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How 1 Black Woman Goes Inside Fla.’s Toughest Prisons to Help Inmates Get ‘Free on the Inside’
Facing a decade and a half in prison couldn’t stop her. Losing a loved one to suicide didn’t destroy her. Battling loss and pain while raising three children was not enough to make her quit. “Black Girl Magic” is a beautiful phrase. It summons up the image of some supernatural divination that has been arbitrarily…
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British Airways In-Flight Magazine Apparently Thinks Lupita Nyong’o Is Actually From Wakanda
Here’s a tip for future journalists and writers: When you begin an article, you are supposed to open with a “lede”—an introductory paragraph that draws the reader into the story. I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’m going to sit this right here and go sip some English tea while you peruse this fuckery…
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Exclusive Preview: Copwatch Explores What Happened to the People Who Filmed Famous Cop Killings
Spoiler alert: If you happen to film a police officer killing a black person, the cops might not like it. That’s one of the not-so-surprising revelations from a new documentary set to premiere this month. Copwatch isn’t about cops, police killings or even injustice. Instead, director Camilla Hall chronicles the aftermath of what happens when…
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Singer Apologizes After Saying ‘Reggaeton Music Comes From Apes’
With hits like “Despacito” and “Mi Gente,” reggaeton has finally gone mainstream (translation: White people have discovered it). Although people around the world are falling in love with the music that blends Caribbean music, Latin tunes and hip-hop, there is at least one musician who is not a fan. According to Remezcla, Mexican superstar Aleks…
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Petition Launched to Replace Christopher Columbus Statue With Prince Monument
In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed his three drop-top, fully loaded ships (the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria) on the coast of America, proving that the Earth was round. The Indians came out and threw a party for him and said, “You’re kinda cool, bruh,” and everyone lived happily ever after. Except none of…
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The 10 Worst Co-Workers Ever
It is Labor Day. Before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Labor Day was the only black holiday. I’m pretty sure it originated as the day when slaves commemorated the end of cookout season. I think that’s right. Or maybe it symbolized the beginning of HBCU homecoming season. Perhaps it was meant to be a day…
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Omarosa Might Be Pushed Out for ‘Triggering’ Trump
The Trump administration might have a new secretary of stepping and fetching soon, since reports are beginning to surface that Omarosa Manigault is being pushed out of Trump’s inner circle by chief of staff John Kelly. According to a report by the Daily Beast, Manigault is the first casualty of the former general’s efforts to…
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One of the Worst Things White People Ever Did to Black People Happened This Week
I think we can all agree that the global, multinational enterprise called the trans-Atlantic slave trade, built on a business plan of kidnapping, torture and rape, is the worst thing white people ever did to black people. They wrote it into the Constitution. They codified it. They screamed for liberty and justice while blithely doing…
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5 Rules for Black Cookouts … and Life
As one of the world’s leading cookoutologists (I would say I’m the leading authority, but my aunt Phyllis hasn’t officially retired), I feel it is my duty to keep you updated on the latest in cookout culture. (Always remember: White people barbecue, black people “cook out.”) Although many people think of cookouts as events or…
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The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: Beckys and Bad Suits
Once again, it’s Friday, which means it is time to sort through The Root’s mailbag and soak in our readers’ reactions to the content posted this week. It has been an interesting seven days here, and this week’s correspondence reveals an interesting mix of white tears, white fragility and butt-hurt Beckys. And yet we remain…
