The Root

Neo (Keanu Reeves) may be “The One” of The Matrix franchise, but we can’t ignore the impact of the one and only Morpheus, portrayed by Laurence Fishburne. Whether it was his wise words or his royal style (shout-out to those sunglasses without temples), Morpheus was the man.Read more...

On Monday evening, a Texas federal judge ruled in favor of a Black teenager who was told he had to cut his hair or he couldn’t attend school.Read more...

If there is one thing white people refuse to do, it’s let Black people live in peace.Read more...

You can take the woman out of Hollywood, but you can’t take the Hollywood out of the woman—or, at least that seems to be the case with Los Angeles-born actress-turned-duchess-turned-prodigal daughter Meghan Markle, who returned to her home state with her royal husband and son earlier this year. Newly settled into what …Read more...

My grandmother once said: “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything.”Read more...

In 2005, I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder while staying at UCLA’s medical center in Los Angeles for several weeks over Christmas. Back then, to me, the severity of my diagnosis was already scary, but what was even scarier? Feeling I was alone.Read more...

For Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) our economic plight is a political issue.Read more...

There is little to be found in the way of pick-me-ups during these dark days, but if there’s one beauty staple that reliably turns this writer’s frown upside down, it’s red lipstick. So imagine how wide I’m grinning at the news that my favorite makeup maven, Pat McGrath has teamed up with legendary streetwear brand…Read more...

I’m sure you’ve heard this before—more than likely here at The Root—but the NCAA is big business for everybody but Black players.Read more...

I knew it would happen.Read more...

Dear Evan Hansen, the Tony Award-winning musical centered around a teenager’s life experiences while struggling with anxiety and depression, will be getting the film treatment. Actress and singer Amandla Stenberg will reportedly take part in the musical’s big-screen adaptation.Read more...

Of the several nits I have to pick with Watchmen—a show I am still infatuated with—the most prominent (and also the pettiest) is that the murderous racists didn’t die violent and painful enough deaths.Read more...

Despite the multitude of stories popping up in our newsfeed that show white people facing consequences after their racism was caught on camera, a lot of white people still appear to be comfortable showing off the extent of their bigotry even after they realize they’re being recorded.Read more...

G.I. Ken and Karen, the white St. Louis couple who had trouble sitting in their living room and minding their own business, the same cop-loving couple who felt deputized by their whiteness to pull guns on Black Lives Matters demonstrators—who weren’t even fucking with them—will participate in the virtual Republican…Read more...

I have a thing about being touched.Read more...

Gosh, I really miss Barack Obama every single day. Every time he posts on Instagram, I’m quick to “double-tap” whatever he’s put up, solely based on the fact that it’s Barack Obama who posted it. However, on Monday, I ‘liked’ what he posted because it shows his incredible musical palate.Read more...

Turn the page and get into this news! Netflix has announced it will debut Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices, a new young children and family series hosted by author and activist Marley Dias!Read more...

As the 26th annual—and first virtual—Essence Festival dawned this year, #BlackFemaleAnonymous, a group of “former and current employees” of the 50-year-old magazine published an indicting missive titled “The Truth About Essence.” The open letter (subsequently legally referred to as “the Article”) alleged a toxic…Read more...

Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award-winning actor and singer Billy Porter closed out Night One of the Democratic National Convention with his rendition of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” likely better known as “Stop, Hey, What’s That Sound?”Read more...

We all saw this coming.

It only took a global pandemic, a four-month hiatus and a tab of approximately $150 million, but all is right in the world because the NBA Playoffs have officially begun. To the delight of sports fans far and wide, August Madness kicked off on Monday, and here are some takeaways from Day 1.Read more...

White conservatives have to be some of the most manipulative, delusional and disingenuous people on Earth. They’ve made being deliberately obtuse an art form, and you could almost admire them for it if their willful ignorance superpowers weren’t used almost exclusively to perpetuate white supremacy while denying that…Read more...

It’s week three of The Root Institute, meaning it’s time to talk about the health of our minds and our finances featuring actress Taraji P. Henson and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).Read more...

Quinn Coleman, the Senior Director of A&R at Capitol Records and son of former BET Chairman and CEO Debra Lee, has died at the age of 31, Billboard reports. Coleman’s cause of death hasn’t been confirmed at this time.Read more...

I am a 23-year-old Black man from Cobb County, Georgia, and it cost me $64 to vote in the Georgia primary elections.

Police unions are the fucking worst. Any request for cops to do their job even slightly more responsibly is met with what can only be described as pouting and temper tantrums. Take, for instance, the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police, who are big mad over perfectly reasonable legislation to ban the use of no-knock…Read more...

In Missouri, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department is searching for a man who called a Black woman the n-word multiple times before pistol-whipping and shooting her.

The Amos ‘n’ Andy versions of The Simpsons characters Patty and Selma—you might know them as Sunken Place landlords Diamond and Silk—are apparently finally convinced that racism is real.Read more...

COVID-19 has taken an unrelenting toll on this country in the five months since the pandemic began. As deaths hit 1,000 per day over the last month, new data suggests that COVID-19 has become the third leading cause of death for Black people.

After watching a recent viral video showing a white woman biker getting her pants ripped by a buffalo at South Dakota’s Custer State Park, The Root decided that we must take action.Read more...

Let’s face it: Sometimes toilet paper just isn’t enough for that squeaky-clean feeling. After you’ve taken care of business, the goal is that fresh, just out of the shower feeling. Those rolls of Charmin aren’t working quite hard enough, no matter what the packaging says. That’s where bidets come in. They may not be…Read more...

In Jackson, Miss., three police officers accused of causing the death of a 61-year-old Black man on January 13, 2019, are now charged with second-degree murder.Read more...

It’s been a chaotic year, and now more than ever, we need someone to come and make us feel a bit better. Thankfully, comedian Katt Williams stepped up to the plate and provided his signature bluntness in a new, six-minute Supreme stand-up style advertisement, where he berates Donald Trump, discusses the importance of…Read more...

I did something recently that I haven’t done in probably 10 years—I made two compact disc (CD) purchases. That’s right, in the year of our lord 2020, I purchased Adriana Evans 1997 self-titled debut album and De La Soul’s Five-Mic classic, 1991’s De La Soul Is Dead. I spent $21 and $25, respectively, of my hard-earned…Read more...

Monday marks the start of America’s push towards a new day and much like the rest of 2020, that new day is going to look mad different.

Fun fact: “WAP” may also be an acronym for “Women Active in Politics.” Both Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion are proving as passionate about our current political cycle as they are for the joys of enthusiastically consensual sex—which is as it should be since the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

It’s been nearly 18 years since the legendary D.J. from the iconic rap group Run-DMC was gunned down in his recording studio in Queens, N.Y., on October 30, 2002. Now, two men have been arrested and charged with the killing of Jason Mizell, also known by hip-hop enthusiasts all over the world as Jam Master Jay.Read more...

Conceding even the tiniest thing to a hateful and violent twerp like our president feels like a total defeat. Unfortunately, I must admit that there are (at least) three zeitgeist-related places that he has “won”—where his influence has been total and, possibly, irreversible.

In a nod to the insanity of institutional racism, the team formerly known as a racial slur has announced that Jason Wright will lead the organization as team president, making him the first Black man to serve in that position in a league that is 60 percent Black.Read more...

For someone who genuinely consumes fresh air like a glass of fine wine, the mask mandates are hard to stomach, but stomach I will. The absolute least you can do is wear a simple cloth face mask when you’re headed to a crowd. Not to mention, if you want to offer patronage to your local stores still afloat, they’re…Read more...

COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be letting up any time soon because people won’t listen, and it appears that the virus has found its way to Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s production company.

Over the weekend, The Root reported on two separate white nationalist rallies—one in Stone Mountain, Ga., and one in Kalamazoo, Mich.—where groups of white people mad about various things were met by anti-racism counterprotesters who let the white supremacist MAGA-humpers know that the only thing they have to be mad…Read more...

If you have been paying attention to Trump’s latest attempts to steal the presidential election or waiting on a check to come in the mail, you’ve probably not been up on game. It’s OK, I got you.

Just like our forever First Lady Michelle Obama, we are not going to stop talking about the importance of voting this election cycle—no matter how unenthused you might be. While there were many factors that led to the outcome of what we’d feared would be a disastrous 2016 election (Electoral College, we’re looking at…Read more...

A two-port Aukey 60-watt USB-C charger, a Western Digital 5TB hard drive, a Neo Geo Samurai Showdown limited edition mini console, an 11-piece Cuisinart cookware set, an Amazon Echo Dot, a rare discount on PPE gear, a Disney Twice Upon a Year sale, and an Ella Paradis G-Spot Hero vibrator lead Monday’s best deals.Read more...

The uprising against the racist police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s killing earlier this year has put policy recommendations like defunding police in closer to the realm of reality and not just in the imaginations of Black activists.

White supremacists and the people who oppose them faced-off and got into fisticuffs in different parts of the country this weekend.

The creators of Black Love, an OWN docuseries which says it aims to tell the stories of Black couples and increase representation, spent the weekend fielding backlash from Black Twitter after releasing a promotional trailer in which dark-skinned women were made all but invisible.

Make no mistake: White people know birtherism is racism.Read more...

America knows it has a homegrown terrorist problem, it just isn’t ready to deal with the reality that the face of American terrorism is...well...a hueless face. White people have no problem accepting the fact that not all terrorists come from the land of scary Muslims and that some come from right here in the U.S of…Read more...