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Why I’ve Returned to the Black Salon When Folks Are Leaving in Droves
The long waits. The double-booking. The general “unprofessionalism.” The cost. I had a lot of reasons to give up on hair salons, specifically black ones, more than 10 years ago. In the early years of the recession, there was story after story of black salons struggling as more and more black women moved away from…
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Bill Cosby to Push for Education in Rural Ala.
Alabama, Bill Cosby is coming for you. The Associated Press is reporting that the besieged comedian and actor will visit Alabama Thursday and Friday, putting the spotlight on schools in the state’s rural, impoverished Black Belt. He’ll also meet and march with high school students in Selma, crossing the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge (the scene…
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Lupita Nyong’o Slays Cannes in Her Green Gucci Gown (Which Also Slays)
Lupita Nyong’o is perfect. Just here to say that. She is perfect and I’m here for this, and her dress for Cannes was perfect. She twirled in it perfectly. Her perfect smile radiated from across oceans to our computer screens. She is perfect. Perfection is Lupita. Look at this. Just look at it. Look at her!…
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Raven-Symoné Also Thinks Harriet Tubman Shouldn’t Be on the $20 Bill
Broken clock: Right once a day? Or wrong 99 percent of the time? Either way, since The View keeps giving Raven-Symoné a platform, we have no choice but to talk about whatever comes out of her mouth. Here’s the latest bon mot out of the mouth of wayward “baes,” about putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. Raven would…
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You Are Not Your Disease
In late 2005 I was hospitalized over the Christmas holiday at a facility in Los Angeles. I went by choice, willingly submitting myself for observation, medication, therapy and testing like a good guinea pig. I needed to go, after all. I had been misdiagnosed, and finally, by staying for almost a month, I would get…
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In Baltimore, and Everywhere, Activists Need to Stay Together Despite Differences
In 2003, Baltimore activist Hassan Giordano and several of his friends formed the Youth Empowerment Movement, an umbrella organization for several of Baltimore’s youth-oriented nonprofits to join. The group had an immediate impact, creating Baltimore’s Youth Commission, which in turn went on to successfully fight to keep recreational centers open; got the minimum age for…
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Looking for a Voice for Baltimore’s Voiceless
North Charles Street in Baltimore has the names of the dead upon it, written in chalk, going on for several blocks. The names are starting to fade, under wear and rain, but death is permanent, and the permanence of those dead men, women and children, printed in yellows, pinks and blues, is on the minds…
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Who Runs Baltimore? Black Women … and Their Hair?
It’s hard to find hope in a tragedy. And Freddie Gray’s death and the subsequent unrest are incredible tragedies. But out of that tough narrative, something else interesting has emerged. Black women (and their fierce hair) are running things. Never before with any news story in recent memory have I seen so many black women…
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Your Kid’s Hair: Fight It, Put a Hat on It or Let It Be?
Your kids’ hair. They don’t want you to comb it. They never want you to comb it. Maybe they won’t sit still. Maybe they’re tender-headed and the combing hurts. Maybe they’ll just mess it right back up two seconds after you went through all that work. Maybe they’re babies. Babies are the ultimate in not…
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Is the Rev. Jamal Bryant the Man to Save Baltimore?
The Rev. Jamal Harrison Bryant is emotionally spent. The past 11 days had taken their toll when The Root spoke with Bryant, 43, over the phone Wednesday. We asked him how he was handling these “hectic” days—his home city of Baltimore mired in charges of police brutality, the suspicious death of Freddie Gray while in…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
