The Root

In case you were wondering what Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is up to these days, let me give you the short of it: she’s still playing with people’s money.

Despite there being no significant downturn in COVID-19 cases and there being significant warnings about the dangers of re-opening too soon, many states across the country have steadily started to re-open. However, if you happen to live in Los Angeles, don’t count on being a part of the effort to re-open the country…Read more...

On May 13, 1985, two bombs were dropped from a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter onto a residential building in a largely black Philadelphia neighborhood, killing 11 people including five children, and destroying more than 60 homes. The bombing was done in an effort to forcefully evict MOVE, a black…Read more...

A rookie House Republican who loves him some Donald Trump might have just made it harder for the president’s reelection campaign to continue spending bread at Trump’s properties.

Adam Silver believes in democracy.Read more...

I wasn’t always this guy. I wasn’t always a married father who lives in a nice community. I wasn’t always a writer.

Melanie Fiona has landed the coveted role of music icon Chaka Khan for the second season of American Soul, which tells the behind-the-scenes story of Don Cornelius’ hit show, Soul Train. Season 2 premieres on May 27 on BET.

Boosie Badazz (formerly known as Lil Boosie, born Torrence Hatch Jr.) is perpetually using his phone to display his stupidity, and his most recent act is disturbingly dangerous, to say the least.Read more...

White men can’t jump but apparently, they sure can leap.Read more...

One day in the future, just before we head out into the post-apocalyptic dystopian landscape to forage for food, we’re probably going to look back at this administration and wonder what the hell was wrong with us. We’ve just gotten used to his antics.Read more...

Tyler Perry is doing bad all by himself by social distancing away from the industry pack and making major moves during an uncertain time.Read more...

The United Kingdom’s transport union, TSSA, is calling for better protection and compensation for its members after a railway worker died following an attack from an irate passenger claiming to have the coronavirus.Read more...

Some people are having a terrible time trying to live their normal life with this pesky COVID-19 getting in the way. The illness that has infected millions and claimed the lives of more than 292,500 around the world really has been getting in the way of plans, like seeing friends for that ever-so-important midday…Read more...

Coronavirus is running rampant in prisons, so America is doing everything it can to make sure Trump’s accomplices are released because they can’t run the risk of fucking up their precious white lungs.

It’s easy to throw around the word “bust,” but far too often there’s a story behind a player’s inability to perform on the field that’s either fallen on deaf ears or remains untold. In six NFL seasons, Kansas City Chiefs receiver Sammy Watkins endured trade after trade and an endless deluge of injuries before finally…Read more...

When it purple rains, it pours blessings on the world.Read more...

I think it was his mother. It had to be.

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A bunch of naturals basically have their haircare routines down to a science. They avoid shampoos and conditioners with sulfates, pre-poo their hair before wash day, and gently detangle curls to prevent breakage. But! The one aspect we haven’t agreed on is which hair oils work best. Hair oil is supposed to lock in…Read more...

Music icon Stevie Wonder turns 70 years old today. The singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s career kicked off at the tender age of 11, when he was signed to Motown’s Tamla Records. He had his first No. 1 hit at the age of 13, and has accumulated a total of 10 No. 1s and 28 top 10 singles in total. He’s the…Read more...

NYC-based licensed mental health counselor Alice Mills Mai believes the collective grief gripping black people in America right now is almost palpable.

Egregious police corruption and a racist justice system caused three black men to be sent to prison in Cleveland, Ohio, for nearly four decades for a crime they did not commit. Now, the city is paying those men $18 million to settle a lawsuit accusing police officers of coercing witness testimony and falsifying…Read more...

Recent weeks have been a series of heartbreaks as awareness grows around the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Unfortunately, another name has been added to the list of those violently taken from us.Read more...

For some inexplicable reason, white people have responded to the pandemic by going full-racist. Between the xenophobic rhetoric directed towards Asian-Americans, busting out Confederate flags at anti-lockdown rallies, and trying to make Obamagate a thing, the 2A crowd has really been on one.Read more...

The investigation into the killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery changed hands for the third time in more than two months, with Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr selecting a new prosecutor to head the case on Monday.Read more...

Though “Da Rona” is steadily trying to bring us down, it looks like Summer 2020 has a bright spot to look forward to.Read more...

While many of us tuned into the Senate hearing to watch Dr. Anthony Fauci go full Denzel at the end of Training Day and threaten to put cases on all you motherfuckers (fine, maybe I was the only one who was hoping that Dr. Fauci would go full Tekashi 6ix9ine and snitch on everyone in the White House), in the end, the…Read more...

Imagine if Black Twitter hooked up with GroupMe and had a baby who was raised by Desus and Mero.

I own a lot of sneakers. Many of them are cool. Some of them are dumb. Here are the dumbest.Read more...

Everyone knows Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Donatello but no one knows the story of Machiavelli Mitch McConnell. The short version goes like this: Machiavelli Mitch wouldn’t wear his mask because he didn’t believe that he could catch the coronavirus. He also refused to change his name to a renaissance artist…Read more...

“You from Chicago?” Rob Morgan’s rich voice rumbled with a comedic lilt, acknowledging the area code on my cell phone. After I confirmed, he followed up with a question that further cemented my love for him: “You step?”Read more...

Incarcerated people at a Los Angeles County jail appear to be caught on camera intentionally trying to infect each other with COVID-19 in order to get released, sparking contradicting narratives between sheriffs and activists as to whether the people in custody were just looking to get their get-out-of-jail-free cards…Read more...

If there’s one sweet spot to this whole “sheltering in place” thing, it’s the resurgence of the care package—sending them, receiving them (yes, online shopping for yourself counts), and assembling them. If you haven’t gotten into this quarantine activity yet, you should; there’s something special about receiving a…Read more...

President Trump doesn’t want people to mail in votes and he doesn’t want a Los Angeles suburb with a large black population’s votes to count. I’m starting to think that the president of the United States doesn’t want black people to vote in the upcoming election. It’s almost as if he’s a dishonest racist who is trying…Read more...

Dr. Fauci keeps trying to warn us, but nobody wants to listen.Read more...

Between the pandemic, the isolation and the sheer amount of losses, these last few months have been fucking hard. The world just doesn’t seem to stop inflicting pain. One of my primary forms of self-care has always been video games. When reality gets too hard, I take a break from it and escape into a virtual one.

If you are reading this, there’s probably a better than 50 percent chance—and probably closer to 75 or 80 percent, really—that you were one of the, apparently, 8 trillion (Swizz’s math might be a little hyperbolic) people who tuned into the Jill Scott versus Erykah Badu Verzuz on Instagram Live on Saturday evening.…Read more...

Mike Tyson is thriving.Read more...

The president wants to be celebrated for victories only he can see. To hear him tell it, the United States has defeated the coronavirus and everyone should already be back at work. The truth is that the United States has become the epicenter of how not to handle an infectious disease.

It’s been two months since 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, a Louisville, Ky., EMT, was fatally shot by police officers during what has been described as a “botched execution of a warrant.” Now, Taylor’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Louisville Metro Police Department and is being represented by the…Read more...

Everything is coming up Kamala.Read more...

Ahmaud Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones has undoubtedly received an outpouring of love and support ever since the brutally tragic video of her son’s killing was released.Read more...

The music world is still mourning the unexpected passing of music executive and multi-hyphenate Andre Harrell. The Uptown Records founder and former president/CEO of Motown Records died on Thursday, May 7 at the age of 59.

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The American prison system is, in a word, trash. prisoners are often faced with inhumane conditions and treatment, and the cramped living spaces make it one of the worst places to be in the midst of a pandemic. Luckily, there are folks out there who believe in treating prisoners with the basic dignity and respect they…Read more...

Eraina Pretty, Maryland’s longest-incarcerated woman, has spent 42 years of her 60-year sentence behind bars for a violent crime. Since she’s been in prison, Pretty has acted as a mentor to fellow inmates and has been approved for parole twice by the Maryland Parole Commission only to be denied her freedom by two of…Read more...

The killing of Ahmaud Arbery as well as the effort to re-open states despite COVID-19 ravaging black communities has displayed how little America values black life. Now, an NAACP chapter president in Nashville has revealed that police didn’t take him seriously when he found a threatening sign on his property.Read more...

As I write this, Trump is probably still rage tweeting about the first black president. We all wish Barack Obama would pick up the mic just one more time and roast him like he did at that White House Correspondents’ Dinner. But until then, we’ll take what we can get. It’s fair to say, CNN’s Don Lemon is also annoyed…Read more...

The past couple months have been an unprecedented time for the country as we grapple with the wide-ranging effects of COVID-19. Sadly, the devastating toll of the virus has hit close to home for Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).Read more...

Most of America’s 2020 political press corps is braving COVID-19 inside of their homes, so we aren’t reporting the on-the-ground coverage we’d ordinarily be giving you. But that isn’t stopping The Root from bringing you regular 2020 coverage and interviews with elected officials at every level of government.Read more...