I’m a well documented SWV fan. But since I’m feeling generous, allow me to document this again. From a piece I wrote called “An Ode to SWV” in February of 2016:Read more...

A few months after the summer cookouts are over and right before hibernation mode kicks in, there’s one last annual turn-up that’s a staple of black culture. It’s that time of the year known as homecoming season—an important time, filled with step shows, galas, panel discussions and more.Read more...

Fifty years. It’s been fifty years since the Stonewall uprising on June 28, 1969. Fifty years worth of struggles, pain, blood, sweat, tears, oppression, erasure, rebellion, progression, and much, much more.Read more...

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) came for Vice President Joe Biden’s neck Thursday night over his lack of support for federally ordered busing to help desegregate the nation’s schools as 10 more Democrats took the stage to make their case for why they should be the next president.

Because (obvi) any Supreme Court justice handpicked for the job by GOP conservatives owes strict allegiance to the Constitution conservatives everywhere, the head of the nation’s oldest conservative advocacy group is calling for Chief Justice John Roberts’ impeachment.Read more...

Just before he was gunned down, Nipsey Hussle had a brief discussion with his alleged killer about whether the man had been “snitching,” prosecutors told the grand jury in the case.

Gizmodo Samsung, What on Earth Are You Doing? | Kotaku Valve Changes Steam Sale After Widespread Complaints From Developers And Players | Jalopnik I Have $200,000 to Spend on Something Faster Than My Audi RS7! What Car Should I Buy? | Skillet I’m YouTuber Natalie Wynn of ContraPoints, and This Is How I Eat | The…Read more...

On the last day of its term, the nation’s highest court churned out two major rulings: One concerning the U.S. Census, the other, the future of gerrymandering.Read more...

The category is: LOVE.Read more...

Despite what various companies try to tell (or sell) you during June, Pride month is about acknowledging and celebrating the legacy of the LGBTQIA+ community.

If the allegations leveled against Macy’s in a recent lawsuit are true, the department store chain could be in serious trouble.Read more...

Ray-Ban Sale | Nordstrom RackRead more...

Nobody won Wednesday night’s first 2020 Democratic presidential debate, but a couple of people lost. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) looked confused for half the night and somehow managed to make Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) look like a foreign policy expert. Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA), despite having more executive experience than…Read more...

On any given day, my partner, Lynnae* and I will be driving, engaged in our usual griping at the utterly reckless ways some Milwaukee drivers shit on safety laws while behind the wheel.

Sperry Oak Island Polarized Browline Aviator | $19 | Eyedictive | Use coupon code KINJA15Read more...

As if juggling student loans and a respectable GPA weren’t hard enough, a new report claims college students have racist rhetoric to contend with as well.

If you’ve spent any time in the South or Midwest, you’ve probably heard a few people claim to have Native American ancestry (“Do you see these eyebrows? This bone structure?”) And, chances are, if they had to name the tribe, they’d tell you their great-great-great grandmother was half-Cherokee.Read more...

Law enforcement officials formally charged a woman with killing her unborn child after she was shot during an altercation when she was five months pregnant, proving once again that the state is willing to criminalize women to protect children at any cost.

The first time I heard Staceyann Chin perform, it was (at the risk of dating myself) during the early aughts Broadway run of Def Poetry Jam, where the poet and activist joined a diverse crew of talents onstage at New York City’s Longacre Theatre for nearly 200 performances, before the show closed in 2003. Even then,…Read more...

Washington, D.C., and its culture absolutely changed my life. I was first introduced to D.C.—outside of the national stories about Marion Barry—in a pre-freshman program the summer before my freshman year at Morehouse College in 1997. A few of the students in the program were from D.C. and they all stood out for their…Read more...

Once upon a time, there was a man named “Old Kanye,” born Kanye Omari West. After suffering a terrible accident, which led to his jaw having to be wired shut, the young rapper released a single titled, “Through The Wire.” That single would launch one of the most compelling careers in hip-hop. Then, several years…Read more...

As favorites like Full House and DuckTales have been resurrected from the grave, black audiences have waited impatiently to revisit some of our most beloved television characters.Read more...

What would we do without our besties? In my case, I’m not sure I would’ve gotten through the first half of the Democratic debates on Wednesday night without text-heckling half of the candidates with my BFF from our respective living rooms, but my criteria for eternal friendship is likely a mite lower than that of…Read more...

It looks like one of Robert “R.” Kelly’s ongoing cases could have a trial start date as early as next year. The R&B singer appeared for an arraignment on June 26, 2019, at Leighton Criminal Court in Chicago, regarding sex-related felony charges involving four women. Three of those women were minors when the alleged…Read more...

30% Off Travel, 30% Off Fireworks Paisley, and 40% Off Summer Sale | Vera BradleyRead more...

In the Democrats’ first presidential primary debate Wednesday night, the candidates each hit on the need for change, but showed differences about how they would achieve such change and on how far such change should go.Read more...

In what will be a major upset to the Democratic Party machine and old-guard Democrats if it holds, a progressive and openly queer Latina attorney appears to have narrowly defeated the party’s pick in the primary election to become the next district attorney for the borough of Queens in New York City.Read more...

Fresh off receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2019 BET Awards, Mary J. Blige is heading into new territory in her life, having struck a TV production deal with Lionsgate.

Welcome to The Root’s Black Power Rankings, where we assess the eleventy-billion Democrats currently running for the chance to face off against Donald Trump for the presidency. Every single candidate running right now knows they need to win black voters to have a chance at the Democratic nomination. Yet how does a…Read more...

All those weeks of feeling like it was taking forever to heat up finally make sense; we were waiting for our former forever first family to give us the go-ahead on summer! (I kid, I kid—or do I?) Thankfully, like a groundhog predicting the coming of spring, the first leaf to fall from a tree, or the unfortunately dry…Read more...

If you think that headline is clickbait, it’s not. It actually paraphrases the official New York Police Department’s training manual.Read more...

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

As if being homeless isn’t stressful enough, imagine waking up from taking a nap inside of the McDonald’s where you work and learning that a picture of you sleeping was uploaded to Facebook.Read more...

I don’t know where you are, but where I’m at it’s hot as hell outside. It’s been in the 90s and a weather notification on my phone this morning mentioned the words “heat wave.” Well, you know what song somehow manages to work perfectly in hot ass weather, even if it’s one of the coolest songs of all time? Roy Ayers’…Read more...

She was the first black female designer to be recognized by the ever-exclusive fashion industry, and two decades after launching her eponymous label, Tracy Reese continues to lead the charge. After taking what appeared to be a well-deserved break from the flurry of biannual Fashion Weeks the past few seasons, the…Read more...

Chicago police and the U.S. Secret Service detained a woman Tuesday evening on suspicion of second-degree loogie-hocking after the dumber of the Trump siblings reported that a bartender had extended the city’s traditional gesture of disapproval by spitting in Eric Trump’s stupid, stupid face.Read more...

The visual for “Press” is here!Read more...

Gooloo Mini Air Compressor | $10 | Amazon | Promo code 9XNRBQ52Read more...

Over the last few years, much of the conversation around Melania Trump has hinged on her foreignness—both in the literal sense, and in the ways she breaks from White House traditions: She’s a former lingerie model, the first first lady in more than two centuries to be born outside of the U.S., and the only one whose…Read more...

Hip-hop’s cultural impact is undeniable and it appears that it’s one step closer to infiltrating what was once considered unimaginable—the Olympics.Read more...

The year was 1996, and one question looped in our heads over and over before the term “meme” was even realized: What’s your favorite scary movie?Read more...

This is what we call “music with a message.”Read more...

In the immediate aftermath of tragedy, the phrase “thoughts and prayers” is probably the last thing you want to hear. Especially if it’s in response to a mass shooting and coming from politicians or public figures with no intention of properly addressing gun reform.Read more...

Montgomery, Alabama, exists as a paradox. It is here that slavers sold other human beings at market, and where a young Rosa Parks set off a campaign that eventually desegregated a nation. In Montgomery, in the shadow of the state capitol building, there is a haggard monument to Robert E. Lee sitting directly across…Read more...

Whenever I sum up Loretta Devine’s highly respected, dense and ongoing career, I cite her as “Everybody’s Mama.” No one can portray a matriarch quite like Ms. Devine can. Don’t believe me? Clock her IMDb page.Read more...

How do you end an era of fashion? If you’re longtime Kenzo designers Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, you want to make your exit even more fashionable than your entrance, which the duo did when presenting their final Men and Women Spring Summer 2020 Fashion Show in Paris on Sunday.Read more...

If you google how Detroit is doing, one of the first words you’ll find in the headlines is “comeback.” The city has bounced back from bankruptcy and its downtown area, in particular, is now booming. But the question of economic recovery is also one of equity: Namely, will longtime black Detroit residents, who stayed…Read more...

Cardi B has made her intentions official—she refuses to sully her 2019 BET Awards Album of the Year win with a little pesky thing called jail. Well, at least, that’s what she hopes…and pleads.Read more...

The Exonerated Five are in the spotlight following the release of Ava DuVernay’s Netflix series, When They See Us. Donald Trump, who took out full-page ads in New York City newspapers calling for the death penalty for the innocent teenagers, still refuses to apologize for participating in the miscarriage of justice…Read more...

Special counsel Robert Mueller, who conducted a years-long investigation into whether Donald Trump and/or his team colluded with the Russians to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, has agreed to share what he knows in a session before Congress next month.