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Your Racism Is Showing: Coronavirus and the Racist History of Pandemics
“There are some members of the Trump administration who continue to refer to [COVID-19] as the ‘Wuhan virus,’ and I think this continues to perpetuate this very strong link between Asian people more generally or Chinese people more generally and the virus itself…And this tendency to kind of shift it, to reduce it to this…
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Self Made and Snatching Wigs: How Netflix's Madam C.J. Walker-Inspired Series Authentically Styled Black Hair on Set
She did everything with the products that would have been available to Madam. She didn’t use hot combs, when she rolled the hair it would be with a paper bag or with cloth. So she was very innovative in how she styled me. — Octavia Spencer text Madam C.J. Walker is a history-making black woman.…
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ABFF Honors 2020: The House That Black Hollywood Built
The “category” was excellence, and Black Hollywood showed up and showed out. On Sunday night, the Beverly Hilton was bustling with black actors—I like to call them blacktors—producers and press gathered for the ABFF Honors, a space that Black Hollywood built to recognize our excellence in film and television. (After all, if we don’t, who…
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Luke's Game of Love: Watch Musician Luke James Talk Love, Sex and Attraction
First things first: don’t call singer-songwriter Luke James a thirst trap. “I honestly think I’m a goofball and people don’t know that about me. I play it well.” The Grammy-nominated singer continued, “I’m not doing anything on purpose. It’s all in your head. If I’m a thirst trap, it’s all in your head.” OK, okay.…
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Hoodwinked History: How False Civil Rights Narratives Distort Modern Freedom Struggles
Black history is American history. Full stop. But somehow the narratives we’re taught often grossly misrepresent the history of black people in America. After all, a true and full history of the United States would require a reckoning of a not-so-great country, one that’s mired in hate and fear. The history of the civil rights…
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Oscars Still White: April Reign Explains Why 'Diversity' Alone Isn't Cutting It
“If you’re throwing a party and you want everybody to come, equity is ensuring that there are different price points. Diversity is inviting everybody. Inclusion is actually asking people to dance once they’re at the party.” —April Reign text It’s 2020 and this awards season is looking real white. What happened to all of those…
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A Quest for Justice: Just Mercy Cast on the Racial Inequality in the Criminal Justice System
“Slavery doesn’t end in 1865, it evolves. It’s that century of lynching and terrorism. And then it becomes racial apartheid and Jim Crow segregation. And now it has become over-incarceration and excessive punishment.” —Bryan A. Stevenson text Bryan A. Stevenson is a gift. As an attorney and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative—an organization dedicated to…
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Twitter Fingers on Fleek: How Black Twitter Changed the World
“When you can change the way companies market and brand their products because you are in this collective, that’s power. When you can swing votes. That’s power. There’s so many things that black people—Black Twitter—has been able to do as a collective that reflect the power that we have just as a people.” —Feminista Jones…
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Hot Off the Press: Melanated News Strikes Again
Melanated News! Get your Melanated News here! What is Melanated News, you say? As black folks, Melanated News is a fictitious news show full of humor and some stories that we wish were true. Courtesy of your homies on The Root’s video team, Melanated News is back. The Root 100 Gala has come and gone,…
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Saying Farewell to an Icon: Cicely Tyson, Lenny Kravitz, Angela Bassett and More Honor the Life of Diahann Carroll
How does one say farewell to an icon? On Sunday, the best in black excellence gathered to bid Diahann Carroll adieu. It was a cold and dreary day in New York City, but there was a buzz in the Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway. There were plenty of hugs and handshakes in the crowd—even a…
