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Redlining 2.0: How Banks Block Black Homebuyers
In April 2016, Rachelle Faroul, a 33-year-old black woman, applied for a mortgage loan. Even though she had a good credit score, a degree from Northwestern and a job making $60,000 a year teaching computer programming at Rutgers University, her application was denied. I know what you’re thinking, but it was not because she was…
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The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: #Facts
Today’s mailbag is long, so the intro will be short. This week’s roundup of emails, comments, tweets and direct messages comes from white people who aren’t racist; they just want the writers at The Root to stick to facts. For insight, we collected a few of the people who set aside their disdain for our…
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An Open Letter to White People Who Are Upset Because Black Panther Is So Racist
Dear Chads and Beckys, I admit that I have been reluctant to write this letter. It has nothing to do with my dislike for you or your people. In fact, some of my best friends are white. Well … one of my best friends is white. OK, I’ll be honest, all of my best friends…
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The NRA Is a Terrorist Organization
Media outlets and politicians in mourning have all offered thoughts, prayers and not much else for the most recent mass shooting in Columbine, Colo.; Las Vegas; Sutherland Springs, Texas; Parkland, Fla. (insert next city here). Very few have called it a terrorism-related incident. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a terrorist activity is defined,…
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The Other Black Wall Streets
On June 1, 1921, white rioters looted and burned the all-black Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Okla., known as Black Wall Street. Angry at the economic success of blacks in the area (which became known as “Black Wall Street” because of the number of successful businesses and wealthy black inhabitants), white Tulsans accused a black man…
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Why Black People Are Always Bringing Up Old Stuff, Explained
Hey, bruh, I’m back again for our weekly explainer. I thought we might talk about Black History Month this time. Sure! I always enjoy our talks. In 1915, black Harvard historian Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History with minister Jesse Moorland. So … Because haters gonna hate,…
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Activist DeRay Mckesson Announces Book Deal
Civil rights activists, podcast host and electric-blue puffy-vest aficionado DeRay Mckesson will release his first book in the fall. Entitled On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope, which is perhaps the second-most civil-rights-ish name ever (my memoir, Justice Bruises: A Negro Spiritual About Equality Aboard the Freedom Train, being No. 1), Mckesson’s…
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New York Times Hires, Fires Reporter for Using the N-Word, but She’s Not Racist … Just White
In an obvious display of one-upmanship during Black History Month, the New York Times erased the notable achievement of African-American icon Craig Jones from the movie Friday, who was famously fired on his day off, when the heralded newspaper abruptly fired white opinion writer Quinn Norton on the same day it hired her after tweets of…
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Court Rules Alabama Town’s School Segregation Too Racist … Even for Alabama
A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down a lower-court ruling that allowed an Alabama town to essentially segregate its schools, finding that the new school district’s intentions to split from Jefferson County schools were racially motivated and typical of how white people will do whatever it takes when black people get too close. OK…
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Boston Police Department Celebrates Black History Month by Honoring White Man
Apparently unable to find 28 black Bostonians worthy of recognition, the Boston Police Department decided that it would commemorate Black History Month by honoring the legacy of one of its most notable heroes: the great and noticeably Caucasian Celtics Coach Red Auerbach. Before you start calling this seemingly intentional oversight racist, allow me to explain.…
