The Root

On Sept. 8, 2018, Naomi Osaka became the first Japanese player ever to win a Grand Slam title after defeating her childhood idol, Serena Williams. Sadly, what should’ve been one of the greatest days of Osaka’s life was marred by poor officiating and controversy.Read more...

Iylana Vanzant once told Karreuche Tran to lie her “crying head” on her bosom. Vanzant then took the young ex-girlfriend of Chris Brown and comforted her with the softness of a maternal unit cooing at her baby.Read more...

‘Tis the season to be eatin’—and wearing hideous sweaters to holiday gatherings. Now, the chicken sandwich that kept America in its clutches has yet again put its indelible stamp on the culture, lending its image to the ugly Christmas sweater craze, now available at—no, not Popeyes—but the aptly named …Read more...

A “proud” Missouri “cracker” and a KKKop whose pseudonym on social media was apparently inspired by a leadership position in the Ku Klux Klan have been terminated after a watchdog group discovered Facebook posts by nearly two dozen St. Louis police officers displaying bigotry, hatred and a predilection for violence.Read more...

Martin Luther King Day is still a month away, but here at The Glow Up, we dream of a world in which little dark-skinned girls and little light-skinned girls can see themselves represented equally—and beautifully—in mainstream advertising.Read more...

When the poop emoji wanted to move through the world without being detected, it needed a human host. The human host had to have very little brain activity, with little to no spine and who cheated on his wife with a member of Danity Kane. It needed to be someone who no one would notice if their body was inhabited by…Read more...

If it were possible to encapsulate the sentiment of an entire decade, the last 10 years could be distilled down to one word:Read more...

For the first time since resuming capital punishment last year, the Tennessee Supreme Court has pumped the brakes on an execution scheduled for April 16.Read more...

You know, as I watch my kids grow, I’ve come to the realization that, in life, the 3-5 age range is really the sweet spot. For kids, it’s the age before they are required to know better and thus do better so they can pretty much say anything they want (short of curse words around grandparents); they have no bills and…Read more...

Only in this time, with this White House, could a pastor who once said that Jews are going to hell be one of the speakers at a White House Hanukkah reception, which included the signing of an executive order aimed at tackling anti-Semitism on college campuses.

The Library of Congress has announced 25 new films to add to its National Film Registry for 2019. Of the 25 films that are “selected because of their cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to the nation’s film heritage,” five of them are created by and/or centered around African Americans. Those black films are …Read more...

One of the alleged assailants involved in an hours-long gunbattle with law enforcement in Jersey City, N. J., Tuesday is being investigated for possible ties to the Black Hebrew Israelites.Read more...

President Trump’s biggest flaw could be described by my favorite character on the best television show in American history, The Wire’s Omar Little, who once stated: “A man gotta have a code.” Trump doesn’t have a code. Hell, he doesn’t have a soul, a decent head of hair or a good tanning lotion. He’s cheated on…Read more...

A mere week after presidential hopeful Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced legislation that would ban hair discrimination nationwide, his home state of New Jersey is making it official, passing a bill that prohibits discrimination against a person due to their hairstyle, an issue that disproportionately affects black…Read more...

A good set of headphones can really draw you into a game, especially if it allows you to play at higher volumes without waking your neighbors. But a lot of gaming headsets are, shall we say... lackluster, especially if you want them to double as music-listening headphones.Read more...

An Amazon Warehouse sale, Civilization VI, discounted string lights, and an Anker projector exclusive lead off Thursday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

From NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s perspective, he was just trying to help.Read more...

Real good girl shit—Megan Thee Stallion is coming to your television screens!Read more...

On Jan. 24, 2017, our lives were forever changed with the auspicious debut of BET’s The New Edition Story. Looking to perhaps recapture that magic—or at least those ratings—BET announced that it will be blessing us all with Uptown, which will revisit the trials, triumphs, and tribulations of the early ’90s phenomenon…Read more...

It’s time for the most delightfully dramatic people in the universe to honor their peers!

Tensions at the U.S. border have escalated due to immigration authorities blocking doctors from administering flu vaccines to detained migrant children. In response, a group of doctors and protesters were detained by federal authorities on Tuesday after blocking an entrance to the United States Border Patrol’s San…Read more...

Don’t say Rihanna never gave you nothin’...’tis the season of giving, and since the bad gal is nothing if not a giver, she gifted her followers with a playful live-action campaign shoot for her Savage X Fenty lingerie line on Tuesday, showing us exactly how a savage celebrates the holiday season. (If you’re wondering,…Read more...

Former FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, whose “fuck the fat orange guy running for president” text messages with another FBI employee were leaked to the media, is suing the Justice Department and the FBI for being messy AF.

“Coffee is the color,” sang Roy Ayers—and the lyric proves true on the gorgeous crop of coffee table-worthy tomes published this year. From fashion icons to iconic works of art, black representation was strong in the publishing world this year, leaving us with books that are as powerful as they are pretty to look at.…Read more...

A principal who was demoted amid accusations that she prohibited students from celebrating Black History Month has filed a lawsuit against a group of teachers at a Bronx school for discriminating against her because she is white. Meanwhile, the teachers filed their own legal claim against the school district, claiming…Read more...

Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Old Kanye anymore...and we haven’t been for a while.Read more...

For those that don’t know, or aren’t old enough to remember, Richie Rich was a little white kid whose parents were so rich that by default he became the richest kid in America. Sadly, the president of the United States, in his stunted developmental growth is basically the evil version of the 1953 character who was so…Read more...

The Child Cup | $7.50 | PopSocketsRead more...

A Texas sheriff’s deputy has been charged with three misdemeanor counts of official oppression for allegedly conducting illegal strip searches on six women over a span of 11 days.Read more...

I don’t know about you, but when I think of Sasha Obama, the immediate image that springs to mind is always a grinning seven-year-old, waving onstage at Chicago’s Grant Park after her daddy was announced President of the United States in November of 2008. And yes, as a country, we’ve obviously watched her grow in the…Read more...

Surviving R. Kelly was not only a documentary series, it was a significant moment in time that we’ll never forget. In addition to fostering further difficult conversations surrounding the continued saga of Robert “R.” Kelly, it truly gave a voice to the voiceless: black girls.Read more...

If you have spent more than five minutes online in the past week, know some gang members, or (oddly) have a Google alert set for “Keyshia Cole” then you have been made privy to the song and video, “Never Knew,” by Long Beach, Calif., rapper and Crip-extraordinaire, O.T. Genasis.Read more...

I planned to explain my leave of absence from The Root before it happened. Then, during my wife’s routine doctor’s visit on the last Friday of August, everything went to shit.

This year has been a groundbreaking one for black women in the world of beauty pageants—a forum that sparks understandable and ongoing debate about its enduring relevance and impact on beauty standards. Nevertheless, the pageant world’s definition of beauty has been visibly expanding, as evidenced by the crowning of…Read more...

Gun control is a bit of a complicated issue but no matter which side of the argument you fall on, it’s painfully clear that it’s time for change.Read more...

Writer’s Note: Major Watchmen spoilers are ahead!Read more...

Potential jurors in the hate crime trial for Sean Urbanski, the Maryland man accused of murdering 23-year-old Bowie State University student Richard Collins III, answered questions about race and alcohol during the selection process, reports WJZ-TV.Read more...

“To the Most High. I Give Thee,” wrote Lauren London in an Instagram post published on Tuesday afternoon, as she introduced her collaboration with Puma. The title of the campaign? “Forever Stronger,” presumably describing how London has emerged after the murder of the love of her life, California rapper, entrepreneur…Read more...

We are all magicians.Read more...

Olivers $300 Mystery Box, $150Read more...

Who says women can’t both compete and be close friends? After a momentous and historic win for Miss South Africa Zozibini Tunzi at the 2019 Miss Universe pageant on Sunday, fellow competitor Miss USA, Cheslie Kryst, celebrated both her own Top 10 and the fact that all four top worldwide pageant titles are currently…Read more...

A high-ranking NYPD leader who oversees the department’s subway policing division has come under increased scrutiny in the last week as former subordinates have publicly called out the leader on his racism—even going so far as to refer to him as “David Duke in uniform.”Read more...

Last spring, when Kimora Lee Simmons announced that Baby Phat was coming back, those of us who enjoyed the label at its ‘90s and early-aughts heights admittedly got a thrill—though we knew full well those velour tracksuits might not look quite as flattering on us 20 years later. (Fun fact: According to a release from…Read more...

On the laundry list of things I wanted to be when I grew up, being a teacher was probably dead last. In part because I knew I’d never have the patience, but primarily because I knew I’d never get away with involving slave auctions in my assignments.Read more...

Call them stocking stuffers, Kwanzaa presents, or“just because” treats, but we all know that sometimes the best gifts come in little packages. And while we firmly believe in quality over quantity, there’s no reason you can’t give both this season (as those of us lucky enough to have fond memories of counting our…Read more...

“This whole year has just been a lot for me. I feel like people are just so tired of me winning. I will look for my name on Twitter, and it’s like hate tweets, hate tweets, hate tweets,” Cardi B tells Vogue in her January cover story—one of four featuring famous mothers. Acknowledging that the medium that helped…Read more...

Welp, it looks like Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction is ironclad.Read more...

Every Christmas since I was young, my mom has given me a pair of socks. As a child, I didn’t appreciate the value of receiving a gift I actually needed, but now, as a broke twenty-something, socks are all I want. I’m a firm believer in useful gifts, and socks are one of the most universally useful things you can buy…Read more...

Police are often accused of practicing racial bias. The head of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Florida has been relieved of duty after ordering one of her officers to take that bias to another level.Read more...

So you want to be president.Read more...