Opinion
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The Root's Clapback Mailbag: Y'all Won
Of all the things I have ever written for The Root, there are a handful of articles that inspired the most material for the weekly Clapback Mailbag. If I had to rank them from lowest to high in terms of hate mail received, the order would go as follows: 5. “An Open Letter to White…
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White Man Whose Son Begged Him Not to Call the Cops on Black Guy Whitesplains Why He Did It
None of us know Christopher Cukor well enough to make cuckold jokes, but trust me, I know we all want to. Cukor was thrust into the African-American zeitgeist the way that most white people throughout history have thrust themselves into African-American history: by minding other people’s business. Here’s how The Root Senior Writer Michael Harriot…
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We Are Meharry, Not Juul’s Marionette
When my alma mater—Meharry Medical College (one of only three historically black colleges and universities that produces physicians, dentists, and biomedical researchers)—welcomed a $7.5 million donation from Juul/Altria, the world’s leading e-cigarette company, it felt like we had accepted Kryptonite. The unpopular decision connects two diametrically opposed missions: one that seeks to improve the health…
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The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: America, the Brutal Fool
Since yesterday was America’s birthday, let’s begin the Clapback Mailbag with a patriotic song: O brutal fools, those racist whites, with grammar that’s a shameFor mountains of hate mail we receive, filled with white tears of painA mailbag’s here! A mailbag’s here! Our readers love when weClapback at all the racist trolls who email, DM…
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#NotMyAriel: White Twitter Is Big Mad About Disney Casting a Black Little Mermaid [Corrected]
As the nation celebrated the national holiday that symbolizes all men being created equal, a small minority of mistreated Americans cranked up the Caucasian outrage machine to address an egregious injustice that threatened the happiness and well-being of people everywhere. But this time, the righteous indignation was not about Nikes, coffeemakers or even reality. This…
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We Said What We Said: 10 Things The Root Wrote About America
In the 10-plus years since The Root was founded, our writers have always celebrated the Fourth of July with the knowledge that America’s original Independence Day celebration only applied to white men. Since then, this land of freedom and opportunity has graciously allowed its black citizens incremental but not-quite-full access to liberty and justice through…
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The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: Math
Remember the Clapback day, to keep it holy. Five days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the Friday is the Clapback Day of the Root, thy website. In it, though shalt respond to the emails tweets and DMs ye received. All week, wypipo raised all holy hell. And on Fridays, we shalt…
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Chris Matthews Asked Kamala Harris to Explain Why She Doesn't Hate White People. Here's the Answer [Corrected]
Shortly after Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) finished her cool-down exercises after forcing the former Pinky to Barack Obama’s Brain into submission with a Rear Naked Chokehold before a live television audience, she sat down with chronic interrupter and MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews to explain how she acquired the can of whoop-ass she opened and poured…
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Melania Trump and the Hypocrisy of White American Motherhood
Over the last few years, much of the conversation around Melania Trump has hinged on her foreignness—both in the literal sense, and in the ways she breaks from White House traditions: She’s a former lingerie model, the first first lady in more than two centuries to be born outside of the U.S., and the only…
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The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: Clapback to Reality
Every Friday, when I wade through the emails, tweets and direct messages received from the readers of The Root, I wonder how they can disagree with science, statistics, and history. Whether it’s Hoteps, Trump supporters or store-brand, Great Value white people, they are willing to discount verified facts, peer-reviewed studies, documented accounts of history and…