-
The Root's Clapback Mailbag: Black People Are Stupid
I want to be wrong. Every week, when the staff at The Root begins scouring our various inboxes for the weekly clapback mailbag, I keep hoping that one of us will discover an email, tweet, DM or comments from someone who can articulately explain why racism is dead. Just once, I’d love to hear someone…
-
For White People Who Have Considered Genocide When Coronavirus Wasn't Enough
Like Coco dancing. I imagine hate feels like Coco dancing. Erica Gimpel played dance student Coco Hernandez on the 1980’s television show Fame. Coco didn’t comb her hair. She didn’t care about anything else but dancing. And, in every third episode, the Fame producers would write a scene that required Coco to bust every available…
-
The Real Coronavirus Hoax: Republicans Are Using COVID-19 to Make the Black Vote Disappear
There is a common tool used by every sophisticated thief, magician and con man. A bank robber might pull a fire alarm across town or call in a fake robbery as “smoke” for a heist, while flim-flam artists use a variety of misdirection gimmicks called “bells.” Some of the most elaborate magic tricks depend on…
-
Racists Invite Themselves to the Cookout
Aside from a lack of barbecue-based plate-fixing protocol, a group of anti-seasoning activists infiltrated a college’s virtual event by showing up in blackface, bearing a Nazi flag and—worst of all—not even bringing a roll of aluminum foil to a cookout hosted by South Carolina students. This is why we kneel. (Not in protest. We just…
-
Patriots Draft Pick Has Right-Wing Paramilitary Gang Tattoo. But It's OK, He Didn't Know What It Meant
And with the 159th pick in the 2020 NFL draft’s fifth round, the New England Patriots select…the right-wing, paramilitary-supporting kicker from Marshall. On Saturday, the Tom Brady-less team from the same town that brought you Aaron Hernandez, the gang-affiliated double-murderer from Florida, drafted Justin Rohrwasser, a heralded kicker whose left arm just happens to display…
-
The Root's Clapback Mailbag: Can't Knock the (Race) Hustle
“You Can’t Knock the Race Hustle” A Clapback Mailbag original song I’m making short term goals for when coronavirus foldsSo I can put away the masks and wear regular clothes.Chilly, with enough hate mail to make ‘em look sillyIt’s only Wednesday and White Twitter sincerely wants to kill me.They read The Root and wanna feud…
-
Black 'Versuz' White: 10 Battles America Needs to See
I know, I know…Why must I make everything about race? Because it’s fun! “Jagged Little Pill” was my shit, but I hooped and hollered when Hootie and the Blowfish bested Alannis Morissette for the 1995 Best New Artist Grammy. Even though Naomi Osaka represents Japan, don’t tell me you don’t root for her when she’s…
-
'Open the Economy' Is the New 'White Lives Matter'
“Give me liberty or give me death” — A slaveowner text What is America? Is it a plot of dirt littered with the discarded bones of those who stood in the way of white manifest destiny or is it a Constitution? Is it an assemblage of huddled masses yearning to breathe free or is it…
-
Coronavirus Infected 9 People in One Black Family. 3 Died. They Still Have Trouble Getting Tested
First, it came for his son. Tyrone Posey says his wife, 51-year-old Phacethia Posey, began researching coronavirus as soon as the deadly disease started making the headlines. It became more urgent when their son, Tyrone Posey Jr. became the first member of the family to contract the invisible pathogen that would eventually kill three family…
-
The Root's Clapback Mailbag: Not-So-Black Twitter
I love white Twitter. Twitter offers a unique opportunity to those of us who never had the chance to bask in the glow of whiteness. Because of social media, we can get an up-close look at Karen-related outrage, Caucasian fragility and — the best of all — white tears. And sometimes, they clap back.So today’s…