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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Congrats, Grad! Morehouse Keynote Speaker Pays Off Debt of Graduating Class
Now we know exactly what it takes to upstage Angela Bassett: Forty million dollars, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. On a hard-earned day of celebration for hundreds of families, Morehouse upped the ante on black excellence. After the casually ethereal Bassett spoke, Robert F. Smith, the billionaire tech investor and philanthropist received an honorary doctorate…
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In Love and War: Jiréh Breon Holder’s Too Heavy for Your Pocket Weighs the Price of Freedom
It’s funny how the more things change, the more they say the same. Friday, May 17, marked 65 years to the day of the Brown v. the Board of Education ruling—a bittersweet anniversary, as civil and human rights continue to be rolled back across America and deep inequities for black and brown people persist with…
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Halle Berry and Keanu Reeves Try to Name Lyrics to Migos' 'John Wick'
The John Wick franchise is like a wet dream for lovers of action-adventure films. Director Chad Stahelski has built a world with umpteen highly choreographed fight scenes (I’d hate to be a stunt person in the film), a semi-solid storyline, guns and gallons of blood. But, did y’all know that there’s a Migos song named…
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Sweet Home Alabama?
I have a complicated relationship with Alabama because Alabama is a complicated place. Though I’ve lived less time there than anywhere else in the world that could be considered home (fall of 1993 through spring 1997 and only two summers, ever), it is also the state where I went to high school and where my…
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Behind Picket Fences: In Sam Kebede’s EthiopianAmerica, the American Dream Masks a Common Nightmare
There is palpable energy prior to a theatrical production; a current of excitement that buzzes through an audience anticipating new work on the stage. At the press night for EthiopianAmerica, the newest production from the Chicago-based Definition Theatre Company staged at Victory Gardens, there was also a profound feeling of family, as several members of…
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Issa Rae Options Tayari Jones’ Novel Silver Sparrow, Which Follows the Daughters of a Bigamist
Imagine having one book in the hottest book club known to man and named-checked by the Obamas—and then, having another book being optioned for adaptation. Well, Tayari Jones doesn’t have to imagine it—she’s living it! Best known for the 2018 bestseller An American Marriage, Jones’ 2011 novel, Silver Sparrow has been optioned by Issa Rae,…
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Harlem EatUp Festival Celebrates Family Culinary Legacies, Uplifts the Community
I sat with Tonja and Tianna Ottley on Monday night at the opening dinner of this week’s Harlem EatUp, an annual event devoted to showcasing some of the neighborhood’s best chefs, as they both recalled how they influenced each other’s cooking. Tonja beamed with joy much of the night because her daughter is one of…
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When Mental Illness Is Your Family Heirloom
You know that scene in My Cousin Vinny where Vinny’s girlfriend, Mona Lisa Vito, played by Marissa Tomei, testifies in court as an “expert witness” on cars? When opposing counsel condescendingly asks how a sweet little lady like herself—a hairdresser, even—could be an authority on automobiles, she replies, “My father was a mechanic. His father…
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Yara Shahidi Shares What She's Looking for In the Perfect Partner
It’s time to get personal. The Sun Is Also a Star co-stars Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton share some experiences with falling in love and heartbreak in a game of “Never Have I Ever: Love Edition.” Watch the full video above to find out what the movie’s co-stars want in a significant other, what it…