The Root

I have a dilemma:Read more...

AmeriKKKa gaslights black people.Read more...

On June 18, 1865, Union Army General Gordon Granger and 2,000 troops, many of whom were black, arrived at Galveston Island to occupy the state of Texas after the last army of white supremacist army of the Confederacy surrendered.Read more...

June 19, known as Juneteenth in the black community represents the day that the word about the end of slavery finally reached Galveston, Texas, which at the time was the furthest part of the United States. Today, we celebrate the holiday by sharing our favorite jams in the spirit of Juneteenth, freedom and blackness.Read more...

Doing “the work” is an oft-used phrase in social justice circles, arguably overused to the point that it can include everything from reading a poem to starting a movement.

Here are a couple questions: Why is y’all’s president so raggedy? Why can’t literally anybody in this ghetto ass administration keep him off social media?Read more...

My mother hated to cook.

I believe words matter...sometimes.

John Legend’s latest musical offering Bigger Love couldn’t have come at a better time. The EGOT-winner’s 16-song album, which officially drops today, invokes the timelessness of his debut, 2004’s Get Lifted, with an updated flair fitting the vein of 2020’s versatile musical landscape.

Have you ever wondered what social media would have looked like on the first Juneteenth?Read more...

The other week, I cried.Read more...

What does freedom look like?Read more...

U.S. Sen. Corey Booker’s support for ending qualified immunity for police officers is one of the strongest calls for tackling police brutality by a high-profile elected official yet and he will join The Root on Instagram live Friday, June 19, at 2 p.m. ET to explain his stance in detail.Read more...

For a song that came out over 30 years ago, Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power”—created for the soundtrack to Spike Lee’s 1989 classic film, Do The Right Thing—remains remarkably resonant even in 2020. We’re still at war with structural racism and all of the issues that existed at the time of the song’s creation are…Read more...

I wouldn’t know Juneteenth without my father.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is not, by any means, a prison or police abolitionist. But you may be forgiven for thinking so if you listen to some of the language he uses to describe his vision of what the future of public safety could look like.Read more...

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...

All Work No Play Bundle | $59 | Ella Paradis

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...