Opinion
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How to Play Black Spades, Part 3: We Finna Play
Now that you have read parts one and two of our tutorials on how to play black America’s favorite pastime, it is time to learn the official way to play Black Spades. These rules have been adapted from Bicycle Playing Card’s version of white Spades. There are three objects of every game of Black Spades:…
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The Root's Clapback Mailbag: What Is We Doing?
Today’s mailbag is dedicated to the people who are laughed at, made fun of and dismissed as a joke. Every day, the entire staff at The Root engages in a brutal act of bullying against certain members of our team. It’s becoming institutional and I’m tired of it. Whenever any person suggests that we cover…
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How to Play Black Spades, Part 2: The Glossary
Welcome back to The Root University’s tutorial on how to play spades. As we discussed earlier, this guide will not make you a great spades player. Its intended purpose is to introduce you to the basic structure of the game and prevent your relatives at the next family reunion from looking at you like you…
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How to Be a Successful Writer in 2020
It’s a question I’m asked during book talks, while signing books after said talks, on panels, in emails, through DMs, at happy hours, and even once in between games at LA Fitness. I try to be as transparent as possible, but the honest answer (“I can tell you what worked for me, but there’s no…
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Are We Obligated to Snitch on and Publicly Shame Coronavirus Deniers?
If you’re the type of person who believes, for instance, that AIDS can be cured with paprika, your belief is definitely dangerous, and you probably need some lotion. But because the Venn diagram of “people who think mailboxes cause diabetes” and “people living in their aunt’s basements who still write their names on their orange…
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The Root's Clapback Mailbag: The Caucasian Virus
In light of this global pandemic, we’ve decided to come forward and admit that our claim that we respond to our readers’ correspondences each Friday may not be 100 percent accurate. After carefully contemplating this issue, we must admit that we have led you to believe a lie. For the sake of transparency, you should…
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Coronavirus Has Exposed America's Sickness of Selfishness
When I was a little girl growing up in Jamaica, my schoolteachers frequently recited the phrase: “No man is an island, no man stands alone.” The saying effectively transmitted to me and my peers’ childhood minds the message that we’re all in this together and that as humans, we need each other to survive, even…