• Quote of the Day: Oprah Winfrey

    Check out our coverage of Oprah Winfrey here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute 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. 

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  • Black Pastors to Star in Reality TV Show

    Black America Web‘s Michael H. Cottman asks in an insightful piece about an impending Oxygen Network reality show about black pastors: Should they sanctify the foolishness of reality TV? Would you really want your pastor – and your congregation – to star in a reality television show? I’m not knocking the six black pastors who…

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  • Obama Alleged Scandals: The Public Should Yawn

    Earl Ofari Hutchinson argues in a piece at EURweb that the four alleged scandals faced by the administration don’t pass the smell test for a public flogging of the president because there is no clear cut evidence that he had any knowledge or hand in the missteps. *The mostly media driven scandal talk involving President…

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  • Which Slave Sailed Himself to Freedom?

    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. (The Root) — Amazing Fact About the…

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  • Watch This: Miguel's Stage Dive Goes All Wrong

    According to Deadspin, Billboard and Miguel have said the women who were the victims of this midperformance mishap are fine, so it’s safe to call the moment one of the highlights of Sunday night’s Billboard Awards. If nothing else, it will go down in awards-show (and clumsiness) history. Here’s the two women who bore the…

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  • Floyd Mayweather Jr. Highest-Paid Athlete

    Boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. was named the highest-paid U.S. athlete for the second year in a row, and Nike does not endorse him; nor does he own a clothing line, ABC reports. Mayweather, 36, was paid $90 million in the last year, none of it coming from endorsements, according to Sports Illustrated. “I earn…

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  • Michelle Obama Has Retired Her Bangs

    First lady Michelle Obama just keeps us guessing with her indelible fashion sense. New York magazine duly notes that on Friday she sported a new look for her commencement address at Bowie State University in College Park, Md.: side-swept bangs. Gone are the blunt midlife crisis bangs she debuted in February, leaving behind only a…

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  • Watch This: President Obama Delivers Morehouse Commencement Address

    Barack Obama arrived in Atlanta on a rainy Sunday to be with a friendlier crowd, after a rough week in Washington, to become the first sitting president to deliver the commencement address at Morehouse College, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The president was scheduled to later attend a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee at…

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  • Farrakhan to Detroit: Investment Needed in City

    The Associated Press is reporting that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Friday encouraged Detroit’s religious leaders and residents to join him in an effort to buy dilapidated and neglected properties and take other steps to help revitalize the beleaguered city. The fiery orator offered few specifics in a speech to the Detroit City…

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  • Woman Gets Job via Instagram

    (The Root) — Our daily tasks involve social media more and more. Watching television, breaking up with our old mates, finding new ones — we’ve found ways to incorporate our online interactions in ways we never would have dreamed before. Samantha Bankey recently added “getting a job” to that list, having recently been offered a…

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