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‘Aunt V,’ the World’s Oldest Woman, Dies in Jamaica at 117
Her reign as the world’s oldest person did not last long, but her life—well, that’s a whole ’nother story. Violet Moss (also spelled “Mosse”) Brown, affectionately known as Aunt V, has died at at 117 years of age in Jamaica, after being named the world’s oldest person in April. The Jamaican prime minister announced her…
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Football Player Convicted in Steubenville, Ohio, Rape Case Sues to Play Ball in College
One of the young men convicted in the notorious Steubenville, Ohio, rape case is once again embroiled in controversy. Ma’lik Richmond, 21, who was convicted of rape as a teen in the case that brought rape culture and athletics to the national discourse, sued Youngstown State University because he was barred from playing on the…
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Nooses Are All the Rage; Can Lynchings Be Far Behind?
Nooses, nooses, everywhere. “Noose.” Such a sinister thing that rhymes with happy words like “goose” and “loose.” Nice words. Ain’t nothing nice about a noose, though, a tried-and-true racial-terror tactic that, according to a recent report by the Equal Justice Initiative, killed more than 4,000 black Americans between 1877 and 1950, and in all parts…
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Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F’ Wit. And Neither Is Hillary Clinton
A federal judge on Wednesday went straight Tiger style* on Martin Shkreli and yanked his $5 million bail after prosecutors alleged that he was harassing women online, and even trying to instigate bodily harm against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Washington Post reports that Shrekli, who was out on bail awaiting trial on…
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Why US Virgin Islanders Say They Feel Like America’s ‘Bastard Stepchildren’ After Hurricane Irma
Although the U.S. Virgin Islands, which include St. John, St. Croix and St. Thomas, are part of the United States, many in the islands felt nonexistent as mainstream media covered Hurricane Irma’s trajectory with nary a mention of the territories where many Americans gladly sun-and-fun sans passport. There was talk of how Irma was affecting…
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Interview: Mother of 8-Year-Old Nearly Hanged in NH Speaks Out on Moving Forward With Her Son
Most of us were saddened and disgusted by the graphic photo of the little boy from Claremont, N.H., who was nearly hanged from a tree. If that wasn’t bad enough, the town’s police chief went on record shortly thereafter, saying of the kids who assaulted the biracial 8-year-old: “Mistakes they make as a young child…
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The Root 100 No. 1s: Beyoncé Will Forever Be Bey-ond. She’s So Fly, They Named a Fly After Her
What can be said about Queen Bey that hasn’t already been said, done, sung, texted, tweeted, explicated, unpacked, imagined? In an age when there are very few true superstars, she stands alone; one of a few black women, one of a few of her generation. Who else but a few aging rock stars is able…
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The Cleveland Browns’ Message on ‘Unity’ Is About as Bad as That Punt Attempt
The Cleveland Browns, the one NFL team that have been the most demonstrably vocal in support of Colin Kaepernick’s principled stance against racial bias in U.S. policing, played a video before the start of the national anthem in their first game of the season Sunday. And it was … interesting. Against a backdrop of patriotic…
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Fringe Media Outlets Smear Heather Heyer, Alleging She Died by Heart Attack, Not a Raging White Supremacist
It’s easy to dismiss “fringe” media like Alex Jones or Breitbart News or other decidedly racist, anti-Semitic or “alt-right” blogs as the rantings of kooks and those outside the mainstream, except we now have a man in the White House who exploited and stoked the fires of these outlets all the way there. And so,…
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Family of Jahi McMath, the Teen Declared Brain-Dead, ‘Overjoyed’ That Jury Will Decide if She Is Still Alive
The family of Jahi McMath, the teen who was declared brain-dead after a tonsillectomy more than three years ago but who they insist is still alive, has finally gotten a step closer to having the case resolved via the legal system. The Associated Press reports that a California judge ruled this week that Jahi, now…
