Rapper Shawty Lo was killed early Wednesday morning during a hit-and-run accident in Georgia. The Atlanta native, born Carlos Walker, was one of the founding members of the group D4L. The “Dey Know” rapper was driving on Interstate 285 when his vehicle was struck by another car. According to the Georgia Department of Transportation, Walker’s car…

Can you name a sitting president who has had, not one, but two movies made about his life? Probably not. But President Barack Obama’s life has become fodder for the silver screen. Earlier this summer, Southside With You, a movie about the president’s courtship of the first lady, was released and received amazing reviews. And…

Editor’s note: This post contains tweets that some may find offensive. In today’s “When Your White Ally Goes Wrong” news, David Simon, creator of The Wire, had some explaining to do on social media when he used the n-word in a tweet. Simon took issue with the fact that Donald Trump was having a “a town hall meeting on…

As someone who has to pay attention to social media as part of her job, whenever I see a person’s name as a hashtag on Twitter, there’s always some trepidation when it comes to clicking it. On Monday evening, I saw #TerenceCrutcher and assumed it had to deal with Monday-night football. But within seconds of…

If there was ever a family whose members will stab each other in the back but then fight to protect each other, it’s the Lyon family. Cookie (Taraji P. Henson), Lucious (Terrence Howard), Jamal (Jussie Smollett), Andre (Trai Byers) and Hakeem (Bryshere “Yazz” Gray) put the “dys” in dysfunctional, but in Empire’s third season, they really only have…

Cam Newton and Colin Kaepernick came face-to-face Sunday when their two teams faced off on the field. Although Newton’s Carolina Panthers went on to beat Kaepernick’s San Francisco 49ers, it was the memes that caught everyone’s attention. Newton and Kaepernick’s face-to-face photo went viral, and it definitely looked like an “All Lives Matter” versus “Black…

Paige Shoemaker went viral last week for all of the wrong reasons. The now-former Kansas State University student’s Snapchat photo, which showed her and a friend in blackface, caught the ire of her fellow KSU students on social media. Shoemaker’s photo was captioned with:  “Feels good to finally be a [n—ga].” After Shoemaker’s photo went viral,…

Sterling K. Brown and Courtney B. Vance won big at the Emmys Sunday night when they both took home awards for The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. And their acceptance speeches definitely had mainstream media buzzing, trying to figure out what the (blank) they were talking about. Brown took home the Emmy for best supporting actor…

Black star power was in full effect during Sunday night’s Emmy Awards. And to the shock of no one, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story took home a boatload of Emmys. The FX series led the way with five wins in the miniseries categories, including lead acting for Sarah Paulson and Courtney B. Vance, as well as in the supporting…

There’s this thing out there called freedom of speech. And those on social media make it their point to practice that freedom day in and day out, ad nauseam. But that doesn’t mean everyone has to be subjected to it. Earlier this week on The Root, several writers took issue with actor Michael Rapaport. Whether it…