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The Yee-Haw Agenda Flourishes: Lil Nas X Adds Country Heavyweight Billy Ray Cyrus to ‘Old Town Road’ Remix
After Billboard, tapping into a long and cherished tradition of erasing black people from country music, decided Lil Nas X’s hit song, “Old Town Road” wasn’t white country enough to make a home on its country charts, the 19-year-old musician offered a clapback for the ages. He added Billy Ray Cyrus—a country-ass motherfucker if you…
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United by Death, Mothers of the Movement Breathes New Life Into Political Agendas
In front of a packed ballroom, Tiffany Crutcher reached into her purse and pulled out a stapled letter, folded and refolded many times over. The letter was from the Department of Justice—only a handful of families in the country have ever received such correspondence from the government. But for the Mothers of the Movement panel…
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Bey Blessed: Beyoncé Reportedly Working on New Music, Coachella-Linked Netflix Special
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Beyoncé, it’s that when the Queen Bey is silent, it usually means she’s getting ready to bestow some blessings upon us. Whether that means new music, a paradigm-shifting performance, or one of the most resplendent and referenced maternity shoots in recent memory—well, that’s harder to predict. But! Allegedly!…
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Lezley McSpadden Loses 1st Ferguson City Council Race
Lezley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown, lost a hotly contested 3-way race for a seat on Ferguson’s city council Tuesday night. Had she won, McSpadden would have helped oversee the police force whose officer shot and killed her son in 2014. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Fran Griffin, a local activist and organizer who…
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After UNC Monument to People of Color Defaced and Urinated on, Police Obtain Warrants for 2 Suspects
The University of North Carolina has obtained arrest warrants for two people accused of defacing a monument to people of color at the state university’s flagship campus over the weekend. According to the Associated Press, which spoke to UNC spokesman Randy Young, no arrests had been made as of Tuesday morning. The warrants were issued…
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Baltimore Mayor Takes Indefinite Leave of Absence Amid Book Scandal
Starting today, Baltimore City Council President Bernard “Jack” Young will assume mayoral duties in place of the city’s mayor, Catherine Pugh, who announced she was taking an indefinite leave of absence on Monday. While Mayor Pugh cites health reasons for the leave—her statement said she has been fighting pneumonia “for the past few weeks”—her office…
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Book Excerpt: 'Love as Political Resistance' From adrienne maree brown's Pleasure Activism
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from adrienne maree brown’s Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, a collection of original and curated works drawing from the black feminist tradition to challenge us to rethink the ground rules of activism. Audre Lorde taught us that caring for ourselves is “not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and…
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Lawyering While Black: Cop Detains Attorney in Courthouse, Accuses Him of Impersonating a Lawyer
It’s a shame there isn’t a tag for stories on The Root called “dumbassery on your tax dollars,” because I promise you, there would be at least one cop story filed there every day. This latest example comes to us from Harford County, Md., where the local sheriff’s office now finds itself the subject of…
