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Please Allow Us to Reintroduce Ourselves
Hello. We’re The Root. Once a gleam in a noted professor’s eye, nurtured and carefully tended to by a tireless warrior woman and a bevy of brilliant bosses, we have been through the fire and walk among you the unburnt, First of Our Names, Blog of Unapologetic Blackness, Snatcher of Wigs, Bane of Bigots, #TeamRoot,…
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Donald Trump Is Our Next President, Thanks to White Voters
The human embodiment of white privilege is the next president of the United States. Just after 2:40 a.m. Wednesday, news reports rang out that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had conceded the election to Donald J. Trump as several states remained too close to call but were unlikely to turn in her favor. Now…
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The One Reaction Everyone Should Have to Donald Trump’s RNC Nomination Speech
Donald Trump is the GOP nominee. No more presumptive. He’s it. He’s the man. He’s the one the Republicans have quarterbacking their team this election season. On Thursday night, Trump gave a loud, boisterous, bleak speech in which he gladly accepted the Republican Party’s nomination of him for president. So this is real now. And…
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#WeWontBeSilent: 2 Things the DOJ Can Do Now to Stop Police Violence
Two more black men became a hashtag on Twitter last week: Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. It’s a modern marker of our times, of an unnatural death publicly witnessed through a cellphone-camera lens. They were both killed by police officers for dubious reasons: They owned guns in states where carrying guns publicly is legal, but…
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What My Father and Juneteenth Taught Me About Having ‘Expectations’
I wouldn’t know Juneteenth without my father. He’s the Texan. He grew up celebrating the holiday that started on June 19, 1865, when slaves on Galveston Island, Texas, finally learned they’d been freed under the Emancipation Proclamation two years prior. Even though he now lived in St. Louis, he’d always make the same jokey reference…
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Who’s the Keeper of Your Mother’s Memories When She Can’t Remember Them?
Now, are you someone I’m supposed to know? She’s nice enough on the phone. Pleasant, even. So pleasant that it could be normal if you wanted to pretend. But then, she’s always been nice, always liked to talk, even if she had nothing to say. This was no different, although these days she has good…
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Trump Takes All 5 States in Tuesday’s Primaries; Clinton Wins Md., Del., Conn. and Pa.; Sanders Takes RI
Updated Tuesday, April 26, 10:32 p.m. EDT: Hillary Clinton won four out of five Democratic primary contests Tuesday night, winning the state of Connecticut against Bernie Sanders, according to the Associated Press. A total of 55 delegates were at stake in the state. In Tuesday night’s contests, part of the so-called Acela primary, 172 delegates are…
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A Transformative Artist Known as Prince
Prince Rogers Nelson, a man who transcended musical genre and defied definition, was found dead in his Paisley Park complex in Minnesota on Thursday. He was 57. Irreplaceably unique, Prince was a flamboyant, innovative artist whose songs were as varied and layered as his beguiling persona, which captivated audiences and music critics alike for nearly…
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Can Big Girls Get in ‘Formation’ With Beyoncé’s Ivy Park?
During one of the many industry downturns that have plagued me, us and everyone in media since the advent of the Internet, I took a job folding clothes at a Macy’s in North St. Louis County, Mo. It did not pay anywhere near as much as my long-lost job as a newspaper reporter in Bakersfield,…
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‘It’s About Revolution’: Underground Gets Real About Escaping Slavery
Why another slavery narrative? One TV show cast is asking, “Why not?” That was the sentiment of the stars, writers and producers of the new slavery-based TV show Underground, premiering March 9 on WGN. The cast and crew, who were in Washington, D.C., last week to promote the series, spoke with The Root about the need…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
