-
Read the Note Barack Obama Graciously Left for Donald Trump … Which Trump Has All but Ignored
Outgoing President Barack Obama left a handwritten note to President Donald Trump during their peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 20, 2017. The letter, a simple 275 words, was warm, gracious and indicative of the character of the man who was America’s first black president—by all reports, an intelligent, thoughtful, measured man. According to CNN, which…
-
Led by Cam Newton’s Little Brother, Howard U Pulls Off Largest Point Spread Upset in College Football History
If you were a betting person and put down $100 on the Howard University-vs.-UNLV football game Saturday, you would have walked away with $55,000. That’s because the Bison pulled off the largest point spread upset in college history—45 of them—led by Caylin Newton, the younger brother of famed quarterback Cam Newton. The Bison beat the…
-
Philadelphia Police-Union Head Defends Nazi Cop, Calls BLM a ‘Pack of Rabid Animals’
For any significant change to American policing to occur, we have to deal with upend police unions, which wield extraordinary power and influence. Most times, police unions support their officers unconditionally, even when it’s more than obvious that police are in the wrong; they also tend to disparage victims of police brutality, as well as…
-
Rihanna Announces Fenty Beauty Launch. Take That, Kylie With the Fake Lips!
Riddle: What do quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Rihanna have in common? They bout to be killin’ em in the pocket! (But I will be boycotting the former, cause … Colin Kaepernick.) Anywho, bad gyal RiRi (birth name: Robyn Rihanna Fenty) has announced the launch of Fenty Beauty, a line of lip gloss, blush, bronzers, foundation…
-
Mad Magazine Remixes a Norman Rockwell Painting for the Age of Trump
In 1958, one of America’s most renowned painters, Norman Rockwell, created The Runaway, an oil on canvas that shows a nice policeman at a soda fountain counter lovingly giving what we’re sure are great words of advice to a scruffy white kid who is an obvious runaway because of that cute little stick and handkerchief…
-
They Continue to Disparage Harriet Tubman, but There’s a Remedy for That
Not enough can be said about the queen Harriet Tubman. She is our black Moses. Freedom fighter. Union spy. Brilliant strategist. Abolitionist. God-fearing woman. Conductor of the Underground Railroad. Gangsta in the way that gangsta should be: warring against those who seek to oppress. So of course, Donald Trump and his ball-less, soulless Treasury Secretary…
-
Autopsy Shows Pregnant, Mentally Ill Woman Charleena Lyles Shot 7 Times by Police
Recently, Damon Young of VSB wrote a tongue-in-cheek piece about why black folk should never, ever, ever, ever, ever call the police. And though—as black folk are wont to do—Young used humor to explicate a tragic reality, it is cases like Charleena Lyles’ that drive this home. Lyles was a 30-year-old black woman and mother…
-
How a Family Tragedy for Newark, N.J., Mayor Ras Baraka Inspired a Haven for Domestic Violence Survivors
On a balmy summer night in 2003, 31-year-old Shani Baraka and her partner, Rayshon Holmes, 30, went to Baraka’s older sister’s house to retrieve some of her belongings. Her sister, Wanda Pasha, was separating from her increasingly violent and erratic husband, who lay in wait at her Piscataway, N.J., home. He shot and killed Baraka…
-
Tone-Deaf Reporter Gets Read for Asking Dumb-Ass Questions During Hurricane Harvey
Microphone check, micro, microphone checka. The press has deservedly been called out for dumb shit and, as BBD once rap-sang, “Ain’t nothing changed.” Unfortunately, white folks gonna white. This time, it was a reporter so doggedly trying to get a soundbite that she failed to see a family’s real suffering. Well, one mother in Houston—a…
-
The Root 100 No. 1s: Ta-Nehisi Coates Wanted to Be ‘the Baddest Motherfucking Writer on the Planet’
It is a rare piece of long-form journalism that breaks the internet. But that’s exactly what happened when Ta-Nehisi Coates’ keen, decisive reportage, “The Case for Reparations,” dropped in June 2014, compelling the editors at The Root to give him that year’s No. 1 spot. Part of his The Root 100 bio read: Two years…
