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Charles Blow on the Complexity of the Black Male Experience
New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow’s new memoir, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, is scheduled for release Tuesday. So far, headlines about the book have focused almost entirely on one thing: Blow’s grappling with his attraction to other men. The author says that’s fair and that the attention to the issue is understandable.…
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Stephen King, Courtney B. Vance and Gloria Reuben Featured in Tuesday’s Season Premiere of Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Since the premiere of his groundbreaking series African American Lives (2006) and through the first season of Finding Your Roots (2012), noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Tomorrow, in the second-season premiere of Finding Your Roots With…
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Courtney B. Vance Discovers a Rebellious Slave in His Family Tree
In their book Friends: A Love Story, actor Courtney B. Vance and his actress wife, Angela Bassett, laid bare their seven-year struggle with infertility, along with their unwavering faith that they would someday conceive a child. They ultimately gave birth to twins, Bronwyn Golden and Slater Josiah, with the help of a surrogate. Through his…
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Actor Malik Yoba Shares the Roots of His Social Consciousness
The Root Live: Bring It the Table returns Wednesday, Sept. 17, with a dynamic discussion about the cost of social activism. The Root Live, sponsored by Prudential, is a weekly video series tackling financial concerns in the African-American community. In the second episode of the series, The Root contributing editor and host Harriette Cole is joined…
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Bill Cosby Has Tried to Teach Whites About Blacks
Bill Cosby came under fire during his early professional years for not addressing race in his comedy routines. Journalist Mark Whitaker reveals in his new book, Cosby: His Life and Times, how the entertainer refused to label himself a black comedian, but he spent the bulk of his career fighting for civil rights and racial…
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New Book Says Bill Cosby’s Jokes Masked Pain
Journalist Mark Whitaker, author of the new book Cosby: His Life and Times, talks with The Root Editor-in-Chief Henry Louis Gates Jr. in a wide-ranging interview. Whitaker says comedian Bill Cosby became an accidental role model for him at a critical point in his childhood after his father left his family. He recalls embarking on a…
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The 50 Greatest Black TV Shows of All Time
Last month, The Root asked readers to vote for their favorite black TV shows. We started with a list of 60 and used your votes to whittle the list down to the top 50. Here are the results. To read about the top 10 shows and see the complete list, go here.
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Watch: What Are the 50 Greatest Black TV Shows of All Time?
On Monday The Root will give readers the chance to vote for the greatest black TV shows of all time. For the next three weeks, readers will choose from a roster of shows—from comedies to dramas, old and new—that captured the collective experiences of being black in America. The top 50 shows that readers choose will be…
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Meet the Black Female Judge Who Is Deciding Oscar Pistorius’ Fate
Editor’s note: Verdicts in the Oscar Pistorius case are being rendered Thursday and Friday by Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa. The judge has already ruled that Pistorius is not guilty of the premeditated murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Masipa will continue to read her findings on lesser charges in court on Friday. Here is some…
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Ta-Nehisi Coates Tops The Root 100 List of Black Influencers
Who are today’s standout black leaders, innovators and culture shapers? Who are the most influential African Americans 45 and under? To answer these tough questions, The Root looked back at the year’s most significant moments and themes and asked, “Who made this happen?” As we have each year since 2009, we scrutinized the more than 500…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
