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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…
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Africa's the Future: Why Akon Says That African-Americans Should Invest in the Continent
“When you combine African-Americans and diaspora Africans, that unity itself is what’s gonna make Wakanda actually possible.” —Akon text After his his single “Locked Up,” Akon was determined not to be your run-of-the-mill one-hit wonder. The artist and producer had some foresight, understanding that the shelf life of an artist in a super-fickled entertainment industry…
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She's a 'Lady': Lady and the Tramp's Tessa Thompson Reflects on How Her Dog, Coltrane, Changed Her Life
Beloved Disney film Lady and the Tramp is back! This time, actor Tessa Thompson is the voice of “Lady”—and she has come down with a case of puppy love. While fostering a dog she renamed Coltrane (named in honor of renowned jazz musicians Alice and John Coltrane), Thompson fell instantly in love. Soon after, she decided…
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Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Edward Norton Chat Motherless Brooklyn and Systemic Racism
“Things that we are still grappling with in New York are not things that are happened by osmosis. They actually happened because there was a single individual with a very autocratic and racist approach to the modernization of infrastructure in New York,” —Edward Norton. text Motherless Brooklyn, directed by Edward Norton, is a film based…
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Bish, I Be Running Week 9: Crying? There's No Crying in Training
During last week’s long run, I cried. For those who are unaware, I’m a sensitive person, but I’m tough. As “tough as nails,” per my mother. Abrasion (like, within people) doesn’t really bother me—I can dish it out and take it. I have a high threshold for pain—menstrual cramps have nothing on me. As a…
