Antisocial
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The Perils of Being ‘Office Oprah’
Once upon a time in a newsroom as white as the newly fallen snow, I stood out as the only black person there—woman or otherwise. I was it. It was me. Trying to rep for millions of black folks while my newsroom’s black population was less than 1 percent. Back then, I was young. I…
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I Won an Award, but Who's the Real MVP?
Last week, on Monday night, was the 19th annual Women’s eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century gala at Club 101 in Manhattan, N.Y. There was some revelry, but there was a lot more talk about how we can advance our cause as women, and ultimately, not just save ourselves, but save the world. As…
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How I Finally Learned to (Sort of) Stop Hitting Myself
As I often tell people, what got me to finally get my life together (of sorts) was not me. I wish I was enough, but alas, for me, as I’ve demonstrated time and time again, I am not. The first time I pulled it together out of the darkness of bipolar disorder was for my…
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The Ms. Foundation for Women Goes for a Welcome Laugh in Aggressively Unfunny Times
A long time ago (2016), in a land similar to our own but very different (pre-Trump America), comedy was about the absurd. Presidents were fun to make fun of because they were confined by the stature of the office. It was fun to imagine how they would be if they were a more extreme version…
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From Get-Out-the-Vote to Respectability Politics, Aretha Franklin's Homegoing Was a Dramatic, Political Affair
DETROIT—A stage is a stage, even when it’s a church and the performance is a marathon of a funeral. Clocking in at more than nine hours long for those who showed up at 8:30 a.m. Friday morning to view her body, perhaps Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul and daughter of Detroit, wouldn’t have had…
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A List of Every Stress-Related Illness I’ve Ever Had, Ranked From Horrible to ‘I Think I’m Dying’
When you don’t listen to your body, your body has a way of forcing you to listen. Or at least that’s what my body does, over and over again, from annoying to terrifying effect. When you suffer from stress-induced anxiety, as I do and have since I was a child, you get a host of…
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The Root Is at the 2018 BET Awards and All You're Getting Is This Liveblog
Today’s the day! We’ve picked out our best bougie girl, not-for-the-BET-Awards-outfits and are going to the 2018 BET Awards, with all the cool kids. Yes, your Editor-in-Chief, Danielle C. Belton, and The Root’s Deputy Managing Editor Yesha Callahan, are in Los Angeles, ready for primetime (sort of), when the show starts at 7 p.m. CST/8…
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Marvel’s Luke Cage Premiere Party Was Cool and I Was Cool, Too, for Once
Before I headed to Los Angeles for the BET Awards this weekend, I decided to test my old-person “stay awake” abilities by going to the premiere party for Netflix and Marvel’s Luke Cage series Thursday night before my flight. While I succeeded in turning all the way up at this party, I failed at staying…
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Our Hotel Is for the Birds (Literally). Cuh-CAAAAW!
There are literal birds chirping, tweeting and running around our hotel for the BET Awards—the vast Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles, where scenes from the film True Lies were shot. These birds, however, are not just of the feathered kind but of these kinds, too. Yes, birds. Birds of the “Pick me, choose me,…
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The Root Is in Los Angeles for the BET Awards and Has No Idea What to Wear
What to wear? What to wear? First things first: I’m not cool. I’ve never been cool. Not gonna be cool. Couldn’t be cool if I tried. And the BET Awards—as well as the various colorfully dressed, still flat-and-tight-stomached young people who attend it—are cool. (Even when I was a young-’n’-flat-stomached little thing, I wasn’t cool.)…
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