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Stans, Ranked
Rapper J. Cole’s new album, KOD, has reignited a recurring discussion about the appreciation of “real” hip-hop between his fans and the people who find him interminably boring. While I am a big fan of J. Cole’s, I cannot call myself one of his “stans” because, while I love his music, I cannot bear the…
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The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: Lions, Tigers and Wypipo, Oh My!
It’s 4/20, so today’s collection of tweets, direct messages, emails and comments is dedicated to all the people who … Dammit, I forgot what I was about to write. Anyway, for some reason, I feel positive today. It’s probably because so many of you reached out to discuss the topics that unite us all, like…
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3 Kansas Men Found Guilty of Plot to Bomb Muslims, Kill Obama
After a four-week trial, it took a Wichita, Kan., jury one day to convict three white dudes who watched too many episodes of The A-Team of hatching a convoluted plan to kill government officials and bomb a Garden City, Kan., apartment complex where Somali Muslims lived. A federal jury found Curtis Allen, 50; Gavin Wright,…
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Listen to Prince’s Original Version of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ … Then Cry
On Thursday, the estate of musical icon Prince released the original studio recording of his song “Nothing Compares 2 U,” recorded in 1984. Before Sinead O’Connor turned the song into a hit, Prince recorded the tune at the Eden Prairie, Minn., warehouse during sessions for his album Around the World in a Day. The Purple…
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Either Donald Trump Doesn’t Know Slavery Existed or He Doesn’t Think Black People Are Human Beings
It takes a real man to stand up and admit when he is wrong, so I’d like to take this opportunity and apologize for every time I’ve called Donald Trump a racist idiot. I was wrong. Now I understand that when he talks about Mexicans streaming over the border, either he is invoking white supremacist…
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We Need a Yelp for Rating White People
On Monday I was in New York to sit on a panel for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission during the American Educational Research Association’s annual conference. Since the conference was in New York, I woke up early to head to The Root’s main office to work. The day before, as I checked into my…
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LA Fitness Fires 3 Employees for Going Full Starbucks on Black Customer in Viral Video
Updated Thursday, April 19, 2018, 9:19 a.m. EDT: LA Fitness has fired the manager and two other employees at its Secaucus, N.J., location after staff members suggested that a black customer’s fitness routine should include at least one set of getting the fuck out their gym. In a statement to NJ.com on Wednesday, LA Fitness…
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Trump Tweet About Immigrant ‘Breeding’ Invokes White Supremacist Rhetoric
I’m beginning to think Donald Trump has a punch card where he gets a stamp toward his white supremacist membership every time he makes an outwardly racist statement. I have always believed that 74 percent of the “alt-right’s” ire is rooted in their obsession with brown people’s penises. Their fear of black phallus causes them…
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Atlanta’s Brian Tyree Henry Is More Than Just Your Paper Boi
I’ve often thought about making a list of TV and movie characters so beloved that the actors who play the roles become inextricably linked to the characters. Perhaps the greatest indicator of this phenomenon is when black audiences begin referring to actors by the roles they play. Michael K. Williams will always be Omar from…
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White Actor Says He Can Play Black Character Because He Raps and Comes From ‘Urban Background’
A person of colonizing descent recently explained why it’s perfectly reasonable for him to play a black character on a new Netflix series, citing the fact that he raps, listens to black comedians, sponsors black youths and, most importantly, has an “urban background.” Travis Turner, the noticeably melanin-deficient Canadian rapper known as “Little T,” took…
