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BET’s In Contempt Confronts America’s Unjust Legal System While Giving Us a Black Leading Lady
BET is shaking the table with its new series, In Contempt. The show stars Erica Ash as Gwen Sullivan, an opinionated and passionate public defender who sincerely cares about her clients—the downtrodden who need her legal services because they can’t get the legal help they deserve. This procedural drama is out to reveal something many…
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Watch: What It’s Like to Be a Black Woman in Hollywood
Diversity and representation are the hot-button topics in Hollywood right now. In an industry that reflects the world in which we live, black people and women—so, basically black women—are often underrepresented in Hollywood. But people like Tyler Perry are changing that. Sure, he’s a polarizing figure based on his content, but you can’t deny his…
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Judge of Characters: The Hatred of Black Women
The death of Stephon Clark does what many black men’s deaths at the hands of police do: rally the troops to protest why, for some strange reason, black lives seemingly don’t matter. There’s no way for us to think otherwise when Clark was shot down in less than seven seconds in his grandmother’s backyard. But…
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Watch: Roxanne Shanté Explains How She Created Hip-Hop Diss Records
Lolita Shanté Gooden, aka Roxanne Shanté, is a hip-hip icon, a living legend, if you will. Netflix has released Roxanne Roxanne, a biopic that chronicles Shanté’s humble beginnings in Queens, N.Y., in the ’80s. Shanté was a solidified rap staple from the Queensbridge Houses. She could rap circles around anybody and quickly became the go-to…
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The Root, Very Smart Brothas and The Glow Up Went to Los Angeles to Get All Urban by Nature
For the first time ever, The Root teamed up with Very Smart Brothas and The Glow Up for a panel event all about black folks and the great outdoors. We tapped OWN publicist James Ward III and marketing and advertising professional Crystal Marie McDaniels, as well as our own Maiysha Kai, Damon Young and Panama…
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Jesus, Imma Let You Finish, but Judas Had the Best Performance in Jesus Christ Superstar Live!
On a very rare Easter Sunday-April Fools’ Day hybrid, John Legend (Jesus), Brandon Dixon (Judas), Sara Bareilles (Mary Magdalene), Alice Cooper (King Herod) and a full cast of superstar talent joined forces for Jesus Christ Superstar Live! The show is admittedly not one of my favorites. To be fair, I’ve never given the show a…
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This Easter, We Get a Black Jesus and His Name Is John Legend
What are you doing this Easter Sunday? I’ve got a suggestion: Check out one of the most iconic musicals ever, Jesus Christ Superstar, live on your TV screens on NBC. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s powerful rock opera, which chronicles the final week of Jesus’ life, is being resurrected as Jesus Christ Superstar Live! with John Legend…
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Judge of Characters: Black Lives Don’t Matter
There’s something so beautiful about the students-turned-activists who have emerged from the awful tragedy of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. Instead of being victims, these kids became champions for human rights and gun control, reflected in the March for Our Lives on Saturday. They have been fully embraced by almost everyone. However, the Black Lives…
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Will Smith Lends His Voice to One Strange Rock, a Thrilling Series About the Wonders of Earth, With a Dope Spin
This world we live in has proved to be … one strange rock, which is the name of the new National Geographic series that shows us all the wonders of the world. The cherry on top is that we get to learn about these wonders from the authoritative yet soothing voice of Will Smith. Smith…
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Watch: Who Is Feminism For?
For Women’s History Month, Jezebel and The Root are partnering for JezeRoot, a series that focuses on women of color, domestic workers and sex workers. The textbook definition of feminism is a movement or a set of ideas that champion equal rights for women. However, feminist activists over the last 50 years have struggled to…
