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'I’m Just Like a Kid in It Myself': The Root Presents: It's Lit! Explores a Fresh New Chapter With Karyn Parsons
Now, this is a story all about how one life got flipped, turned upside down…life after The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, that is. For many of us, Karyn Parsons is best known as the fresh princess of the beloved hit show, playing Will Smith’s uber-fashionable yet often air-headed cousin, Hilary Banks. In life, she is anything…
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Big Beauty Tuesday: Mikki Taylor Is a Force of Beauty
If you grew up a Black girl in America in the last half-century, there’s a good chance you grew up in tandem with Essence magazine, the pioneering publication for Black women which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020. For over 40 0f those years, Mikki Taylor has been part of that storied legacy, helping to…
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!['She Ain't Black. She Doesn't Look Black': Receipts Reveal Sharon Osbourne Has Been Problematic [Updated]](https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets-server.theroot.kinjastaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/25163541/yd2tinoul7irrqjcpv8q-1024x576.png)
'She Ain't Black. She Doesn't Look Black': Receipts Reveal Sharon Osbourne Has Been Problematic [Updated]
The Talk has some explaining to do. The daytime ensemble talk show announced on Monday that it would be on hiatus until Wednesday while it conducted an “internal review” into the heated exchange that took place last Wednesday between Sharon Osbourne and, well, herself (since co-host Sheryl Underwood demonstrated admirable calm in the face of…
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Bedtime Stories, Stringer Bell-Style: Idris Elba Announces Multi-Book Deal With HarperCollins Children's Books
He may be a former “Sexiest Man Alive,” but never forget that Idris Elba is for the children. HarperCollins certainly hasn’t missed the memo, announcing on Monday that the Golden Globe and SAG Award-winning actor, musician, filmmaker, activist, and father of two has signed a global multi-book deal with the publisher to produce “a range…
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![When They Go Royal, We Go High? Michelle Obama Weighs In on Meghan and Harry, Says She's Praying for 'Forgiveness' [Updated]](https://www.theroot.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/jvxbu9zovsxza9jqkrre-1024x634.jpg)
When They Go Royal, We Go High? Michelle Obama Weighs In on Meghan and Harry, Says She's Praying for 'Forgiveness' [Updated]
It probably goes without saying that Michelle Obama, while one of the realest to ever assume the role of first lady, is perhaps also the most gracious. Granted, though she’s our big sister in our heads, we don’t know Obama personally, but in the face of any number of challenges, undeserved insults, and indignities, she…
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Because There Couldn't Possibly Be Any More Pressing Scandals in the Monarchy, Buckingham Palace Launches an Investigation Into Meghan's Alleged Bullying
At this point in world history, it really shouldn’t come as any surprise the lengths to which whiteness—as an institution and colonialist mentality—will go to prove itself right, even when it is so far beyond wrong the hypocrisy is just leaping out. Case in point: There are well- and multiply documented allegations of sexual predation…
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2021 Grammys Fashion Affirmed What We Already Knew: Black Women Are Superheroes
If you watched the 63rd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night, you might’ve sensed a theme. In a ceremony full of diverse and necessarily distanced performances, it may have been unintentional on the part of the show’s producers, but it certainly didn’t escape the notice of The Root’s Staff Entertainment Writer Tonja Stidhum: The night…
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'I Care About Making an Impact': The Root Presents It's Lit! Retraces the Footsteps of Ida B. Wells With Michelle Duster
What does it feel like to be heir to a renowned legacy? For Michelle Duster, great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells, it has meant commemorating the life of the revered activist, educator and journalist in the towns she once called home—including her adopted home of Chicago—as well as preserving the writings of Wells, which she’s previously…
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Very Smart Books: VSB's Damon Young Is a Thurber Prize Finalist, Brittney Cooper Scores 7-Book Scholastic Deal and Deesha Philyaw Wins the Story Prize
Y’all already know that here at The Root, we like big books and we cannot lie. Accordingly, we love big book news from our extended family of writers and thought leaders—and the past few weeks have brought a few announcement that are, in a word, lit. First, The Root’s own Very Smart Brotha Damon Young…
