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Winged Victory: The Victoria’s Secret Runway Got More Colorful This Year … but Is It Enough?
“I’m rooting for everybody black.” Issa Rae’s now-famous quote from the 2017 Emmys is the gift that keeps on giving. Case in point: Now, in the season of giving, it was the exact phrase that came to my mind while watching the 2017 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, which aired last night on CBS. This year’s…
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‘She’s Gotta Have It’ … but Do We?
I remember the first time I saw She’s Gotta Have It, Spike Lee’s groundbreaking, critically acclaimed and very first “joint,” which premiered in 1986. When it debuted on HBO a year later, I was 12, a latchkey kid, and the parental controls that would lock me out of my parents’ premium channels after school had…
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The Root 100 Is Tonight … and You Aren’t Ready
It’s. About. To. Go. Down. I know this because last night, despite having my dress and accessories planned weeks in advance, I found myself at the Zara store across from The Root’s office holding a pair of red-black-and-green heels. “Woke-ass heels,” as I now call them. So woke, they felt too good to be a…
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Say Something Nice: 7 Things That Have Actually Improved During Trump’s Presidency
OK, now, before you start lobbing grenades into the comments section, let me start by stating the obvious, for the record: This presidency is both a sham and a shit show, and its accompanying administration a corrupt clusterfuck of epic proportions. Felt good to get that out. Don’t you feel better? Glad we’re all on…
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No Woman Left Behind: Has the Plus-Size Industry Forgotten Its Roots?
“I think I’m literally the biggest, blackest model at IMG,” plus-size phenom Precious Lee says plainly, referring to the persistent lack of bodies and skin tones like hers at the world-renowned agency that represents her. In anticipation of another New York Fashion Week, Lee joined a bevy of models of varying races and sizes to…
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Dancing With the Devils We Know: What the CDC’s New ‘Intimate Partner Violence’ Report Tells Us About the Value of Black Women
The first time I was hit by a man, I was 11. Actually, he wasn’t yet a man; he was 13, an eighth-grader to my sixth. And we weren’t fighting, or even roughhousing. We were rehearsing for a school play when he abruptly asked me to be his girlfriend. Embarrassed and incredulous, I laughed and…
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Hella Homecoming: The Evolution of Insecure
Summer is indisputably a season tailor-made for black joy. ’Tis the season of cookouts, stoop-sitting, rooftop bars, music and food festivals, block parties, hand fans, summer jams and all-white affairs (“Diner en Blanc,” if you’re bougie). And for fans of Issa Rae, it is now also the season to welcome with open and sun-kissed arms…
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The Pathology Behind the Pied Piper: When Will We Stop Protecting Predators?
Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly … and R. Kelly will likely be a predator for the rest of his life. As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, new allegations surfaced Monday that couldn’t be more fitting or less shocking about the man who calls himself “The Pied Piper of R&B.” Nearly 23 years after…
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Building Without Tools: 4:44 and the Power of Vulnerability, Part 2
What I thought when I met my dad was, “Oh, I’m free to love now.” But it’s like, how are you gonna do it? … You’ve never done this before; no one informed you how to do this. You don’t even have the tools to do it … “Will 4:44 be for black men the…
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Fighting for the Fairy Tale: 4:44 and the Power of Vulnerability
Look, I apologize, often womanizedTook for my child to be bornTo see through a woman’s eyes … It’s the public apology some have been anticipating since the release of Beyoncé’s Lemonade, her seemingly confessional opus, almost entirely themed on surviving the pain of infidelity. Aside from being a groundbreaking hit, the visual album inevitably rekindled…
