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Judge of Characters: It’s a Bad Week to Be a Bill
This was not the week to be a Bill. Or maybe it was a worse week to be Rudy, otherwise known as Keshia Knight Pulliam. Not only did she show up to court in support of Bill Cosby this week, but she said, “The man that I’ve known as a child was funny and witty…
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Watch: Judge of Characters, The Root’s New Digital Show About the Best (and Messiest) of Black Twitter
At this point, we know the power of black Twitter. We set trends, we get folks fired and we are side-crampingly hilarious. So we figured, why don’t we dig into the black Twitter crates each week and serve up the best and messiest 140 characters we can find? Bonus: These tweets are usually about the…
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The Carmichael Show Is Back, and Jerrod Carmichael Says It Will Continue Confronting Black Conversations You Don’t See on TV
The Carmichael Show is easily one of the best black shows on television right now. It stars its namesake and creator, Jerrod Carmichael, as a son, brother and fiance who is not only opinionated but often finds himself in the crossfire of the even stronger opinions of his family. In the first two seasons, we…
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Does Charlamagne tha God Hate Black Women?
Tomi Lahren is a certified troll. Our friend Damon Young of Very Smart Brothas stuck “Darth” in front of her name to truly capture the essence of her evil. She’s like Donald Trump in Becky’s clothing. So when radio personality, author and all-around professional under-your-skin dweller Charlamagne tha God was not only spotted with Lahren…
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Unique Views, Episode 42: When Stuntin’ Goes Wrong
Adulting is hard. This week I complain to podcast co-host Stephen A. Crockett Jr. the third that I’m having a rough time trying to keep up with all the things life gives adults. He does something that surprises me: He listens and even offers me advice. Stephen then goes on to let me know that…
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I Tried to Read Nbecki’s, I Mean Rachel Dolezal’s, In Full Color so You Didn’t Have to, and I Failed
“Because I felt black, I liked being seen as black.” —Nkechi Amare Diallo … or Nbecki text I feel rich and I like being seen as rich. So am I rich? Is that how this works? Maybe it was because my eyeballs have never rolled to the white meat so many times, rendering me unable…
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Watch: Hashtag Revolution: Break the Silence for Black Women and #SayHerName
Hashtags have defined pop culture. You spot them all over social media, and now many of them have become popular phrases, especially when they highlight blackness: #BlackBoyJoy, #BlackGirlMagic, #GrowingUpBlack and the list goes on. Usually these hashtags are met with laughter and reflection on relatability in blackness, but there’s one hashtag that serves not only…
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From A Different World to Dear White People: Meet the Black-TV-Series Whisperer, Yvette Lee Bowser
“We’re all storytellers,” Yvette Lee Bowser said to me during our chat after I asked her how she battles creative blockages. She went on: “Writer’s block only exists when trying to figure out specifically how you’re going to tell the story. I never feel a dearth of stories to tell or characters of whom to…
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Nothing Can Prepare You for How Powerful The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Is
Writers tell stories in hopes that not only are they read but they also come to life. This is what has happened to Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which chronicles the tragic tale of Lacks, a 31-year-old black woman from Clover, Va., whose terminal-cancer diagnosis and undying cells ended up changing…
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Watch: Hashtag Revolution: #BlackTravel Takes the World by Storm
Hashtags have defined pop culture. You spot them all over social media, and now many of them have become popular phrases, especially when they highlight blackness: #BlackBoyJoy, #BlackLivesMatter, #GrowingUpBlack and the list goes on. #BlackTravel has become more than a hashtag; it’s a lifestyle, offering up various imagery of beautiful black people all over the…
