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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Safety Eric Reid Was Drug Tested 7 Times in 11 Weeks. The NFL Swears it Was Totally Random
Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid needs to play the lottery because he’s a lucky man. So lucky, in fact, that when the NFL is randomly drug testing its players, Reid has been fortunate enough to have had his name chosen seven times in 11 weeks. And get this, the NFL, the league that Reid is…
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When, If Ever, Should We Explain Blackness, for The Culture?
VSB, in conjunction with a black-owned and -serving bricks and mortar bookstore in Washington, D.C., Mahogany Books, started a book club a few months back. So far we’ve read James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, Glory Edim’s Well-Read Black Girl Anthology, and Kiese Laymon’s Heavy. Next month’s book is all about love by bell hooks.…
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Black Artists Unite to Revive Black Wall Street’s Legacy
At the turn of the 20th century, the thriving neighborhood of Greenwood, known as Black Wall Street, in Tulsa, Okla., was an epicenter of black wealth in the United States. From 1905 to 1921, it was a flourishing community filled with black families who owned businesses, homes, newspapers and churches. It was also the site…
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Rising Playwright Jeremy O. Harris Addresses Backlash Over Controversial Slave Play
Much to the chagrin of the many detractors who were in an uproar about last month’s world premiere of Slave Play, the controversial drama’s creator is getting the last laugh. It’s bittersweet, though. Jeremy O. Harris found his critically acclaimed pet project at the center of a firestorm on the heels of opening at the…
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A Live Look at ‘America’s Most Livable City’
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, the organization that produces the annual Global Livability Index, Pittsburgh is America’s second most livable city. (Honolulu is first.) This is a status that Pittsburgh is proud of, bragging about and displaying it the way a parent might share their kid’s report card in a text thread. If I…
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Only 2 Hours Into Surviving R. Kelly, the Conclusion Is Simple: Black Girls Deserve Better
I’m tired. We’re tired. On the evening of January 3, 2019, I bundled up my anxiety and turned to Lifetime to watch what I knew would be one of the most noteworthy moments of media history. Executive produced by dream hampton, Tamara Simmons, Joel Karlsberg and Jesse Daniels, Surviving R. Kelly is a 6-hour, three…
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Thanks to Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Visitors Went 'Apeshit' at the Louvre in 2018—But a Fan Cries Foul
Come through, cultural influence! The Louvre may have already been the most popular museum in the world, but thanks to two of the most popular entertainers in the world (and one of the most powerful couples), the famed French museum broke a new record in 2018. According to The Guardian, over 10 million people visited…
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Exclusive: Meet Some of the Women Who Are Speaking Out in Lifetime's Surviving R. Kelly
“At the end of the day, this the guy that makes this great music is abusing women.” —Jerhonda Pace text The Root sat down with some of the women and men who appear in Lifetime’s groundbreaking documentary series, Surviving R. Kelly, to chat about their relationships with the singer and why they decided to speak…
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'Hidden Figure' Shelby Jacobs, Who Designed a Camera System for NASA, Finally Getting His Due Nearly 51 Years Later
If you have ever seen the iconic images of NASA’s Apollo 6 launch that took place in 1968, you have seen Shelby Jacobs’ work, whether you realized it or not. In 1965, Jacobs was given the task of designing a camera system that could capture the rocket separations for the unmanned Apollo 6 launch. He…
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R. Kelly Didn't 'Have Sex' With 15-Year-Old Aaliyah on That Tour Bus. We Need to Call It What It Was—Rape [Updated]
Sigh. Major trigger warning here: The following recently revealed details are fucking gross. With the much-anticipated Lifetime three-part documentary Surviving R. Kelly on the horizon, additional details have come out about the alleged hebephile/ephebophile. According to People, R. Kelly’s former backup singer Jovante Cunningham sat down to give an “emotional interview” for the documentary’s first…