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The D&I We Deserve: Ulta's Newest Diversity and Inclusion Advisor Is Tracee Ellis Ross
Two years ago this month, I gave myself a challenge: realizing that I wasn’t walking the talk I preached daily on TGU, I launched a Black-Owned Beauty Month challenge in February of 2019, restricting myself to only Black-owned cosmetics and personal care products for Black History Month. The results were, at turns, comical, insightful, inspiring…
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Building a Broader Brand, Sephora's Incubator Program Announces 8 BIPOC-Owned Prestige Beauty Brands in Development
Any makeup lover is all-too-familiar with the ubiquitous black lacquered displays and striped shopping bags of Sephora—but until recently, finding Black brands on its shelves proved a bit more challenging. The world’s premiere beauty marketplace has been working to change that image, inside and out: after becoming the first retailer to sign on to Aurora…
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Mary Wilson, Co-Founding Member of The Supremes, Dies at 76
She was a Motown legend, bestselling author, music activist, former U.S. cultural ambassador and co-founding member of The Supremes—of which she was dubbed “the sexy one.” Entertainer Mary Wilson, best known as the longest-running member of the group she made famous alongside Diana Ross and Florence Ballard (and later, Cindy Birdsong) died on Monday night…
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28 Days of Black Joy: Surrounded by the Black Gaze (A Collector's Story)
It started with a postcard. It arrived during my first semester at Sarah Lawrence, the private liberal arts college 40 minutes north of New York City (and as close to the city as my Midwestern parents would allow me to live) that I’d fallen in love with at first sight, bolstered by the fact that…
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Yeah, Yeah, Tom Brady Won Another Ring, but Black Women Made the Super Bowl Their Runway
We heard there was a football game on Sunday, but as usual, we’re just here for the fashion. (Plus, Brady and ‘nem won yet again, so what else is new, other than you experimenting with wings in the air fryer this year?) While the game may have been anticlimactic, at best—OK, abjectly disappointing for those…
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Better Late Than Never to Have Loved at All: Our Pandemic-Perfect Valentine's Day Gift Guide
If you’ve long ago lost track of what week it is, can you really be blamed for belatedly remembering Valentine’s Day? That’s the story we’re going with, as between a new year, new administration and Black History Month all occurring during a now-year-old public health crisis, we totally spaced on the fact that the most…
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'A Lot of My Favorite Hip-Hop Writers Have Been Women': The Root Presents: It's Lit! Hits The Motherlode With Clover Hope
The first rule of working with Beyoncé is: You do not talk about working with Beyoncé. But that didn’t stop us from asking—after all, our sister-in-writing Clover Hope has now worked on not one, but two projects with Queen Bey. Last year, she was one of the writers behind the summer’s gorgeous Black Is King…
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Nick Cannon Tests Positive for COVID-19, Restores Relationship With ViacomCBS After Anti-Semitic Comments
Nick Cannon—and his turban and mask—have been spotted supporting COVID relief, Black Lives Matter and underserved communities in recent months. Now The Masked Singer host could use a little support of his own, as it was announced this week that Cannon has tested positive for COVID-19, causing him to miss the first several episodes of…
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The Film Adaptation of Nella Larsen's Passing Secures an Over $15 Million Netflix Deal at Sundance
Sundance strikes again! The largest independent film festival in the United States, gone virtual this year instead of celebrating in its typical environs in Park City, Utah, is ground zero for some of the most anticipated films of the year. This year, one long-anticipated film adaptation proved worth the wait: Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella Passing, adapted…
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Black Renaissance: Ibram X. Kendi Partners With Time to Claim a New Era for Black Creativity, With Amanda Gorman as Cover Star
“This Is the Black Renaissance,” the headline above Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s byline for Time magazine proclaims, at once a manifesto and mantra encapsulating what he (and others) recognize as “the third great cultural revival of Black Americans.” Like the Harlem Renaissance and Black Arts Movement before it, Black creativity is undeniably thriving, asking no…
