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We Stand With Communities of Color in the Fight for Carbon Pollution Standards
Climate change is no longer a problem for a distant tomorrow. We’re feeling the impact on our health, on our environment and on our economy today. But while climate change hurts everyone, communities of color and low-income Americans are the hardest hit. Underserved communities are the least equipped to deal with more intense superstorms, severe…
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7 Tips for Surviving a Black Family Reunion
It’s summer, which means it’s family-reunion time. These gatherings are a time of celebration, but between the family politics and the overeating you’re bound to do, they can be downright exhausting. Before you put on your custom-made T-shirt and head to the park to meet your long-lost relatives, remember to keep these tips in mind.…
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A Black Man’s Head Protects Sanctity of Ancient Italian Temple
This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black in Western Art Archive at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute, part of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. The head of a black man seen here, enclosed in a…
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Ray Rice, Stephen A. Smith and the Hypocrisy of Sports
We all saw the video. It was clear as day. We shook our heads as we felt our emotions swirl. There was no hiding it. He did what no man should ever do, no matter the situation. Yet we took solace in knowing that justice would prevail, the hammer would be heavy, and Ray Rice…
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Call for Submissions: The Root Wants Your Story
We know there’s endless diversity within the black experience and endless stories that are best told by the people who live them. For My Thing Is, a personal-essay franchise featuring members of The Root’s community, we want yours. Do you have a complicated identity or an unusual background? A fascinating career or an inspirational path…
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Let’s Stop Describing Ourselves as ‘Minorities’
It’s already been two years since May 2012, when we learned that for the first time, U.S. babies born to parents who didn’t identify as white outnumbered those born to parents who did. What this means, according to demographers, is that by the year 2030 or thereabout, there will be no majority racial group in…
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Were There Black Pirates?
Editor’s note: For those who are wondering about the retro title of this black-history series, please take a moment to learn about historian Joel A. Rogers, author of the 1934 book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, to whom these “amazing facts” are an homage. Amazing Fact About the Negro No. 89: Did black people engage…
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How Media Missed That Black Women Do ‘Have It All’
The only thing I have grown to hate more than the term “having it all” is the debate about whether or not women can have it all. To be clear, I have been roped into this debate myself on more than one occasion, but I usually find myself doing what I just did: critiquing how pointless it…
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500 ‘Young African Leaders’ to Meet With Obama
With 60 percent of Africa’s population under the age of 35, young people stand to play as important a role in their respective nations’ success on the continent as anywhere else in the world. On Monday, 500 such young people, who have spent the summer honing their skills at U.S. universities, will have an audience…
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Watch: Ex-Fla. School Bus Driver Hurls Racist Rant at Neighbor and Kids
Tired of her racist tirades, a neighbor struck back at a former Sarasota, Fla., school bus driver by sharing a video of one of her stunning outbursts on social media, according to a report at ABC affiliate WWSB. The video allegedly captures Pamela Michener spewing racial slurs at a neighbor. She retired from a job…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
