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So, Richard ‘All Lives Matter’ Sherman, Now You Want to Speak Out on Police Violence?
So, Mr. All Lives Matter—Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman—decided that he was gonna use his latest press conference to do nothing but talk about police violence. “I think the last couple days, a couple more guys have gotten shot and killed in the middle of the street. More videos have come out of guys getting…
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Donald Trump’s Factory of Ignorant Black Surrogates
So you’re chilling on the couch, sipping on a cold glass of red Kool-Aid, and you decide to turn on cable news. Maybe it’s MSNBC, CNN or, God forbid, Fox News, but all you want is an honest discussion of the presidential election. Just a bit of information you can repurpose as a Facebook post…
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2 Years After Ferguson, Mo., the Fight Grows, Goes On for Black Lives Matter
It’s been two years since the killing of an 18-year-old unarmed African-American teen named Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., who was Gunned down by a white police officer named Darren Wilson. The killing sparked two weeks of protest from unarmed Black Lives Matter demonstrators carrying signs proclaiming, “I am Mike Brown” and “Hands up, don’t…
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The Mediocrity of Dope: How Donald Trump Hides His Averageness in 'Crazy'
Donald Trump is not insane. I know, I know. That might be terribly hard to prove, particularly since Trump says something crazy about every five minutes. And yes, we’re just about assured that if Trump could somehow be elected president, he’d start a nuclear war with China over a tweet from the Chinese premier declaring…
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Democrats Will Unite After They Finish Self-Destructing Over Emails, Bernie-or-Bust Crowd
As the Democratic National Convention gets underway, it’s always good to remember what Will Rogers once said: “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” And boy, those words have never rung more true than this year. Where the Republicans, when not running Donald Mussolini for president, are usually…
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The RNC Is Over, but Can We Talk About Pastor Mark Burns?
Look, I’m a simple black man. I only have a few rules in life. If you call it “stuffing” instead of “dressing”—the way all right-thinking black folks refer to it—don’t bother friending me on Facebook. You either root for the Los Angeles Lakers or you’re just wasting my time. And if you’re against black people,…
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America, Bye: Why Black America Is Leaving While Staying Put
I was a grad student at the UCLA film school, getting my MFA in screenwriting, when a consumer-trends company asked me to work for them. Why did they want me? Well, they advised major corporations on how to best situate their products for the African-American consumer market, and in order to do that effectively, the…
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Dear White People, Muhammad Ali Didn’t ‘Transcend Race’
When famous African-American celebrities die, you can bet your bottom dollar that if white folks liked them, the word “transcend” is going to pop up in their obits like lies in a Donald Trump speech. For white America, “transcend” is that gold stamp of approval, much more elevated and polite than the old word “credit”—as…
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A Silenced Ali Was a Likable Ali for White People
“I am the greatest.” There will be thousands of well-deserved tributes to Muhammad Ali, and all will talk about his transformation from heavyweight boxing champion to international humanitarian. And that is important to note. But the thing most will miss is how Ali’s voice—a bold black and Muslim voice that spoke eloquently for the aspirations…
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Scold-in-Chief? The Love-Hate Relationship Between HBCUs and President Obama
It’s complicated. That could be the official theme of President Barack Obama’s rapport with the African-American community in general, but even more so regarding his administration’s eight-year relationship with HBCUs, which we examine in this edition of The Root’s monthly series His Lasting Legacy. The expectations that came with the election of America’s first black president—combined…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
