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The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: Farewell to the Queen
Today’s clapback is dedicated to the memory of a real diva and a true Queen. But despite this overwhelming sadness, I know you will be in a better place. In lieu of tears, I thought it would be more appropriate to celebrate you by remaking an old classic that I sometimes sing to myself when…
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Apparently, Ron DeSantis and Racist Republicans Love White Facebook
As the great physicist, mathematician and (I’m pretty sure this is correct) the first person to stuff figs inside of cookies, Sir Isaac Newton, proclaimed in his third law of motion: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” While the only thing I know about quantum mechanics is the early ’90’s TV…
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Holding History Hostage: One Family’s Quiet Attempt to Erase Their Father’s Part in Emmett Till’s Story
If there was ever an inverse example of a Confederate monument, it might be the Lorraine, the Memphis motel where Martin Luther King, the most famous leader of the civil rights movement, was struck down on a balcony. Or maybe it is the 16th Street Baptist Church, the Birmingham, Ala., house of worship where four…
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Failed Ferguson, Mo., Prosecutor Bob McCulloch Headlined a Conference for District Attorneys. It Did Not Go Well
Nearly four years after failing to indict Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown Jr., a black man; only days after losing his re-election bid to Wesley Bell, a black man; an Oregon organization thought St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch would be the perfect person to headline its annual conference of district…
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An Open Letter From Harriet Tubman Asking You to Keep Her Name Out Your Mouth
Hey y’all, I was just chilling in the great cookout in the sky playing spades with Sojourner about to run a dime on Frederick Douglass and Richard Pryor when my Google Alert went off. (We have pretty good wi-fi up here.) Once again I heard someone down there mention my name, comparing themselves to me.…
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Men Like Rev. Alexander Santora Are What's Wrong With White People
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I would wish that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. – Revelation 3:15, 16. text On April 12, 1963, after being arrested for coordinating marches to end…
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Wendell Pierce Is a Black Man
Everybody knows Wendell Pierce. Even if you never saw him play the hard-drinking, cigar-smoking, laissez-faire “Bunk” Moreland on The Wire, the greatest television show that ever aired on television, you have met him before. While nothing or no one (not even Pierce himself) could ever tell me that he doesn’t really play the trombone like…
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Cops Who Brutally Beat Mesa, Ariz., Man Cleared of Wrongdoing By Other Cops
When five police officers pummeled Robert Johnson in the hallway of the building where he lived, Johnson had not committed a crime. Although one officer wrote, “Johnson’s body language was projecting he was preparing for a physical altercation,” the victim had not made a single move in the direction of the officers. Another officer said…
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Man Admits to Burning Black Man Alive in Letter to White Supremacists
Tennessee authorities already had John Carothers in custody and charged him with murder for reportedly burning a black man alive. They also knew he had previously been convicted of one murder and pleaded guilty to lesser charges in another, but investigators still couldn’t figure out why Carothers allegedly committed the crime. According to News Channel…
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The Constitution Is for White People: Why White Bullets Are Worth More Than Black Lives
“It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public opinion in relation to that unfortunate race which prevailed in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence and when the Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted. But the public history of…
