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What Should Don Lemon Call His New Show?
Dear Internet trolls: Don Lemon is officially prime-time. Let this be a lesson to you to never give up on your dreams. Lemon, CNN’s resident “tell it like it is” anchor, has nabbed the coveted 11 p.m. prime-time slot on the network and will also guest-host for OutFront anchor Erin Burnett while she’s on maternity…
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Why I Decided to Do a Reality-TV Show
Monday morning, entertainment trade magazine the Hollywood Reporter broke the news of an upcoming reality show, Blood, Sweat & Heels, which will debut on Bravo on Jan. 5. Since taping began in the spring, I’d been biting my tongue for months, alternately excited to reveal the news to my readers and, to be honest, afraid…
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Quote of the Day: Pinckney B.S. Pinchback on Reconstruction-Era Politics
Read how the quote is referenced here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
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McBride Shooter Used Shotgun Named 'The Persuader'
The story of Theodore Wafer—a white, suburban Detroit man charged in connection with the Nov. 2 shooting death of unarmed black teen Renisha McBride—has all the elements of an American tragedy: a shooter and victim of different races, living on either side of the suburban-urban divide, in a state with a permissive self-defense code backed…
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Outgunned: Stigma Over Mental Illness Linked to Gun Violence
Editor’s note: Read part 1 and part 2 of the series. Just days after Aaron Alexis killed 12 people and injured three others in the Washington Navy Yard shooting, it was revealed that he had suffered from severe delusions in the months leading up to the tragedy. Ultimately, his paranoia would get the best of…
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Funding Crisis Threatens Black Theater
With the success of films like Lee Daniels’ The Butler, 12 Years a Slave and now The Best Man Holiday, which surpassed box office expectations this weekend, 2013 is being billed as a banner year for African-American films. But while films with predominantly black casts are thriving, live theater featuring predominantly black casts is not.…
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Here’s a Rarity: Blacks Performing in a Painting Free of Racist Overtones
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. Thomas Eakins was, with Winslow Homer, one of the foremost American…
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Alfre Woodard Shows Up as Idris Elba
I am submitting this photo of Alfre Woodard from Armani’s Instagram account without comment. The caption reads: “Idris Elba posing in a gorgeous Georgio @armani dress.” OK, just one comment: How did this happen? Confusing Idris Elba and Alfre Woodard? Their names don’t rhyme. One is a man, and the other is a woman. I…
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‘Move B–ch,’ and Other Songs Rob Ford Would Probably Love
Embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is a very special man. Earlier on Monday, Ford bum-rushed Councillor Pam McConnell at a Toronto City Council meeting where lawmakers were debating whether to strip him of more of his mayoral powers after he confessed to a slew of transgressions, including smoking crack. “I rushed over there because my…
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USA Today Gets Slammed for Best Man Holiday Headline
Over the weekend, I went to the theater with some of my favorite black people to see Best Man Holiday, a film starring a bevy of capable black actors. There were quite a few black folks in the audience, because you know, the film does feature some pretty heavy black themes, like love, family, friendship,…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
