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Black People’s Unprecedented Political Power Won This Election
For months, I’ve been anxious, yet hopeful. Despite all of what we faced this year from the pandemic to the economic crisis to racial violence, I held onto my faith in Black movement. We’re building a future where every Black person can live free with the resources they need to thrive, not simply survive. To…
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It's Time to Stop Watching What's Happening in Tulsa and Do Something About It. The 2 Remaining Survivors Are Waiting
It’s safe to say that Tulsa, my hometown, is having a moment. In 2019, we had Watchmen. Without warning, the opening scene of this acclaimed HBO series plunged viewers into the gut-wrenching violence and horror of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. It was a shocking twist that brought the destruction of Greenwood, affectionately known…
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Africa Is Experiencing Some of the Worst Climate Disasters, But the World Watches California Burn. America Needs to Lead on Climate Change
Editor’s Note: This story is being published as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalistic collaboration to strengthen coverage of the climate story. This summer, on my social media feeds, I’ve been watching the hellish pictures of California burning, of Louisiana being torn down by hurricanes, of extreme temperature changes hitting Colorado, as these…
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The Root 100: Nikole Hannah-Jones Tops Our List of the Most Influential African Americans in 2020
The Root 100 for 2020 is here! Our annual list of the most influential African Americans, ages 25 to 45, honors the innovators, the leaders, the public figures and the game changers whose work from the past year is breaking down barriers and paving the way for the next generation.
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Seeing Myself: Learning to Celebrate Blackness With Photography
Editor’s Note: This story was produced by Consumer Reports, an independent, nonprofit member organization that works to create a fair and just marketplace. Sign up for CR’s free newsletters. In a recent conversation on Facebook, a friend of mine, who is white, noted that he did not see his racial identity as part of himself…
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Medical Algorithms Have a Race Problem
Editor’s Note: This story was produced by Consumer Reports, an independent, nonprofit member organization that works to create a fair and just marketplace. Sign up for CR’s free newsletters. When Vanessa Grubbs first met Eli about a decade ago, he was a muscular man in his 50s. Grubbs, a doctor at Zuckerberg San Francisco General…
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Big Freedia: If I Had Known the 'Queen' in Queen Diva Would Cause So Much Confusion, I Might Have Called Myself the King!
The bullet in my right bicep always aches. It reminds me how everything about me is fair game: who I love, how I dress—indeed, my very body is up for judgment and assault from all quarters, everywhere, all the time. In 2004, I was idling in the driveway of my friend’s apartment building when a…
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A Call to Action to Ensure That Our Community Is Counted
The year 2020 has felt like a decade, and we are only two-thirds of the way through it. This year was already slated to be packed with important moments: the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the presidential election in the fall, and of course, a host of weddings, births, graduations and other important moments in one’s…
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Police Reforms Must Include Reparations for Those Living Through the Trauma of Police Violence
When Eric Garner died after being put in a chokehold by then-New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo on July 17, 2014, his daughter Erica Garner immediately became an activist of the highest caliber. She organized marches, wrote articles, and stood up to demand a conversation with President Obama at the presidential town hall on race…
