The Root

In the weeks and months following his untimely death, so much has been revealed about the business machinations of one Ermias Asghedom, aka rapper, community activist and visionary businessman Nipsey Hussle.

Shots fired. That’s the take among reviewers of the Obamas’ first foray into TV production, which looks at the promise to America’s Rust Belt unfulfilled by the Trump administration.

A wise commenter once said, “Girl, never go on a date hungry. Also, never decline date continuation suggestions after he’s seen your makeup drip and your hair swell up like Donna Summer!”Read more...

Mentorship is something that’s a rarity for many creatives. Too many people go through their respective fields making mistakes that could have been easily avoided if someone took the time to point them in the right direction. Now, before you start your thumb thuggery, I am not saying mentors do not exist; what I am…Read more...

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

I don’t know when, exactly, I decided to get a Ring video doorbell, but I do know that one day I got it in my head that I needed some minor surveillance around my door, after a series of unfortunate events. Events like the various times both UPS and the USPS claimed to have delivered items directly to my front door,…Read more...

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in what we now know as Virginia. Their voyage was, no doubt, filled with unspeakable horror and death, and their presence would forever change the United States—especially when examining the way this country approaches policing.

It’s hard describing what many of us know as the infamous Bronner Brothers Hair Show to those who have never attended. Twice a year in February and August, it goes down—almost always in Atlanta—and the summer show is by far the most popular. Since it started in 1947, a little bit of everybody has rolled through the…Read more...

I don’t remember when exactly I first realized there was such a thing as class. I think I might have been 10 or 11, but I’m not certain. But even before I possessed the language to articulate class distinctions, I understood them. I knew where my family existed on that spectrum. I knew what where we lived, what sort…Read more...

The “we” in “We The North” may consist of three particular people this September—well, at least at the 44th Annual Toronto Film Festival (TIFF), that is.Read more...

During his senior year at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, our forever President Barack Obama was a member of the 1979 Hawaii State Champion boys’ varsity basketball team. Now, 40 years later, for the low, low price of $120,000, an unidentified collector is the proud new owner of 44’s game-worn jersey, according to …Read more...

New York Attorney General Letitia “Tish” James is not here for any of Donald Trump’s fuckshit. Not only is she New York’s top law enforcement officer but she has no problem using every ounce of her authority to go after Trump and his possibly nefarious dealings. As it stands, Tish James has probed the Trump…Read more...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is run by Ben Carson—aka the Clarence Thomas of the Trump administration—is finishing off Carson’s mission of completely destroying the department before he leaves his post in 2020.Read more...

I believe everyone has a shortlist of people they’ve always wanted to see perform live but never really had the chance to. For me, that list consists of folks like Whitney Houston or Michael Jackson. However, there’s a sub-list of legendary people who are (thankfully) still here on earth that I haven’t seen on stage.…Read more...

Has the time come when Lil Nas X can’t ride his horse “no more?” Well, he won’t be riding it on No. 1 Boulevard any longer because “Old Town Road” has been dethroned.Read more...

If ever there was a perfect justification for throwing hands, it’s the discovery that staffers at your 7th grader’s middle school filled in his fade with a Sharpie.Read more...

Conspiracy theories aside, Jeffrey Epstein is one of the latest and most prominent of the hundreds that die by suicide yearly in America’s jails. His untimely death saw the Bureau of Prisons chief fired and caused heads to roll at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center: the warden of the jail was reassigned, and…Read more...

To commemorate the quadricentennial anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans in America, we imagined what it would be like to cover that late August day when the first slave ship landed on the shores of the place now known as Hampton, Va.

Georgia is doubling down on its recently signed law virtually outlawing abortion in the state, telling a federal court that it should dismiss an effort by the American Civil Liberties Union to stop the law from taking effect.

Basketball great Steph Curry on Monday pledged to fund a new golf program at Howard University, with a gift to be made over six years to give the HBCU time to build a Division I sports program.

The Catholic Diocese of Memphis (Tenn.) is facing backlash after a black housekeeper lost out on a cleaning job after church staffers reportedly claimed a priest’s dog “doesn’t like black people” and therefore she’d need to find work elsewhere.

There’s a lot to love about eating healthier—but the cost isn’t one of them; a point that has been roundly driven home to me, as I’ve attempted to comply with 22 Days Nutrition, the plant-based eating plan designed by Beyoncé’s trainer and nutritionist, Marco Borges. For those of you who have wondered aloud if I’ve…Read more...

The fears of low-income women who rely on Planned Parenthood for reproductive health services were confirmed on Monday: In response to attempts by the Trump administration to stifle abortion rights by imposing a gag order on health practitioners, the 103-year-old organization announced that it has opted to withdraw…Read more...

The far-right Proud Boys, the wandering group of mostly white men who you can spot wearing their “PB” branded polos, vow to continue their inbred form of American terrorism every month in Portland, Ore., after what they claimed was a successful rally this weekend, USA Today reports.

There are certain things we can always depend on being fact: Water will always be wet, fire will always be hot and the world would be lost without black women. Facts are facts, America.

In its efforts to deter police shootings and change the culture of its police departments, California has officially adopted one of the strictest laws in the country regarding police use of deadly force.Read more...

Raise the curtains for a Don Cornelius-esque intro, because Soul Train is coming to Broadway!Read more...

Five years after “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry for police accountability in light of the unnecessary death of 43-year-old Eric Garner, comes the news that the officer responsible, Daniel Pantaleo, has been fired.

In an attempt to control the narrative around mass shootings in the United States, a leaked memo reveals the GOP’s strategy in doing so: Point the finger at the left and minimize the role of white supremacy at all costs.Read more...

Turns out that those cheering plant workers behind President Trump at the Pennsylvania petrochemical plant didn’t have many choices when it came to attending the event. In fact, they only had three choices: either attend the event to get paid, use paid time off, or don’t attend and not get paid for the day. Oh, and if…Read more...

“There was Brenda, LaTisha, Linda, Felicia, Dawn, LeShaun, Ines and Alicia, Teresa, Monica, Sharron, Nicki, Lisa, Veronica, Karen, Vicky (damn), Cookie, well I met her in a ice cream parlor, Tonya, Diane, Lori and Carla, Marina, Selena, Katrina, Sabrina, about three Kims (WHAT?) LaToya and Tina, Shelley, Bridget,…Read more...

Please think about what I am about to say: An American mayor was assigned security after a public feud with the president of the United States, because the American mayor needed protection from the sycophants who follow the president.

We’ve expressed this sentiment more than once, but it needs to be repeated: Rihanna has successfully executed the best troll in modern music.Read more...

State Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Ill.), has apologized to Trump and all who support him for an incident that happened at a fundraiser. And by incident, I mean that one of Sandoval’s supporters pointed an automatic weapon—which was likely fake—at a person wearing a Donald Trump mask. Basically, the man staged an…Read more...

I know they think we all look alike, but with the assortment of distinct tattoos that adorn Tyrone Lamont Allen’s right cheek, forehead and left eye, it’s pretty damn hard to mistake the 50-year-old for anybody else. Yet, when a string of bank heists occurred in April 2017 and not a single bank teller could recall…Read more...

Up until last week, one of Black Twitter’s conundrums is deciding whether to choose $500,000 or an apparent lucrative dinner with Jay-Z. Well, Jermaine Dupri may be able to tell us just how beneficial that hypothetical dinner would be.Read more...

For Heather Heyer and her fellow anti-racist protestors, two years after Charlottesville.

Now, you know if Donald Trump has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (which fabulously continues to be vandalized), that music producer, New Jack Swing-originator, and thin-mustachioed crooner Teddy Riley been should have had one.Read more...

A recent Quinnipiac poll found 50 percent of white Americans do not believe Donald Trump is racist. Among evangelicals, the poll goes on to say, “While half of voters think President Donald Trump is racist, religion shows an even bigger divide. Only 21 percent of white evangelicals believe the President is racist.”

Once again, something that started so innocuously, with the words, “Hey guys” spoken by a police officer, has left bullets in the back of a dead black teen.

Get a free Echo Dot when you buy a Fire TV, Instant Pot Max, and a 20-pack of AmazonBasics AA Batteries lead of Sunday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

Buy an Insignia or Toshiba Fire TV Edition, Get a 3rd Generation Echo Dot For Free | AmazonRead more...

Wendy Williams’ life got more loop-de-loops than Six Flags.Read more...

No surprise here. If police are barely investigated, hardly charged, and scarcely convicted for killing black people—on video—why would they face any sort of consequence for parading a black man through the streets tied to a rope while on horseback?

With at least half of his 30 pieces of silver, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter will soon acquire a “significant ownership interest” in an NFL team, reports TMZ, making him the first black person to be an owner in the league’s history. The team itself was not disclosed, but a source told the site that the deal is imminent and…Read more...

Airblown Movie Screens Gold Box | AmazonRead more...

Apparently, as far as the Trump administration is concerned, employers have every right to fire transgender people.

Some 3 out of every 4 inmates in Illinois prisons are black, yet, an Illinois prison banned an inmate education program from using books discussing black history or empowerment due to their “racial” content.

Seventeen-year-old Dorian Harris shoplifted a $2 beer from a local corner store and it cost him his life. Now, the store clerk responsible for shooting and killing the teen is facing up to 60 years in prison after being found guilty of murder in the second degree.

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