Opinion
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Police Reforms Must Include Reparations for Those Living Through the Trauma of Police Violence
When Eric Garner died after being put in a chokehold by then-New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo on July 17, 2014, his daughter Erica Garner immediately became an activist of the highest caliber. She organized marches, wrote articles, and stood up to demand a conversation with President Obama at the presidential town hall on race…
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Black Leaders, We Need You to Tell the Full Story When Talking About Black Crime—and Black Humanity
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has acceded to the presence of federal police in her city—the same federal officers who have been tear-gassing and beating men, mothers, and Navy veterans in Portland, Ore.—as part of President Trump’s ridiculously and ominously termed “Operation Legend.” The decision from the mayor, the city’s first who is a Black woman,…
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Why I'm Not Going to Give My Kids 'The Talk'
“So,” the moderator asked, during a public (and socially distant) book talk last week—my first time being indoors anywhere other than my house or a grocery store since early March—“what would you change if you wrote that chapter to your daughter today?” I’ve been asked a variant of that question dozens of times in the…
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I've Eaten 170,000 Honey Roasted Peanuts Since March
So this morning after eating the 170,000th honey roasted peanut I’ve eaten since March OH IT WAS SO DELICIOUS THE WAY THE HONEY AND THE ROASTED PEANUT CONVERGED IN MY MOUTH CRUNCHY SWEET TANGY SEXY YES SEXY A HONEY ROASTED PEANUT IS THE SEXIEST NUT WAY SEXIER THAN CASHEWS WHICH HAVE NUT SCOLIOSIS AND ALMONDS…
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The Root's Clapback Mailbag: A Look Inside Our Secret Location
Making our way in the world todayTakes all black people got.Taking a break from wypipoSure would help a lot. Wouldn’t you like to get away? Sometimes you want to goWhere the Karens can be shamedAnd the cops don’t cock and aimYou want to be where they clap on beatand reparations can be claimed.You want to…
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Auntie Unfiltered: Ageism Is Bullshit
Happy birthday to me! It’s my 49th birthday today (I know, I know. Hold your applause.), and I couldn’t think of a better occasion to discuss the topic of ageism. Ageism is everywhere. We live in a culture that is obsessed with youth and looking young, as if the natural process of aging—a process that…
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Where the Only Pain Is Champagne
I once threw a party for myself that lasted 10 years. I want to say it was a celebration, or at least that’s how it started out. I wanted to celebrate life after so many years of being held back and held down by my illness, so I started going out and drinking almost every…
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Why Are the Men in Talib Kweli's Life Enabling Him to Harass Black Women?
There’s been a bit of a debate within The Root on how to cover Talib Kweli’s inexhaustible obsession with Maya Moody. For context, the 44-year-old rapper, who has over one million Twitter followers, grew upset when Moody tweeted the mildest of observations about the sort of women rappers tend to marry, and has tweeted at…
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I've Been a Homeowner for Two Years Now. Here's What I've Learned
THERE ARE TAXES AND FEES YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF SEWAGE FEES LAWN TAXES NEIGHBORHOOD FEES URINE TAXES EVERYTHING’S EXPENSIVE EVERYTHING BREAKS EVENTUALLY SHIT YOU DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IT WAS POSSIBLE TO BREAK WILL BREAK I HAD A BROKEN STOOP STEP LAST YEAR HOW THE FUCK DO YOU BREAK A STOOP STEP WE HAVE SOFT FEET…
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The Root's Clapback Mailbag: The Cleaning Solution
I was a shitty brother. I never abused my sisters. I just subjected them to years of mental abuse and torture. Perhaps the greatest example of my emotional terrorism was my stance on the bathroom. Before my mother returned home from work every day, she required us to clean the entire house. My sisters and…