Inside the Explosive Delineation Debate Picking Apart Black Folk’s Identity, History, and Who ‘Belongs’
The Root’s Ultimate Guide to Holiday Dos and Don’ts!
Forget What JD Vance Said — Here are 13 Times White Folks Never Apologized For Bad Behavior
NFL Might Tax Steelers’ DK Metcalf’s This Eye-Watering Sum For His Sideline Move
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NASCAR Launches Investigation After Noose Found in Bubba Wallace's Garage Stall: 'This Will Not Break Me'
On Sunday, as Juneteenth celebrations drew to a close, a noose was found in the garage stall of Bubba Wallace at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Ala. ESPN reports that Wallace, the only black driver in NASCAR’s Cup Series, never saw the noose—it was discovered by a member of his team—but it was clear that a…
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Democratic Senators Will Introduce Legislation to Make Juneteenth a Federal Holiday
Happy Juneteenth, everybody! And what a special Juneteenth it is. This year, our holiday commemorating the end of slavery is happening right in the middle of a time when the Black Lives Matter movement is receiving the most widespread attention and support, possibly, since its inception. Now, four Democratic senators are introducing legislation that would make…
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An Exclusive Interview With an Organizer of the Original Juneteenth Cookout
On June 18, 1865, Union Army General Gordon Granger and 2,000 troops, many of whom were black, arrived at Galveston Island to occupy the state of Texas after the last army of white supremacist army of the Confederacy surrendered. The black soldiers started spreading the word to nearby enslaved Africans that something big was going…
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My Ancestors Want Me to Make a Banana Pudding for Juneteenth [Updated]
My mother hated to cook. She was a good cook when it came to things she liked—rice, chicken, all kinds of soul food and sweet desserts—and a bad cook for things she didn’t understand or eat. For years, I thought steak was supposed to be tough like shoe leather and chewier than gum. I thought…
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The Timeless Freedom of Miss Juneteenth
What does freedom look like? When you’re a black person in America living in a post-civil rights era world, currently suffocating from the smoke in a racist climate as the words “I Can’t Breathe” echo in the sky, the answer to that question is…complicated, to say the very least. June 19, 2020 marks 155 years…
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What Juneteenth and My Father Taught Me About 'Expectations'
I wouldn’t know Juneteenth without my father. He’s the Texan. He grew up celebrating the holiday that started on June 19, 1865, when slaves on Galveston Island, Texas, finally learned they’d been freed under the Emancipation Proclamation two years prior. Even though he now lived in St. Louis, he’d always make the same jokey reference…
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Sorry, LeBron. Bill Russell Makes a Compelling Argument As to Why He's the Greatest Athlete in NBA History
LeBron James is a freak of nature. He might not crack Paul Pierce’s top 5 of all-time, but as I explained before at this very site: “Never in the history of the NBA have we seen a player with Karl Malone’s size, Michael Jordan’s athleticism and explosiveness, Kobe’s guile and Magic Johnson’s otherworldly passing ability…
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There's a Real Possibility That Colin Kaepernick Could Be on an NFL Roster This Season
Feel free to read that headline again, because I struggle to believe it too. But with society experiencing an awakening of sorts in light of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, we now live in a world in which the phrase Black Lives Matter is finally evoking action instead of fear. In…
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Crystal Dunn Was Afraid She'd Lose Her Career If She Kneeled With Megan Rapinoe
In recent years, when a black athlete takes a political stance they’re typically met with some variation of “shut up and dribble,” from media pundits and pressed white fans. It’s understandable that American soccer player Crystal Dunn had complicated emotions when her teammate Megan Rapinoe decided to kneel. Dunn said she had a fear that…