Opinion
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A List of Characters in Hamilton Who Also Should've Shot Alexander Hamilton in the Face
1. At least once a week, 50 Cent does or says a thing that makes you think “Yeah, I see why people want to kill you.” Alexander Hamilton was (spoiler alert) killed by Aaron Burr, but like 17 different people had good reason to kill him too. The homie Bassey put it best: “Not enough…
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50 Percent of White Folks Admit That They Will Happily Condemn Us All to Four More Years of Excruciating Hell
I believe it was fabled author Damon Young who once stated that “white people won’t save you.” But just in case you’re unclear on their utter willingness to condemn us all to the fiery depths of hell, allow me to enlighten you. According to Newsweek, Hill-HarrisX conducted a poll in which they presumably asked white…
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Do You Know What 'Brolic' Means? (And If Not, Where Are You From?)
While walking through some mud at Moraine State Park last weekend, I thought about how “mud” is one of those perfect words that fits exactly what it is. Mud looks and acts and feels and smells exactly like something we should call “mud.” It would make no sense if the word for mud was something…
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I Hope My Ancestors Were Goat Herders, Not Kings and Queens
Did Wakanda have housing projects? Payday lenders? A Wakandan Dollar General? These are questions I have whenever I watch Black Panther, and I’m sure there are comic book people who can provide answers. They are also dumb questions because Wakanda doesn’t exist, and whoever invented that nation could also invent a world where royalty can…
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The Root's Clapback Mailbag: Errors and Omissions
“There ain’t been a perfect person on earth since Jesus took to the sky; and there won’t be none until he comes back” — Aunt Earlene To be fair, my Aunt Earlene has been married to a Pentecostal preacher, my Uncle Otis, since the mid-196os, so she knows very little about Black Thought—who has never…
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Confederate Dunce: Alabama Lawmaker Who Honored KKK Grand Wizard Instead of John Lewis Resigns—as Pastor
It takes a staunch commitment to racist foolishness to celebrate the life of a Confederate general and Klan figurehead in 2020. To do so on the very same weekend, in the very same city that civil rights icon John Lewis was being honored? How much harder can you stan Jim Crow? But that is exactly…
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White People Won't Save You
There are tens of thousands of Americans—nurses and uncles; bus drivers and doctors; aunties and baristas; grad students and my friend—who were killed by COVID-19 because they just weren’t able to escape it. Perhaps their occupation was high-risk. Perhaps they were unable to effectively social distance. Perhaps they had underlying—and white supremacy-induced—medical conditions that made…
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How To Prepare Steak Exactly How I Like It, Since I Don't Give a Shit If You Like It, Too
There are places on TV, in magazines, and on the internet where you can find peer-and-eater-reviewed methods for preparing, cooking, and staging great steaks. Where the people who make the steaks promise that, if you follow their directions, step-by-step, you will have a delicious steak too. I am not one of those people. This is…
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Thanks to Terry Crews, I Can Finally Put 'Coon' in a Headline Here!
Although we’re pretty much free to use whichever language we wish within the body of a piece here, headlines are different. Most profanity is fine, in the proper context. But proper context or not, the granddaddy (“fuck”) needs approval from our editor-in-chief. Sexually explicit terms are a no-go, and slurs are, too. Well, mostly. The…
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Black Women's Trauma Is No Laughing Matter
A few weeks back, chart-topping emcee Megan Thee Stallion revealed via Instagram that she was shot in the foot on July 12 “as a result of a crime committed against [her] and done with the intention to physically harm [her],” despite early reports that she stepped on glass during a night out in the Hollywood…