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No Romance Without … Resistance?
“People have to start respecting the vagina. Until every man is fighting for our rights, we should consider stopping having sex.” —Janelle Monáe text Come again? In a recent interview with Marie Claire, singer Janelle Monáe discussed her ideas when it comes to participating in resistance. I’m not going to lie: As a hot-blooded, fully…
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Is There a Method to Being Messy? The Do’s and Don’ts of Airing Dirty Laundry
It was the “hell hath no fury” moment many women have had … and even more wish they’d had. A good, old-fashioned read for an utter and complete filth-of-a-no-count man and his side hustle—broadcast for the salacious awe and delight of anyone active on black Twitter. With a single post titled, “Open Letter to My…
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I Am My Trans Sister’s Keeper
Mesha Campbell. Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow. JoJo Striker. Keke Collier. Chyna Gibson. Ciara McElveen. Jaquarrius Holland. Their names and faces lit up my laptop in a macabre montage. In the first few months of 2017, seven transgender women have been murdered—four within a single week, and most of them black. It is the continuation of…
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My Black History: The Case for Black Art in an Anti-Presidential Era
Editor’s note: During Black History Month, the focus is usually on historical figures who loomed larger than life, paving the way for the progress we experience today. But black history isn’t just about telling stories of our past. History is being made every day and has been made throughout our lives; it’s not just in…
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Ain’t I a Woman: Marching Forward—What Now?
They came. They saw. They marched. Did you? Full disclosure: I didn’t—primarily for logistical reasons—but I watched in awe last Saturday as my social media feeds became a sea of pink pussy hats and cleverly worded signs, courtesy of friends and family attending women’s marches worldwide. As promised and in overwhelming numbers, on the first…
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The Trouble With Jimmy Fallon
All in all, he wasn’t a bad choice to host the Golden Globes. He had the requisite clever and colorful opening number, an affable demeanor and the ability to improvise. He even started off strong with some postelection shade—though it didn’t erase our memory of his pre-election playfulness with the now-PEOTUS. And it certainly couldn’t…
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We Are All Insecure
Eight weeks ago, The Root published an article I wrote, titled, “Is Insecure Preying on Black Women’s Insecurities?” It was a simple question, based on an honest concern I’d had while previewing the show prior to its debut on HBO: As viewers—and, at times, voyeurs—of Insecure, what was our intended takeaway? Was there a deliberate…
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When Will We Learn?
You have to be twice as good as them to get half of what they have! “Twice as good” is the standard set for generations of black and brown children across America (and beyond), a warning consistently administered in stern but loving tones from parental figures as dissimilar as the fictional Rowan Pope and first…
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Who Gets to Be Black?
I don’t have to do nothing but eat, drink, stay black, and die. Langston Hughes initially penned the phrase, while Morgan Freeman’s Joe Clark famously paraphrased it in Lean on Me. Purportedly, Billie Holiday even uttered it during her first encounter with Maya Angelou. And while I might add “and pay taxes” (because the IRS…
