The Root

The North Face Sale | Backcountry

Tonight I bring to you yet another example of the current administration being nothing but a group of white supremacists.Read more...

It’s no secret that black students are punished at a far higher rate than their white counterparts. On top of that, it seems like every week we’re reporting on some racist assignment or event that occurs in an American school. A school district in Chandler, Arizona is trying to take steps to do better. Actually, I…Read more...

There were many fears going into Monday’s gun rights rally in Virginia. For starters, it isn’t exactly the best look for a rally featuring the MAGA crowd to be held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Granted, Lobby Day in Virginia has traditionally been held on MLK Day in Virginia but, you know, still. Add in to the fact…Read more...

A white supremacist with a gun killed Martin Luther King Jr.Read more...

That’s the spirit.

One thing that I learned in this business is to never write people off.Read more...

It’s been a good week for black history. Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, last week it was announced that World War II hero Doris Miller would be honored by the U.S. Navy with an aircraft carrier named for him and on Sunday, school officials said that Dr. Jonathan Holloway, the provost of Northwestern University,…Read more...

Disclaimer: This is quite the polarizing subject matter so I will try to keep it copacetic. To paraphrase the famous words of Angela Bofill (and Leela James): “I’ll Try.”Read more...

Former Vice President and Democratic candidate Joe Biden paid a visit to Sunday services at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C., to pander to black peo— I mean, to speak about his run for the presidency and to urge the largely black congregation to fight back against the environment of hatred and bigotry…Read more...

In the spring of 1969, Coretta Scott King stood in front of a packed church in Charleston, S.C., to address a group of striking hospital workers. She wore a simple white dress and layered strands of necklaces, her pressed, shoulder-length hair nestled under a blue cap with 1199 written in large, white lettering.Read more...

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, everyone!Read more...

It’s time for black leaders to end our Stepin Fetchit approach to racial equity. Overemphasizing our failings has unified friend and foe in defining black people by poverty, pathology, and problems. While we’ll never ignore those conditions, they have never defined us.

No, Cynthia Erivo didn’t snag the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture (say that seven times fast) for her titular role in Harriet. But she did win one of The Glow Up’s Best Dressed nods for the incredible custom Schiaparelli couture ball gown…Read more...

On what would have been his 91st birthday, we celebrate the towering legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—his moral force as a faith leader, his devotion to nonviolent resistance and, of course, the sacrifices he made to end legalized segregation in the South.

For those who wonder how Michelle Obama stays in shape, the Forever First Lady has a workout playlist that features some of the biggest songs by some of the biggest music acts on it.Read more...

To the chagrin of the many detractors who continue to write her off, Mo’Nique has rebounded in a big way.Read more...

They got the right one on the wrong day!Read more...

When I saw photos of Queen Elizabeth II wearing a headscarf and a bewildered, vaguely hostile expression in the wake of the bombshell departure of the Duchess and Duke of Sussex, my first thought was: They didn’t know who they were messing with.

Man, I hate it when black people disappoint me. Especially black educators. I wouldn’t say I get embarrassed when they end up in headlines behind stupid shit; I don’t give credence to the idea that individual black people can represent all that we are as a whole. And I think the notion is racist as hell. But I’m often…Read more...

I’ve always thought that if, on the fateful day when Colin Kaepernick chose to remain seated during the National Anthem in protest of police violence against black people, the media, zealous patriots, and angry white people, in general, would’ve just ignored him and not made such a big to-do about it, the NFL…Read more...

This Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It’s a day of remembrance when we honor one of the most renowned civil rights leaders in U.S. history. A man who certainly stood for peace, but, most of all, equality and justice. A man who is often made out to be synonymous with non-violent protest. In Richmond, Va., on the…Read more...

Goodreads Choice Award Winners & Nominees Kindle Gold Box | Amazon

Move over Rachel Dolezal.Read more...

Donald Trump is most likely the worst person to get a gift from; especially on your birthday.Read more...

Hot damn heaux, here we go again!Read more...

There’s a large 49-by-69-inch photograph in the National Archives Museum in Washington D.C. which celebrates the centennial of women’s suffrage by depicting the massive crowd that filled Pennsylvania Avenue NW for the Women’s March on Jan. 21, 2017, the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Viewed from…Read more...

I mean...not that we needed yet another story tying Trump support to good-old-fashion American racism, but we got one via a 53-year-old pilot for Endeavor Air, a regional subsidiary of Delta, in today’s “Yep, Water is Still Wet as Hell” news.Read more...

Black History Month is kicking off early this year as one of our lesser mentioned black American heroes gets honored by the U.S. Navy.Read more...

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VitaCup Gold Box | AmazonRead more...

Tom Steyer, who is making some surprising inroads with African-American voters in South Carolina, has just picked up two more endorsements from powerful members of the state’s Democratic leadership and one more from neighboring North Carolina.Read more...

There are fears that an upcoming “gun rights” rally this Monday in Virginia has the potential to become the next Charlottesville. Unfortunately, those fears may be come to fruition.Read more...

To be black in America is to exist in a state of perpetual exhaustion and mild paranoia. If you thought you were alone in feeling that the current presidency has exacerbated that exhaustion, you are very much not.Read more...

I think it’s safe to say that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds the title for most outwardly racist agency in Homeland Security. But that isn’t stopping the folks at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from giving them a run for their money.Read more...

The low, rolling rumble you hear on the horizon? Those are the grunts of legions of men, women, and horny teens doing deep stretches so they can shoot their shot.

Now this is a story all about how

Virginia’s long-standing love affair with the Confederate flag has no bounds. And in what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, a school board in Rocky Mount has ruled that yes, the rebel flag will still be welcomed with open arms in the district’s updated dress code.Read more...

In a celebrity landscape that increasingly includes stars like Lupita Nyong’o, Viola Davis, Jodie Turner-Smith, Yvonne Orji, KiKi Layne, Danai Gurira and more, it can easy to convince yourself that we’re moving into a post-colorism era in Hollywood...and like the farce that was “post-racial,” you’d be wrong.Read more...

In what can only be called clown shit, President Trump will enter his Senate impeachment trial with former Bill Clinton special prosecutors Kenneth Starr and Robert Ray, plus retired Harvard constitutional law professor Alan Dershowitz, as his attorneys.

Odell Beckham Jr. lives for attention.Read more...

God doesn’t make mistakes, but people do. And sometimes those mistakes look like black aunties, who, in 2020 the year of our Lord Megan Thee Stallion, have the sensibilities of house negroes on dope.

The office of Baltimore’s top prosecutor Marilyn Mosby released a voicemail this week sent to Mosby after she visited St. Louis to stand in solidarity with another progressive black woman prosecutor, Kim Gardner. The St. Louis prosecutor is filing a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging city leaders and the police…Read more...

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When historians write about the 45th president, they will have to use photos and crayons or else the president himself won’t be able to read it. Because it turns out that the president of the United States, the man who 53 percent of white women voted into office, is about as smart as a second-grader who doesn’t read…Read more...

Once upon a time, there was a really popular TV show on HBO called Game of Thrones. We’ve written about it a few times at The Root; it’s a show about ambitious white people in an ancient realm who have a lot of incestuous sex, ride dragons and dream of ruling the world. A perfect metaphor for the Trump era.

I didn’t expect to get choked up in front of Ayanna Pressley.Read more...

Hey, fam! Remember that time we all rejoiced because Aaliyah’s full discography was coming to streaming services? Sike!Read more...

Ronald W. Walters is remembered as a prolific, award-winning author and activist who published over 100 books and academic articles dissecting race and society in America. But to the students and faculty at Howard University, he’s revered for the decades he served as both a professor and chair in the school’s…Read more...

“In every scene, you are my star...Happy Birthday, baby!” wrote forever mack President Barack Obama in an Instagram tribute to the first lady in his life, Michelle Obama, in celebration her 56th birthday, today, Jan. 17. But it’s not Mrs. Obama’s enduring good looks and muscle tone that have us swooning on her…Read more...