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Learning to Love Tax Season: Watch The Root Live Today at 11am
In many African-American families, when we have an important issue to discuss, we gather in the kitchen and bring it to the table. That’s especially true of financial discussions, whether about how to pay the bills, how to send Junior to college or where to start looking for a new job. For the next two…
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Rap Goes to Court: When Lyrics Become Evidence In a Trial
This week the Supreme Court of New Jersey is scheduled to hear final arguments in State v. Skinner, a case that could have a far-reaching impact on the criminal justice system. The case reflects an alarming new trend in which lyrics by amateur rappers are used against them as evidence in criminal prosecutions. Vonte Skinner, an…
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Why These Slave Women in an Asian Setting Were Important to Dutch Trade
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. A fanciful vision of an exotic, remote Asian land brilliantly expands…
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The Friendly Cold War Between 'Regular Blacks' and 'Ethnic Blacks' at the Nation's Elite Colleges
I’ll never forget the expression on my friend’s face during one of our African-American-studies classes at Duke University, when she was asked to clarify her response—for what seemed like the umpteenth time—to the question, “Where are you from?” after having answered, “America.” “Look, I’m just regular black,” she said, with an air of frustration plainly…
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Hank Aaron’s Home Run Record Meant Everything 40 Years Ago. It Still Does
April 8 marks the 40th anniversary of Henry Aaron passing Babe Ruth as the major league’s career leader in home runs. It was one of the most significant sports feats of the 20th century, and like many others—heavyweight Joe Louis’ defeat of Max Schmeling in 1938 and Jesse Owens’ four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in…
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Obama Uses His Pen to Enforce Equal Pay for Women and Minorities
After spending much of his first term facing criticism that he did not do enough to address issues of particular importance to minority communities, President Barack Obama appears to be making a conscious effort to make such issues a priority of his second term. On Tuesday, the president will sign two executive orders specifically aimed…
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How Race Factors Into Recent Supreme Court Rulings on Elections
Recent Supreme Court decisions on voting rights and political contributions have rescued the Republican Party from the brink of political oblivion and instead threaten to permanently undermine the very fabric of American democracy. The court’s 5-4 decision last week in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission eliminated the aggregate cap on individual campaign donations. The ruling…
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Who Is Black America’s Patron Saint?
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.…
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Pharrell Williams ‘Happy’ on Saturday Night Live
Pharrell Williams, known almost as much for his signature mountain hat as his music, took some merciless ribbing on Saturday Night Live this weekend. Guest host Anna Kendrick took to the stage in one sketch, donning an outfit of leprechaun green, the color of Pharrell’s famous hat. She and Vanessa Bayer played two adoring—if somewhat…
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Missing 8-Year-Old Relisha Rudd Yearned to Leave DC Homeless Shelter
Before 8-year-old Relisha Rudd went missing over a month ago, she longed to leave the bleak surroundings her family called home. She called the homeless shelter at the former Washington, D.C. General Hospital, where her family has lived for two years, a “trap house,” or a dismal place with bedbugs and no playground, the Washington…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
