after we learned that the 130-year-old statue…Read more...

Somewhere I imagine there is a man at his computer utterly livid at the fact that Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben have changed their brands due to perpetuating racist imagery. That man is going to be big mad at the news Cream of Wheat has joined those brands in reevaluating its packaging.Read more...

LeBron James is a freak of nature.Read more...

Over the last week a disturbing pattern has emerged of black men being found hanged in trees. As a result, a series of nooses found in an Oakland park are being investigated as a hate crime.Read more...

Tick Tock, tick tock… the clock will be ticking starting June 19.Read more...

As we’re all perfectly aware, there’s a clear distinction between being co-workers and actual friends. Just because we exchange pleasantries at the water cooler doesn’t mean my black ass will be at your wedding, and vice versa. So while NBA superstar Kevin Durant and former teammate Kendrick Perkins might’ve shared…Read more...

8:46.

In 2018, after a long and hard day of writing blogs about white privilege and gluten-free pancakes, I drove to the Wendy’s a few blocks from my house to get a Baconater, a frosty, and some fries. When I pulled up to the drive-thru window, the cashier said it might be a while because they ran out of bacon and needed to…Read more...

The Roots Picnic, which was supposed to be held in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park on June 3, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the 13th annual celebration is going to be livestreamed via YouTube on June 27, and it will be co-hosted by none other than Michelle Obama. She and her nonpartisan…Read more...

Noah’s Arc fans rejoice!Read more...

This video is terrible. But it’s terrible so good. But it’s like really bad. Especially considering that this song and video came out in 1984. A year earlier—1983 for those less mathematically inclined individuals—saw the release of possibly the most iconic music video ever in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Think about…Read more...

Pride was started by black trans women.Read more...

Before Trump took office, Juneteenth was just hanging out in an African village with Kwanzaa and the rest of the black holidays just living a marginal life. The holidays weren’t really asking for much but after Trump said Juneteenth’s name on the Summer Jam stage, Juneteenth blew up. It literally was like Juneteenth…Read more...

The Black Lives Matter movement sure seems to have brought the crybaby out of cops...the po’-little-tink-tink out of police...the “woe is me” out of wack-ass officers. You would think that black people were asking for something impractical like the public tarring and feathering of everyone who wears a badge. Yet, our…Read more...

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled to block the Trump administration from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, with Chief Justice John Roberts siding with liberal judges.

Thanks to a circulated screenshot from the website The Concordian, Twitter has been abuzz since Wednesday night with the idea that classical German composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven was actually a black man. So now it totally makes sense why “Symphony No. 5” bangs so hard.

We have to get this out up front: Former national security adviser John Bolton is no hero. I mean how could he be as he’s from the family Bolton, which gave us Ramsay and Michael before him. Let’s remember that after leaving the White House, Bolton, third of his name, was asked by the House committees to voluntarily…Read more...

On June 16, J. Cole released a song that lit up social media titled, “Snow On Tha Bluff,” named after the 2011 is-it-a-movie-or-is-it-a-documentary (?) of the same name that featured Atlanta’s finest, Curtis Snow, jacking a camera from some film school kids and recording the happenings of his Bankhead neighborhood…Read more...

When someone scores an Oscar, all Hollywood eyes are on what that winner will do next. Well, for Matthew A. Cherry, big things poppin’!Read more...

Denver Broncos safety Kareem Jackson has become the latest NFL player to test positive for COVID-19.Read more...

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This Friday is the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth, so even if you’re trying to keep your distance from others, there are still a few ways you can celebrate this monumental occasion. If you don’t have any plans to keep yourself occupied this particular weekend, social media is chock full of entertainment at your…Read more...

Feel free to read that headline again, because I struggle to believe it too. But with society experiencing an awakening of sorts in light of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, we now live in a world in which the phrase Black Lives Matter is finally evoking action instead of fear.

Queen Latifah’s video for her single, “Ladies First,” has stayed with me since the first time I saw it, probably sometime in late 1989 or early 1990. The imagery in the song was so striking to me that even as a 10- or 11-year-old, I remember being mesmerized. The video clips, the way Queen Latifah seemed like the…Read more...

Publix is apparently trying to be the Starbucks of the supermarket game. After seeing the coffee chain come under fire for initially not allowing employees to wear Black Lives Matter apparel, Publix came through and said, “Hold my beer.”Read more...

In recent years, when a black athlete takes a political stance they’re typically met with some variation of “shut up and dribble,” from media pundits and pressed white fans. It’s understandable that American soccer player Crystal Dunn had complicated emotions when her teammate Megan Rapinoe decided to kneel.Read more...

On Wednesday, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced that warrants have been issued for the arrest of the cops involved in the shooting of Rayshard Brooks.Read more...

Macie’s dead.

Exactly one week after their interview with Russell Simmons, The Breakfast Club confirmed that Sil Lai Abrams, one of his accusers and participants in HBO’s doc On The Record, would be appearing on the show.Read more...

Another day, another Karen exhibiting her white privilege and weaponizing her white woman tears to show how the world is so down on and against her...kind.Read more...

I haven’t been to summer camp since I was a child, but if it’s anything like what NBA players are about to experience at Disney World when they return to work in July, where do I sign up?Read more...

It seems like the national spotlight that all these protests and demonstrations have put on systemic racism has all the corporations scrambling to show their “Black Lives Matter” solidarity and, if necessary, rebrand their own products to make sure they’re racism-origin free. Quaker Oats announced Wednesday that they…Read more...

As we reminisce on the rollercoaster ride that was season 4 of Insecure, we also appreciate the series’ continued tradition of providing a well-produced show-within-a-show. This season was the witty true crime series, Looking For LaToya (in which SZA portrays the titular character). In a satirical look at today’s…Read more...

For as long as the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests began gathering momentum, there were rumors of infiltration of the protests by outside groups. Much of the focus, at first, was placed on alleged anarchist or anti-fascist groups destroying public and corporate property. But as the massive protests stretch into…Read more...

I know that President Trump is a white man and that has afforded him luxuries and special powers that have allowed him to be the most mediocre of white men alive. He even parlayed that all the way to the highest office in the land, but acting like the coronavirus doesn’t exist doesn’t make it go away—no matter how…Read more...

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin will donate an allotted total of $120 million to HBCUs and black scholarship funds. Spelman College, Morehouse College and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) will each receive $40 million.

“This is a revolution,” proclaims the newest video promo for Pattern Beauty, the haircare line launched by actress-entrepreneur Tracee Ellis Ross in September 2019. Though Ross couldn’t have predicted our current state of affairs when she planned the next rollout of products for her already-cult-favorite brand, the…Read more...

The Bronx, N.Y—Jamaal Bowman is feeling good—like, really good.

When President Trump unveiled his bullshit police reform toilet paper executive order, there was one black person not named Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) who was super supportive, almost giddy over the proposed order. That one black face was Van Jones. Jones is becoming that guy, and truthfully, if he stopped wearing his…Read more...

Being black in entertainment means knowing what it’s like to be the only black person in the room, taking on the responsibility of being a role model to aspiring black creators, pushing the envelope on substantial representation, and much, much more.Read more...

Why does everyone think the Nazis were racist?

Forget the 4th of July! Juneteenth is the day that should be celebrated by all as a pivotal point in America’s freedom story.Read more...

In recent weeks, we’ve seen black athletes in nearly every sport use their platforms to speak out against racial inequality and assert that Black Lives Matter, and in their own efforts to “be the change,” we now have MLB stars following suit.Read more...

The new streaming service HBO Max is under fire for the temporary removal of the 1939 romantic drama, Gone With The Wind. Many believe its removal from the service will erase the film’s legacy in more ways than one; the plot’s setting in the antebellum South depicts the racial prejudices of the time, and Hattie…Read more...

The Atlanta police officer who shot and killed 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks at a Wendy’s parking lot last week had received a written reprimand in 2017 for use of force involving a firearm, according to his disciplinary records.Read more...

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA) has pledged scholarship funds for George Floyd’s daughter and granddaughters to attend the HBCU of their choice.Read more...

The mogul known as “Mother” has the smoke—the “Divine Smoke,” that is—and for one night only, she’s sharing it on behalf of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.Read more...

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Will Gucci Mane be parting ways with his record label Atlantic Records due to racism? In a now-deleted tweet sent over the weekend, the Atlanta rapper claimed that the people who work there are “polite racist,” and encouraged other artists in the industry to follow suit. According to his tweet, he plans on making July…Read more...