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Honor the Freedom Riders by Completing Their Work Today
This week marks the 53rd anniversary of the Freedom Rides, one of the pivotal moments of both the civil rights movement and American history. Inspired by the sit-ins that had spread across the nation like wildfire the previous year, interracial groups of activists boarded buses and headed down interstate highways to the Deep South in…
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When Blackness Is Nearly Invisible: Photos
Editor’s note: This slideshow accompanies the article “Beyond Biracial: When Blackness Is a Small, Nearly Invisible Fraction.” What can the experiences and identities of 2014’s cohort of people with just one black-identified grandparent teach us about the evolving nature of racial identity? Stephanie Troutman, 36, who calls herself “a mixed woman who has a child…
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‘Dear Abby’ Is Now the Go-to Expert on Twerking: What’s Next?
Here we were, thinking that “twerk”—as a dance and as a word—had already fully emerged from black culture to enjoy a moment in the national spotlight, contributed to a healthy debate about appropriation and taken its place solidly in the mainstream lexicon (and, probably, multiple people’s lists of “Words We Never Want to Hear Again”). After…
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Ebony: ‘Not Your Grandmother’s Magazine Anymore’
Just departed Ebony Editor-in-Chief Amy DuBois Barnett wanted to “put some hot sauce” on her final issue of the magazine. So she spiced up June’s tribute to Black Music Month with four iconic covers featuring Beyoncé, Jay Z, Kanye West and Rihanna. Barnett spoke with The Root about what went into the cover choices, the…
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These Celebrity Men Need to Get a Grip
Many months ago I was having a conversation with a group of women about whether women could be good leaders. Yes, I know. Yes, in 2013. Anyway, I, of course, said yes, women can lead. Another woman said no, in fact, women would not make good leaders because they are too emotional (because of PMS).…
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Help! My Boss Thinks All Black Hairstyles Are Unprofessional
I’m a store manager for a major national clothing retailer. Several of my employees are African-American women who wear their hair in a variety of styles—Bantu knots, twist-outs, Afros, Marley braids. I think they look great and have no problem with them (I’m black). But the last few times my regional manager (white) has made…
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Despite Apathy Among Millennials of Color, Dems Aren’t Going to Concede 2014
With only six months to go before the midterm elections, a meta-narrative is emerging that the electoral landscape favors the GOP. Journalists, political strategists and talking heads across the political spectrum are regurgitating the pollster line that a majority of potential voters—especially the ever elusive “independent”—are leaning Republican in 2014. And polling data suggest that…
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Lights, Camera, Action! Black Female Directors
Belle, a new movie about a biracial woman’s experience as a quasi-aristocrat in 18th-century Great Britain, is piquing the nation’s interest in a boatload of topics, including the real-life woman on whose story the film is loosely based, how the abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom differed from the history in the United States,…
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Is This Black Soldier the Inspiration for The Count of Monte Cristo?
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. Rendered with an economy of means and a penetrating observation of…
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Where Was All of This Leslie Jones Haterade When Chris Rock Did His Slavery Joke?
Saturday Night Live writer Leslie Jones’ recent on-air appearance on the iconic sketch show has sparked outrage among those who have argued that when it comes to comedy, certain topics should be off-limits, including slavery—the subject of Jones’ remarks. In case you missed it, she did a bit Saturday night describing how, as a taller black…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
