The Root

For The Inventory this year, we’re breaking out our #SGapproved gift guides into two tiers for men and women - one for when you’ve said, “I like you” and another for when you’ve said “I love you.”Read more...

Honestly, we don’t understand a world in which Lizzo—who indisputably had one of the biggest years imaginable in 2019—wasn’t awarded anything whatsoever at this year’s American Music Awards (or at least nominated for Artist of the Year). We admittedly had different expectations, especially after seeing the star feature…Read more...

The 2019 American Music Awards (AMAs) have come and gone, but we need to reminisce about one of the most nostalgic moments of the night.Read more...

An Amazon Warehouse sale, Vera Bradley Black Friday sale, Lulu’s dresses, and a chocolate Gold Box lead off Monday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

When Sarah Huckabee Sanders left her position as White House press secretary six months ago, Donald Trump gave her a glowing review, saying she was “a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job.” He was, of course, lying.Read more...

For black families, Thanksgiving is an entirely different holiday than the traditional feast enjoyed by the dominant culture. When the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621, most black families in America weren’t invited to the festivities. In fact, legend has it that a particularly unruly enslaved…Read more...

Tis the season indeed.Read more...

Black lives matter to some but not all.Read more...

Joycelyn Savage, the girlfriend of R. Kelly who has been widely regarded as his “sex slave,” is telling her story—through a digital crowdfunding platform.Read more...

A huge The North Face sale, Robovac and Echo Dot bundle, and Xbox One and PS4 consoles lead off Sunday’s best deals from around the web.

Tyler Perry to the rescue.

In another example that there are systems in place to protect evil power wielders, Simone Biles has expressed “pain” in learning that her initial sexual abuse claim against team doctor Larry Nassar was basically ignored.Read more...

So you wanna be startin’ somethin’? You got to to be starting something!Read more...

She’s in the money, honey!!!Read more...

Something is still rotten in the cotton.Read more...

In the increasingly fickle world of journalism, longevity is no small feat. So to be celebrating 10 years of being the leading online source of black thought, news, opinions, and excellence was a serious undertaking for The Root crew’s at our 2019 Root 100 gala—a serious undertaking that was a hell of a lot of fun.

Justine Skye knows she’s a bit of a mystery. In fact, the 24-year-old singer has at times been better known for her influencer status and famous friends like Kendall and Kylie Jenner than her music, despite inking her first record deal at 19. Then came her late-2018 single, “Build,” the video to which both continued a…Read more...

What happens to a race hustle, deferred?

Thanksgiving is less than a week away, and if you’re hosting, that means it’s time to dust off your turkey roasting pan that’s probably deep in storage on account of it only being used once a year. I am not quite an Adult, so I still attend Thanksgiving at my parents’ house. My dad usually handles the bird, which…Read more...

Nina Simone opened her banned 1964 song “Mississippi, Goddamn” with the line: “Alabama’s got me so upset…”Read more...

A Frozen Gold Box, eufy RoboVac, succulents, and ButcherBox steaks lead off Friday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

Each year in the United States, more black women get sick or die during and after pregnancy than the year before. That’s because America is the only developed country in the world where maternal mortality has actually increased in recent decades. The U.S. maternal mortality rate—defined as the death of a woman while…Read more...

When it comes to trend stories (or really any story, I suppose), a good editor will ruthlessly cut from your first draft any lazy turns of phrases, or too-obvious observations. In the wintertime, that means dull ledes like, “The holidays are just around the corner!” and “With the temperature dropping, it’s time to…Read more...

Last night was beautiful. Yet another gala for The Root 100 in the books. I’m honestly still recovering, as is most of the staff, I’m sure. But I had to push through this recovery process to share the gift that is Stacey Abrams with the masses. Leader Abrams topped The Root 100 this year and though she could not…Read more...

Hip hop mogul and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs released a statement Thursday in support of Entertainment Studios Network (ESN) founder Byron Allen, who is currently squaring off against the cable TV provider Comcast in a Supreme Court case that could seriously impact the future of racial discrimination lawsuits.Read more...

Indiana University issued a statement Wednesday criticizing one of its conservative professors for his long history of expressing racist, sexist and homophobic statements, even going so far as to mandate that the professor adhere to strict grading guidelines and allowing students to transfer out of his classes.Read more...

Joseph B. Brown, more commonly known as Judge Joe Brown, is an accomplished lawyer, a celebrated television personality, and a full-fledged, whole ass hotep.Read more...

A negrophobic airline passenger was so concerned that blackness was a communicable disease that he reportedly asked a flight attendant to accommodate his Caucasian autoimmune disorder by moving him to another seat.Read more...

It’s been a year full of revivals in Chicago, and in an era where the Greek chorus has been replaced by the legions on Black Twitter, some might wonder what relevance a revival of Sophocles’ circa-429 B.C. tragedy, Oedipus Rex, holds for contemporary audiences. But as a new production at the University of…Read more...

Deputy constable Daryl Jones has been fired after a viral video surfaced in which he was seen harassing a pair of black men in a parking lot for—you guessed it—“acting suspicious.”Read more...

ATLANTA—I’ve seen the word gentrification used for housing and neighborhood displacement, but never did I ever imagine that a person could attempt to gentrify an actually race of people.

Throughout their careers, actors tend to portray characters that challenge their beliefs and/or have morals that they might not necessarily agree with. To some extent, however, most actors tend to at least attempt to connect with their character. So what happens when the character represents a larger sociopolitical…Read more...

In her characteristically irreverent style, on Tuesday, model-actress Slick Woods made another stunning reveal. This time, she seemed to announce a cancer battle (h/t Madame Noire), posting a group photo on Instagram with the cryptic caption:Read more...

I live in New York, where the rooms are small and the roommates are judgemental. The furniture is tight and ugly, and you need clothes for every season.Read more...

Naperville, Ill., police have charged a 14-year-old boy with a hate crime after he allegedly posted a photo of a black classmate on a Craigslist ad captioned, “slave for sale.”Read more...

A Thanksgiving kitchen Gold Box, Anker workout headphones, TaoTronics ANC headphones, and Home Depot work boots lead off Thursday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley is world-renowned for saying stupid and reprehensible things, but his latest attempt at “humor” might be his worst yet.Read more...

“We just want balance, end of story,” says Naomi Campbell in a recent interview with the Guardian. Long one of the few black “supers” (as in supermodels), in recent years, Campbell, in partnership with fellow fashion legends Iman and Bethann Hardison, has become an advocate for diversity in the fashion industry. This…Read more...

What’s up from the ATL! The Root is here in the Dirty South live-blogging from Tyler Perry Studios, home of black excellence and Madea!Read more...

There is one storyline that I pray King Jesus lets us leave in 2019, and that is Jussie Smollett’s alleged hate crime hoax. Today, however, will not be that day.Read more...

Gainesville, Ga., police arrested a white 16-year-old girl for an alleged plot to carry out a knife attack at a black church. A statement released from the Gainesville Police Department Tuesday confirmed that the church was targeted by the girl “based on the racial demographic of the members,” BuzzFeed reports.Read more...

You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump.Read more...

Where are women in the art world consistently celebrated? In 2020, it will be at the Baltimore Museum of Art, which has announced that next year it will only be adding artwork created by women to its permanent collection. In fact, the museum, which is currently hosting the exhibit “Generations: A History of Black…Read more...

ATLANTA—Georgia’s Democratic Party Chair Nikima Williams says the eventual Democratic nominee for president of the United States can win Georgia, if they put in the work.

After his his single “Locked Up,” Akon was determined not to be your run-of-the-mill one-hit wonder.Read more...

After saying there wasn’t a quid pro quo—and then maybe there was—U.S. Ambassador to Not Ukraine finally remembered that he, along with President Donald Trump, Substitute Fixer Rudy Giuliani and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, conditioned U.S. aid and support to Ukraine on their willingness to interfere in the 2020…Read more...

To date, 22 trans or gender-nonconforming people have been murdered in 2019; a majority of them black trans women. Today, Wednesday, Nov. 20, is Transgender Day of Remembrance, a time to not only mourn the lives we’ve lost, but to renew our focus on stemming the epidemic of transphobic violence and better respect and…Read more...

A grand jury has indicted an elected official for fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy for allegedly using the power of their office for personal, political and financial gain.Read more...

In a full-circle moment no one saw coming, A$AP Rocky is giving back to the Swedish jail that held him for several weeks this summer. Using his influence and style-savvy, the entertainer has reportedly designed new uniforms for the detainees of Kronoberg prison, which he once described as “walking into a toilet” (h/t…Read more...

Was there ever a truer affirmation and prophecy than Lizzo declaring herself “100% that bitch?” If we take stock of her Grammy nominations as evidence, the answer is an overwhelming: No, Ma’am!Read more...