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I See My Dad When I Look in the Mirror, and I’m Terrified I’ll Repeat His Mistakes
I was 34 years old when I could no longer escape the man I never wanted to see again. For the past 30 years, the day designated to celebrate men’s investment in their children has not brought me a great deal of joy. In 1988, just two weeks after Father’s Day, my dad was convicted…
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#SayHerName: 100 Years Ago, Mary Turner Was Lynched
Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions of a lynching, which some may find triggering. Mary Turner was eight months pregnant when she was lynched on May 19, 1918. It all began, as do many things in America, with a mediocre white man. What happened 100 years ago today has been forgotten by America. Like…
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I’m the Son of an Oklahoma Schoolteacher, and the Way They’re Treated Is a Crime
I was walking home from my friend G’s house when I noticed the bright-orange cutoff notice on the door. We had skipped school that day to play Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, so I was surprised when I looked up from playing “Sonic” to see that it was 3:30 in the afternoon. I hurriedly gathered…
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It’s Easy to Believe Conspiracy Theories When Your Country Conspires Against You
From 1979 to 1981, at least 28 black boys and young adults were murdered in the South. Atlanta Monster is a podcast that explores the disturbing and complicated case of Wayne Williams, the person a jury found guilty of what has come to be known as the “Atlanta Child Murders.” Hosted by Payne Lindsey, a…
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A Very Subjective List of the Black Greek-Letter Organizations Each Black Panther Character Would Have Pledged
Black Panther is the official movie of Black History Month 2018—but after I watched the movie, a nagging question lurked in the back of my mind. I’m a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, and for some reason, I incessantly ask myself which black Greek-letter organization would characters in films and TV shows join. Perhaps it…
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Each of the Grammy-Nominated Albums Since 2007 That Should Have Won Album of the Year
The Grammys rarely get it right. I was done with them when I discovered that neither the Notorious B.I.G. nor Tupac won one for their work while alive or after their deaths. And it is not lost on me that when given a choice between the two, the Recording Academy loves to reward music that…
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The 10 Best Worst Black Videos of All Time, Ranked
I love a good bad movie. You know them: Meteor Man, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, Undercover Brother [Editor’s note: Undercover Brother is a brilliant movie, making it good good. —P.J.], Pootie Tang, Crash. Films that are laughably absurd, either on purpose or by accident, but still manage to entertain. Feature films and documentaries have…
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Top 5 Black Movies and TV Shows of 2017 and No, She’s Gotta Have It Didn’t Make the Cut
2017 was a great year for black movies and TV shows, but one would not know it if one looked only at most critics’ year-end top 10 lists. That’s why The Root presents to you the best black films and TV shows of 2017—but first, a few caveats: 1) Power is not on the list…
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Christmas Ain’t Christmas Without My Grandma
The last time I saw my grandmother alive was at my uncle Bobby’s funeral. She looked tired. Grandma breathlessly said, “Hello,” almost unable to get out of her chair. We did our usual routine. I told her how much I missed her. How I wished I had more time to stay but had to hit…
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Snow Ain’t the Only Thing White During Christmas, so I Give You the Top 10 Blackest Holiday TV Shows and Movies
My son Quinn loves Christmas. Like—he loves it in a watch-How the Grinch Stole Christmas-on-the-Fourth of July kind of way. Every year he bombards me with endless Christmas movies and TV specials during the month of December, and that experience has taught me one thing: Snow and eggnog aren’t the only things white during the…
