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The Semicolon: How a Seemingly Obscure Tattoo Signifies Survival and Solidarity
In 2013, 27-year-old Amy Bleuel began a mental health advocacy organization dubbed “Project Semicolon” to bring awareness to suicide, depression, addiction and self-injury. Bleuel, who had lost her father to suicide 10 years earlier, died by suicide at the age of 31. The campaign, however, remains strong, inspiring others to take an active role in…
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'Ex-Con,' 'Ex-Offender' and 'Ex-Inmate' Are Words That Reduce Millions to Stereotype
For those with criminal backgrounds, who decides when they get to be human again? text When President Donald Trump signed the recent First Step Act into law, many people considered it to be the most important criminal justice reform measure in years. I’ve followed the legislation with some interest because I served a sentence in…
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In the Sunshine: The Root Tackles Mental Health in May
Today, May 1, marks May Day, the day that we pay homage to the workers of the world, and it also marks the start of Mental Health Awareness Month. Here at The Root, we take Mental Health seriously, and we aim to give our readership not only stories they can relate to, but which give…
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Broadway’s Ain’t Too Proud Is a Rousing, Joyful Nod to Black American Life and Legacy
I have had the good fortune to have seen many a Broadway play (also quite a few off-Broadway, for that matter). But only a very few over the years have stayed with me—a short list would include Fela! The Mountaintop. Choir Boy. The House That Will Not Stand. Denzel Washington in Julius Caesar. The new Broadway musical Ain’t…
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Maybe We Wanna Be in Kansas, Dorothy. It Just Became the First State to Recognize the Right to an Abortion Independent of Roe v. Wade
In the ongoing, gut-wrenching, Handmaid’s Tale-like real-life saga that is the decimation of reproductive rights across the country, yet another state has weighed in on its hatred of women. And yet. And yet, this time, Kansas came through for the bodily autonomy of its women citizenry. On Friday, the Kansas Supreme Court declared that the…
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Children of Incarcerated Parents Remain Unseen; We Have to Do Better
Not all stories about children with parents in jail involve recounts of glass barriers, letters or collect calls. And sadly, many don’t end with reunions and redemption, but with pain and shame; some stories end way too soon. On Oct. 18, 2007, my father died from a pulmonary fungal infection contracted inside of an environmentally-hazardous…
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With Hints of the Central Park Five, Activists Charge That Disabled Black Man Possibly Railroaded Into Murder Charge
On Tuesday, Chanel Lewis was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of 30-year-old Karina Vetrano, who was raped and strangled in August 2016. There was an uproar in the Queens County Criminal courtroom after the judge rendered Lewis’ sentence, as some believe that the 22-year-old developmentally disabled Brooklyn man did not receive a…
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After Securing the Bag, Russell Wilson Delivers a Prime Package to His Teammates
Now that Russell “Future Baby Daddy” Wilson is the highest paid quarterback in the entire NFL, he decided to give the men on his offensive line a little gift — $12,000 in Amazon stock each. As reported by The Root, Wilson recently signed a four-year, $140 million contract extension with the Seattle Seahawks, and hey,…
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46 Chromosomes and a Mule: Falsely Romanticizing Our Complex Genetic Identities for Profit
Last Tuesday night, a friend sent me a video of a commercial framed as a short film titled “Inseparable.” It was set in America during chattel slavery and featured Abigail, an enslaved black woman, and her love interest, a white man who was seeking to entice her to run away with him to presumably engage…
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Color Me Shocked: 2 Virginia Police Officers Fired for Ties to White Supremacist Orgs
Frankly, the shock is not so much that two Virginia police officers from separate jurisdictions were caught tied to two distinct, respective white supremacist groups, but that they were fired after said affiliations became known. For years, there has been evidence that law enforcement has been targeted and infiltrated by white supremacist organizations; something that…
