The Root

To call TLC’s “Waterfall” video iconic is almost underselling it. This award-winning video owned MTV back when that was a thing worthy of note and did it while addressing social issues like violence and HIV-awareness. The video stayed true to concept, used some CGI and showed our favorite girl group of the time in…Read more...

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Former NBA star and forever basketball great Michael Jordan has pledged to donate $100 million over the next ten years to organizations working to ensure racial equality, social justice, and greater access to education. The massive joint commitment from Jordan and his Jordan Brand was announced on Friday.

Minneapolis, Minn.; Louisville, Ky.; Brunswick, Ga. These are the latest cities turned inside out because of the killing of innocent black men and women by members of law enforcement. Rightly, the outrage and the pain have spread to every corner of the nation, including cities and communities here in South Carolina.Read more...

Breonna Taylor’s neighbor has filed a lawsuit against the officers from the Louisville Police Department who shot and killed the 26-year-old in her home in March, alleging that the cops also “blindly fired” in their apartment.

It’s currently en vogue to declare that black lives matter (and make no mistake: they do), but it’s far less comfortable to discuss how anti-black racism manifests throughout the world. Colorist beauty standards are not only closely correlated to socioeconomic success here in the United States, but are well documented…Read more...

On the heels of a powerful video from black NFL players demanding that the league stand up for black lives and admit it was wrong for punishing players for silently protesting, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has seemingly answered the call.

Have you ever watched something so ridiculous that it becomes both perfect and almost life-changing? That for me is the video for Rick James single featuring Smokey Robinson off of his 1983 album, Cold Blooded.

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At this point, the fact that the country is currently in upheaval over racist policing shouldn’t be lost on anyone. Unsurprisingly, this hasn’t stopped police from engaging in the same behavior that has inspired nationwide protest.

There are Karens, Beckys and Amys, and then, there are Lilis, Gagas and Selenas. Doing their part to both support the Black Lives Matter movement and set a much-needed example for problematic white women everywhere, the latter are currently using their celebrity status to center the voices of black activists, handing…Read more...

You know the echoes of “Mr. West, Mr. West, Mr. West” in Kanye West’s song, “Good Morning?” Well apparently, that’s the energy media personality Ibrahim “Ebro” Darden had when he called out the rapper’s silence on social media.Read more...

In the last two weeks, my criminal justice campaigns team at Color Of Change has helped more than 6.5 million people take action to demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others killed and brutalized by police in our country. On Breonna Taylor’s birthday today, June 5, we honor their lives and recommit…Read more...

Let’s go ahead and get a few facts out of the way about Missy Elliot’s song “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).” For one, the song is timeless—I believe if this song was released today, some 23 years after its original release, it would still be a hit. It’s so different and so unique, so special, that it defies the era. And…Read more...

The constant whirlwind of awfulness that’s been 2020 has had a good chunk of us feeling like this pear. I, like most of you, am simply exhausted. If it’s not the steady stream of seeing black bodies being brutalized, it’s white people coming out their mouths to say, just, the dumbest shit.Read more...

Dear white people, do y’all see us today?Read more...

On the same day that Drew Brees made it his sovereign duty to be dead-ass wrong, some of the biggest names in the NFL opted to counter that narrative.

Breonna Taylor would be 27 years old today. Unfortunately, she is now with the ancestors, cut down prematurely by a police system that devalues black bodies. She, along with too many other black women whose lives were cut too short often go under-acknowledged. This playlist honors them.

Nearly three months after 26-year-old EMT Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by the Louisville Metro Police Department in a botched drug raid, no officers have been charged in her killing. In fact, since her death, another black person, West Louisville barbecue caterer David McAtee, was shot and killed by law…Read more...

Nearly three months after the Devil (and Rudy Gobert) stole our joy, comes the news that the NBA will be making its triumphant return. I’m sure you have plenty of questions about how in the hell this will all play out, so I’ll do my best to answer them all.Read more...

I mean…

On the day of George Floyd’s memorial service, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul just couldn’t pass up the moment to be an asshole. Paul, who has the hair of wet spaghetti noodles, wanted to add an amendment to the bipartisan anti-lynching legislation because he had nothing to do with writing it, and it’s hard for people like…Read more...

Boxes containing more than 2,000 Black Lives Matter cloth face masks intended to protect protesters were seized by law enforcement agents in California, says the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL).

If you’re a fan of trying to keep up with what’s hot on social media right now, odds are you know about TikTok. The video-creation app has been all the rage for the past few months, and during quarantine, dance and comedy videos have been keeping many people busy and entertained.

If you consider yourself a regular at Sephora, no doubt you’ve signed up for and accumulated points and rewards through their Beauty Insider Program—maybe you’re even enough of a product junkie to be a VIB or Rouge member and participate in their active online community. But for the month of June—also known as Pride…Read more...

On Thursday, after an investigator offered heartbreaking new details about the events that led up to the death of Ahmaud Arbery—including that one of the men was heard using a racial slur after Arbery was killed—a Georgia judge ruled that the three men charged in Arbery’s death would stand trial for murder.Read more...

When it feels like we’re trapped in an endless loop of police killings and the fights to dismantle the system that perpetuates it, we often can’t help but ask, “Where do we go from here?”Read more...

Aurora James has a plan. As well-meaning citizens and brands alike ask what they can do to support black lives, the black female founder of luxury footwear and accessories brand Brother Vellies has issued a challenge to major retailers—including Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sephora, Net a Porter,…Read more...

Protests have raged across the country in righteous outrage at the police killing of George Floyd. In Phoenix, protests have been held not only in honor of Floyd but also for Dion Johnson, the 28-year-old black man who was shot and killed by an Arizona Department of Safety Trooper the same day Floyd died at the hands…Read more...

The Louisville Metro Council’s Public Safety Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to approve Breonna’s Law, an ordinance that would mandate all officers have to wear body cameras while executing no-knock warrants.Read more...

One of the most powerful moments during the memorial service Thursday for George Floyd occurred near the end of the ceremony as attendees stood in silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck.Read more...

A medical examiner’s report revealed that a black man died of oxygen deprivation while being detained by police after exclaiming, “I can’t breathe”—and that man’s name is not George Floyd.Read more...

Who here cares about animals? They’re super fluffy, and whatever your choice make great companions. My love for pets made me realize that maybe I should make a list of some of my favorite cruelty-free beauty brands and highlight one product from each, just to support the movement. I’m not vegan or anything, but I do…Read more...

Actress Regina King spoke with Jimmy Kimmel via video chat for his late-night talk show on Wednesday, in which they discussed the latest developments regarding global protests stemming from the senseless murder of George Floyd last week, and how systemic racism needs to be abolished.

When I was in elementary school and the bully was messing with me, I would do this thing where I would go to the office and say I had a stomachache. They would call my grandfather and he’d come pick me up. It wasn’t the smoothest move and it didn’t save me from getting picked on but for that one day, I was free of…Read more...

In the ongoing fight for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, black boxes and squares are Hollywood’s deus ex machina.

Jade’s video for “Don’t Walk Away” is one of those joints that you could toss into a 90s time capsule, open it 50 years from now and have a very clear, if not confused, understanding of what the early 90s in young black America looked like. Everything about this video is awesome and remarkably of its time.Read more...

Gabrielle Union has filed a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment & Housing (DFEH) against the producers of America’s Got Talent, citing harassment, discrimination and retaliation.Read more...

There’s an iconic scene in Spike Lee’s 1992 biopic Malcolm X, in which a real-life standoff with the NYPD that occurred on April 26, 1957, is reenacted for the screen. Following the police beating of both a young black man and Nation of Islam member Johnson X Hinton, who’d attempted to intervene, lines of men…Read more...

On Thursday, during preliminary hearings in the case of Ahmaud Arbery, an investigator revealed damning evidence against Travis and Greg McMichael and William Bryan, the three men charged with Arbery’s death.

A common argument made by racist-memorabilia-loving white people who still swear to white Jesus that they aren’t racist is that the tearing down of Confederate monuments is an attempt at erasing history.Read more...

Tough week, huh?

On Wednesday afternoon, the New York Times opinion section published an op-ed from Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton entitled “Send in the Military.” It was exactly the kind of article you would expect from Cotton, who has the brains and demeanor of a white supremacist meerkat (he notably was once held up by the New Yorker…Read more...

I don’t know what started it, and truthfully, I don’t care. But at some point during an interview between antifa and the Proud Boys, the mud started slinging, the wheels fell off the wagon and mayonnaise went flying everywhere.

It appears the people of the United States have chosen Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” as their protest songs of choice.Read more...

The memorial service for George Floyd will be livestreamed across multiple broadcast and cable networks on Thursday, allowing millions of people to collectively mourn the life of the 46-year-old man who died at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25.Read more...

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees reminded us all on Wednesday that while he is certainly a spectacular athlete beloved by pro football fans all over the country—he’s still white. Not just white, but white and out of touch. So out of touch, in fact, that he resurrected crusty old narratives from 2016 about how…Read more...

This has been a rough time for politicians.

Meghan Markle wants to make it clear: “George Floyd’s life mattered.” The Duchess of Sussex had been conspicuously silent this past week as protests and uprisings around the country escalated in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, only issuing an online statement of solidarity urging followers to “speak up…Read more...

It’s Pride Month and Da Brat is celebrating the LGBTQIA commemoration for the first time this year, after having been the subject of swirling rumors surrounding her sexuality for decades. In a recent Variety feature titled, “Da Brat’s Coming Out Story Is 25 Years in the Making,” the rapper-turned-radio-personality…Read more...