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Welcome to Kwanzaa Week at The Root!
Yes, we’re serious. When I was asked (or, um, “volunteered”) to edit our Kwanzaa Week series, I was hype! Last year, I decided to try to celebrate the holiday for the first time in a long time. This was pre-Donald Trump, and my family and I admittedly bumbled through it, but now more than ever, this…
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97-Year-Old WWII Vet About to Be Evicted From His NYC Home. Merry Effing Christmas
A 97-year-old World War II veteran—one who was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked by the Japanese—is being kicked out of his Brooklyn, N.Y., home, according to a report. The Rev. James Blakely says that he’s being evicted from his apartment in the New York City borough some five years after, he says, it…
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Photographer Don Hogan Charles, Who Shot Iconic Photo of Malcolm X at His Window, Has Died
The first black staff photographer hired at the New York Times, Don Hogan Charles, the man who shot the iconic photo of Malcolm X at a window with a rifle, has died. Former New York Times staff writer Rachel Swarns tweeted the news Sunday afternoon, prompting many of us to wonder where the Times obituary…
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Steph Curry Says He’s ‘Really Serious’ About Owning Carolina Panthers
Perhaps a black man (or men) owning an NFL team may soon be a reality. Golden State Warrior Steph Curry recently said that he was quite serious about being interested in owning the Carolina Panthers, now that owner Jerry Richardson is selling the team after finding himself caught up in a sexual-misconduct scandal in the…
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Your Racist President Said Haitians ‘All Have AIDS’ and Nigerians Live in ‘Huts’
All the “debate” about whether Donald Trump is really, truly racist should be put to rest now. The man actually opened his mouth in public—as president of the United States—and fixed his flat lips to say that “all Haitians have AIDS and Nigerians live in huts. The New York Times recently published a report about…
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Harvard University Recognizes the Gullah Language in Its New Curriculum
Who remembers the 1990s PBS children’s show Gullah Gullah Island? For many of us, watching or hearing about the show was our first exposure to Gullah, the culture native to the Georgia and Carolina Sea Islands, which, because of their remote location, offered an unbroken chain to Africa and its cultures. And now Harvard University…
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Bay Area Hip-Hop Pioneer and Prince’s Personal DJ, Pam the Funkstress, Dead at 51
The Bay Area is mourning one of its pioneers, DJ Pam the Funkstress of the seminal political rap collective the Coup, yet another hip-hop trailblazer gone too soon. She was 51 years old. There had been word buzzing for weeks that the Turntable Queen, born Pam Warren, had been ill, but Bay Area rap godfather…
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Trump Changes Presidential Coins by Making Them Very Gold and Putting ‘MAGA’ on Them (Ewww)
In his continued attempt to leave some kind of legacy before he’s dragged out of the Oval Office because of the Constitution, President Donald Trump has actually slapped his offensive “Make America great again” slogan on his presidential coins this year. I know—I never thought I would throw out money, either. The Washington Post reports…
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Texas Police Call Shooting of Innocent 6-Year-Old a ‘Tragic Accident’
With reminders of the tragic death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, the 7-year-old shot down as Detroit police stormed her grandmother’s house—the wrong house—in 2010, yet another innocent child has been killed by police. Six-year-old Kameron Prescott was shot and killed by a stray bullet in his home Thursday afternoon when deputies in a suburb of San…
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Yet Another Disturbing Story of a Grown-Ass Woman Messing With a Teenage Boy
It goes against type when an alleged pedophile is a woman; and when we continually read the stories of adult women in “relationships” with teen boys, our heads go into tailspins. It’s like we can’t get through a week without another story of grown-ass women (usually teachers) engaging in sexual activities with teen or preteen…
