The Root

Unlike others, I don’t spend a lot of time fraternizing with Nazis—as in at all.Read more...

“No, I don’t have any bottled water” was my reply, 12 years ago, when two women—one of whom I was dating; the other was her friend—visited my apartment for the first time.

HBO’s Lovecraft Country is a story about its heroes fighting for their lives as they make their way across 1950s America. It’s also a multifaceted family drama that embraces the idea that the people you share blood with are often the same people who hurt you the most. And yes, monsters. Of all sorts.Read more...

When Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion revealed earlier this week that they had a new collaboration coming out called “WAP,” I began eagerly anticipating and preemptively celebrating a wave of hot girl shit to take my mind off the hot mess that continues to be 2020.

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Do you like anime? How about seeing folks get their shit absolutely rocked? If you answered yes to both of those questions then you, dear reader, need to check out Crunchyroll’s latest original anime, The God of High School.

With the coronavirus still very much a thing, the NFL and NFL Players Association set a deadline of Thursday for players to decide whether or not they would be opting out of the upcoming season. Now that that deadline has passed, we know exactly which players we won’t see on the field this year.

An Amazon sale on PS4 exclusives, a Sony 65-inch X900F TV, an Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 Gold Box, a Kelake Alien Pikachu figure, an Aukey dual dash cam, a carry-on luggage Lightning Deal, a Natural Dog Company balm bundle, and a five-pack of K95 masks lead Friday’s best deals.Read more...

Kanye West suffers from bipolar disorder. Everyone knows this because the rapper has been open about his struggles with the illness. Before learning of his struggles, America has always found Kanye’s brash, egomaniacal personality entertaining. It made for good sound clips. In fact, before learning of his diagnosis, I…Read more...

“I always knew I wanted to be a singer, I always wanted to be an artist,” Tiana Thomas, affectionately known as Tiana Major9, tells The Root over the phone. The East London native, now 24 years old, reveals her music dreams began to manifest at age five. It was only a few years ago that she quit her job at Urban…Read more...

If you were at all concerned about Keke Palmer’s career prospects following the cancellation of Strahan, Sara & Keke, you needn’t be. In fact, the multitalented entertainer will be multitasking in the coming months, scoring two high-profile gigs we’ll likely all be “keke-ing” about (sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves).Read more...

On Wednesday, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed an executive order that immediately restored voting rights to former inmates who have completed their sentences.Read more...

After months of vetting, evaluating and probably texting “WYD” to Michelle Obama, sources say presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has whittled down his choices of potential running mates to two Black women.Read more...

Can the White House be won back in November? There are admittedly obstacles to face in the next 88 days, but one thing’s for certain: We definitely can’t win if we don’t vote. Today is the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and as voter suppression via any number of dirty tricks threatens to derail our…Read more...

Boooooy, y’all’s presumptive Democratic nominee appears to be bound and determined to join y’all’s president in making the upcoming presidential race as excruciatingly cringeworthy has humanly possible. This racism vs. diet racism Pepsi challenge we’re all being subjected to is getting...well...interesting.Read more...

Is #MeToo finally doubling back to hip-hop? Perhaps, especially since this week has been filled with public allegations. On Sunday, R&B vocalist Jaguar Wright (best known for 2002's Denials, Delusions & Decisions) made explosive claims of misconduct and enabling of sexual abuse by rapper/actor Common, members of The…Read more...

If you are struggling to understand why people are calling for police departments to be defunded and have those funds reallocated to human services such as mental health professionals, then please allow an incident that occurred with the Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday to serve as one glaring example.Read more...

As Black people in America in the midst of a political movement and a pandemic, what are the most pressing issues that we should be paying attention to in November? Healthcare? Police reform? Education?Read more...

The Aurora Police Department’s new chief says that she knows the department is trash and she vows to fix it. Ok, that’s not exactly what she said, but she has made it clear that she is dedicated to getting the police officers under her command to acknowledge their racial biases and to “do better.”Read more...

Hot girls everywhere, rejoice! Our favorite “savage” and the legendary “girl on fire” have both announced forthcoming beauty partnerships—each putting the “pretty” in “pretty big deal.”Read more...

If “you know you done fucked up, right?” was a mood, it would look something like this:Read more...

Donald Trump’s campaign has finally found a legitimate scandal to pin on Joe Biden.Read more...

In a recent interview with The Root, ESPN analyst Jay Williams noted that while increased awareness around social justice issues is important, he’s far more concerned with the NBA’s interest in that subsequent action.Read more...

Michelle Obama just keeps giving us more reasons to love her—mostly because of her innate empathy (you should try it, it’s delicious) and her increasing transparency since leaving the White House and publishing her instantly bestselling 2018 memoir, Becoming. In her newly launched Michelle Obama Podcast, she’s…Read more...

Georgia governor and unofficial Donald Trump butt-wiper Brian Kemp signed a proposal into law Wednesday that basically treats police officers as a protected class because white conservatives have convinced themselves that “blue” people are actually an oppressed minority. What’s worse is that the bill was pushed by…Read more...

I believe it was fabled author Damon Young who once stated that “white people won’t save you.” But just in case you’re unclear on their utter willingness to condemn us all to the fiery depths of hell, allow me to enlighten you.Read more...

Want to keep track of all the folks participating in The Root Institute virtual conference this year? Here’s a handy guide of the who’s-who joining in the conversations this year.Read more...

A free pair of Bose headphones with your next iPhone purchase at Visible, a rare discount on Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker for Nintendo Switch, an Amazon Gold Box deal on Carfidant auto cleaning solutions, a trio of plush dog toys, an LED suction light 4-pack, and an Ella Paradis G-Spot Hero vibrator lead Thursday’s…Read more...

I’m calling it now: Oprah Winfrey is going to win the Nobel Peace Prize.Read more...

On the same day that LeBron James said the NBA won’t miss Trump as a viewer, apparently Facebook and Twitter kept that same energy about Melania’s baby daddy and his campaign being on their platforms.Read more...

Migos member Takeoff has been accused of nonconsensual “forceful sexual intercourse,” according to a civil lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Wednesday. A woman identified only as “Jane Doe” alleges that the rapper, whose legal name is Kirshnik Khari Ball, raped her during an Encino, Calif., house party on June 22 of…Read more...

What is at stake during the 2020 elections?Read more...

Prosecutors in Georgia have requested that the bond order be revoked for the former Atlanta police officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks in June after finding out he recently took a vacation to Florida without getting permission.Read more...

Remember in June when Quaker Oats announced that it would be removing the Aunt Jemima brand from its product line and white people—including one very sad Karen of the Becky variety—had a whole meltdown about it and adamantly denied the racist origins of the caricature? Well, it took less than two months for a white…Read more...

The family of a teenage boy in York, Pa., is upset after he was told to remove his Black Lives Matter face mask before walking at his high school graduation.Read more...

In March, a group of Black Lives Matter activists knocked on the door of L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s home to invite her to a community meeting. Her husband, David Lacey, is now facing gun charges for pulling a pistol out on the activists.Read more...

It’s difficult to understand where you’re going—or how far you’ve come—without reflecting on the past. That’s why GirlTrek, the largest health movement for Black women and girls in America with 820,000 members and counting, is once again treating us to another season of its highly inspiring #BlackHistoryBootCamp! The…Read more...

In the perpetual and cumulative colostomy bag that is 2020, the “I can’t make this shit up” cornucopia of crazy just runneth over.

College football is in a precarious situation.Read more...

[I shouldn’t have to say this given that this is about the SERIES FINALE, but SPOILER ALERT. ALL THE SPOILERS ARE PRESENT.]Read more...

Ta-Nehisi Coates, the acclaimed author of the National Book Award-winning Between the World and Me, is helping Vanity Fair interpret the world we unexpectedly find ourselves living in now. On Tuesday, the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Radhika Jones announced that Coates is the guest editor of the September issue, “a…Read more...

Tommy expected applause.

While walking through some mud at Moraine State Park last weekend, I thought about how “mud” is one of those perfect words that fits exactly what it is. Mud looks and acts and feels and smells exactly like something we should call “mud.” It would make no sense if the word for mud was something fancier sounding, like…Read more...

Trump doesn’t watch the NBA. In fact, when asked what the NBA stands for, Trump said, “Apparently not the anthem” and then punched Jared Kushner in the round balls.

An Ohio health commissioner who has called for racism to be recognized as a public health crisis amid the pandemic recently received a visit from the Ghost of White Supremacist Past when a decades-old photo of him wearing blackface was unearthed.Read more...

“This might be the most important book I’ve ever chosen for my book club,” said Oprah Winfrey of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The latest from the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of The Warmth of Other Suns was released on Tuesday on Apple Books, among other booksellers.Read more...

After years of criticism regarding her decision to play Nina Simone in the 2016 biopic about her life, Zoe Saldana is opening up about her regrets playing the iconic musician and activist.Read more...

The best thing about the NBA restart is that outside of the Washington Wizards—and whatever towering pile of chimpanzee shit that the Brooklyn Nets trot out—every team is legit. So every single game has the very real potential to keep us on the edge of our seats and become headline news.

When it comes to depicting the prejudices of historical time periods, most video games sidestep the issue. They avoid acknowledging that these prejudices existed or don’t emphasize them.