No, she’s not your average girl in an intimate apparel campaign —and thank God, since last time I checked, most of us—of all sizes and shapes—buy and wear underwear. But Montgomery, Ala.-born, Nigerian-American rapper-on-the-rise Chika—who first rose to fame last year with a “Jesus Walks”-backed freestyle calling out…Read more...

Let’s get this out of the way—Chiwetel Ejiofor could read the back of a cereal box and have me captivated.Read more...

Halloween is the perfect excuse to dress up your baby—and make the whole family go in on one family costume.

After conquering the Billboard charts, Frank Ocean has set his sights on a new challenge: nightlife.Read more...

A DEWALT Gold Box, a Sugru Hacks for Your Home Kit, and the best noise-canceling headphones lead off Wednesday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

Okay, we don’t really know if that’s the subliminal message behind the bikini-clad Instagram video the entertainer and entrepreneur posted last night (complete with a clutch, chiffon cover-up and tightly rolled spliff). But we do know the universal response wasn’t “When are you due?”Read more...

Cuba Gooding Jr. has pleaded not guilty to additional sexual misconduct charges.Read more...

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A New Orleans man who has long maintained he was wrongly convicted of murder experienced freedom for the first time in 42 years after a virtual deal with the devil won him his liberty, if not true justice.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the long-serving Democratic congressman from Maryland, died early Thursday morning at the age of 68.Read more...

Three women who worked at a North Carolina eldercare facility have been arrested on charges they baited elderly dementia patients into fighting one another.

Maybe it was seeing House Republicans give him the thumbs-down on his pullout game in Syria that pushed him over the edge, but Donald Trump reportedly had a “meltdown” while meeting Wednesday with Democratic congressional leadership after the vote.

For nearly 100 years, the Commonwealth of Virginia has required all couples seeking a marriage license to disclose their race. On Friday, a federal judge found that requirement unconstitutional, writing that the rule “burdens their fundamental right to marry.”Read more...

If the latest round of accusations is true, Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” is more than merely a chart-topping smash—it’s the byproduct of some carefully calculated theft.Read more...

It costs a lot to be a woman. It’s well known that we pay more for clothes, grooming and even health care—all while making less on average than our male counterparts. That disparity is called the “Pink Tax.” Less acknowledged is that it can cost even more to be a black woman, particularly when it comes to basic…Read more...

We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.Read more...

There are many benefits that come from minding your own business. Your skin clears up, your hair flourishes and you feel lighter as a result from not having to carry the weight of things that don’t concern you. With all these benefits, it amazes me that people don’t mind the business that pays them.

What would happen if a police chief found out one of his officers was a part of a white nationalist organization known for violent attacks? What if a jury had already determined that the officer was guilty of violating a citizen’s constitutional rights in a violent attack? What if someone could prove this cop had…Read more...

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Even though I went to Morehouse College in Atlanta, I’m fiercely protective of all historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). While I may talk trash about rival institutions like Howard—it’s really only a rivalry in our hearts; Howard literally does shit no other HBCU can do, and it’s “the Mecca” for a…Read more...

Mostly, Joker was what I expected it to be.Read more...

“Dude got to go,” Sen. Kamala Harris said at last night’s debate in Ohio when asked about Donald Trump and his mishandling of Syria and Turkey.Read more...

As the title suggests, Angie Martinez has promised to uncover the Untold Stories of Hip-Hop with her new We TV series, and if a preview clip from its next episode is any indication, The Voice of New York is about to over-deliver.Read more...

She’s been a viral sensation (more than once), has had a dance party with the forever first lady, and has published her first book—all before the age of five. The adorable little art lover known as Parker Curry can now add “author” to her pre-K resume, as on Tuesday, she and her mom, parenting blogger Jessica Curry,…Read more...

Running sneakers are expensive AF. There’s no way around it.Read more...

The best apology is corrected behavior, they say. But in actress Gina Rodriguez’s case, she’s hoping an iOS press release will do the trick.Read more...

According to a new report, attempted suicide is on the rise among a very specific demographic: black teenagers.Read more...

An Eddie Bauer sale, USB-C Lightning cable, TENS massager, and a Queen Helene scrub discount lead off Wednesday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

Queen & Slim director Melina Matsoukas was somber as she accepted her award at ELLE’s 2019 Women in Hollywood awards ceremony on Monday night. As she explained to the assembled guests, her mind was on Atatiana Jefferson, the 28-year-old killed in her own home on Saturday by police officer Aaron Dean in Fort Worth, Tx.Read more...

Three out of four members of “The Squad”—the influential freshmen congresswomen who have become the face of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing—are planning to endorse Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for president.Read more...

“His mother works at Giant Food Store and his stepfather works at USPS. He can pay the court costs.” Those were the words I heard a Maryland judge utter as she imposed juvenile court fines and fees on the young black man standing before her. There was no inquiry into his family’s expenses—rent, bills, or other…Read more...

The nation’s highest court on Wednesday is set to review the life sentences handed down in the early aughts to a then-teenage Lee Boyd Malvo, convicted of multiple murders as an active accomplice of John Allen Muhammad, the serial killer known as the D.C. Sniper—a review that has even won the support of some whom…Read more...

Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday blew off a congressional subpoena to provide documents and details on his dealings in Ukraine on behalf of Donald Trump.Read more...

Greetings from The Root!

An 8-year-old’s eyewitness account of what preceded his aunt being violently taken from him in an instant, felled by a police officer’s bullet, points to a woman who took out her gun to protect herself and her nephew from a possible intruder skulking about their yard in the middle of the night.

More than 100 black religious leaders have called for the boycott of a white-owned Christian media empire that reaches over 93 million homes after the owner referred to his stable network of black clergymen as his “hoes.”Read more...

“And I always find, yeah, I always find somethin’ wrong/You been puttin’ up with’ my shit just way too long/I’m so gifted at findin’ what I don’t like the most/So I think it’s time for us to have a toast.” —Kanye WestRead more...

Here we all were, minding our own business on a Tuesday, eating our late lunches and trying to stay hydrated when Gina Rodriguez had to start some shit.Read more...

We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.Read more...

A Georgia school district has blacklisted a bestselling book for teens dealing with race, police brutality, Martin Luther King Jr. and the glare of the white gaze, effectively banning the book from the district’s libraries, curriculum and students who want to learn about race, police brutality, Martin Luther King Jr.…Read more...

In the latest installment of white people whitepeopling, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said a very stupid thing.Read more...

Another year, another Rock & Roll Hall of Fame list of hopefuls!Read more...

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The Trump administration has spared no minority group its vitriol and hate, but transgender people have been especially targeted and maligned by the president and his cabinet. It started with his efforts to ban trans people from serving in the military and denying trans people access to medical care.Read more...

Tonight’s debate will potentially be a make-or-break moment for former Vice President Joe Biden, depending on how well he handles questions concerning his diplomacy in Ukraine as well as his son’s past business dealings in the country. ABC News broadcast an interview with Hunter Biden this morning where he admitted…Read more...

Last Saturday—October 12—was my one-year wedding anniversary. My wife and I made a whole day out of it, doing lunch, dinner and getting our staycation on at a hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., and hitting up a speakeasy for the nightcap. One thing we did early in the day was a couple’s massage at a spa located in…Read more...

John E. Reid and Associates, the firm behind the controversial police interrogation method the Reid Technique, has filed a federal lawsuit against When They See Us writer and director Ava DuVernay and network Netflix for defamation, according to Variety. The firm was founded by John E. Reid, a former Chicago police…Read more...

A former police officer who’s been charged with murder after fatally shooting a black woman in her own home as she played video games was released on bail Monday.Read more...

There are precisely two questions Rihanna has been fielding constantly all year—all with fairly good humor: 1) Where is that album you promised? (Answer: lol) and 2) So, uhmm...baby?

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