Filmmaker Trey Ellis writes at the Huffington Post that Django Unchained pleasantly surprised him because he has struggled in the past with director Quentin Tarantino’s flagrant use of the n-word. Like every other black filmmaker and/or self-appointed guardian of black cultural treasures, I was as worried as I was when I heard Quentin Tarantino’s next film…

Editor’s note, March 8, 2012: With all of the recently renewed interest in Professor Derrick Bell’s parable, “Space Traders,” The Root has decided to unearth this 2012 essay relating to the film adaption of that story. Scroll down to watch videos of the film. Professor Derrick Bell, who died on Oct. 6, was a hero…

Ever since news came of Twain scholar Alan Gribben’s whitewashed reworking of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, the media have — not completely unjustifiably — beaten up on the poor, well-intentioned scholar. According to the Associated Press, in his new versions, Gribben changed the word “nigger” to “slave” 219 times in Huck…

I am a big fan of John Guare’s work. Six Degrees of Separation, The House of Blue Leaves and the screenplay for Atlantic City are all, unquestionably, brilliant. I am a (guarded) fan of his most recent work, A Free Man of Color, chronicling the rise of America as a superpower after the Louisiana Purchase…