Opinion
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A (Very Short) Case for Why Pittsburgh Is the Blackest City in America
I’m not going to cite the Homestead Grays or the history of the Hill District. Nor will I The Pittsburgh Courier, Homewood, Teenie Harris, Billy Eckstine, Phyllis Hyman, John Edgar Wideman, Little Haiti, The Crawford Grill, Mary Lou Williams, George Benson, Josh Gibson, Antoine Fuqua, Billy Porter, Latoya Ruby Frazier, Art Blakey, Romare Bearden, Kyle…
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In Black Memphis, Beale Street Can Talk
Beale Street can talk. She’s country, loud and a bit ghetto. She’s bold like the blackness she exudes throughout the city. She has a thick tongue and a sour drawl. She uses Lisa Akbari’s shampoo and the black tube of Ampro gel to slick down her edges. She refuses to wear a slip when she…
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To Be Young, Gifted and White
I don’t necessarily like the term “white privilege.” I use it because society has already accepted a universal, but flawed, definition of the word. Although many understand that whiteness, in and of itself, gifts one at birth with opportunities not afforded to people of color, I understand why many white people push back against the…
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Oakland Makes Everything Black, Blacker
There’s a spirit here that takes anything and makes it blacker than it was before. Shit, after you read this, you’re going to be blacker, too. Oakland, Calif., took the wheel and made the first black motorcycle club, The East Bay Dragons. Oakland took the book and made a home for the longest standing black-owned…
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Atlanta Is the Real Wakanda
Everyone believes in heaven. The Norse called it Valhalla. Greeks called it Elysium or Olympus. But the concept of heaven is not necessarily reserved for the afterlife. Shangri-La, Atlantis, El Dorado, Camelot and the Garden of Eden all exist in the imaginations of many. Regardless of society, religion or culture, people eventually create an idealized…
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When It Comes to Blackness, All Roads Lead to and Through East St. Louis. Period.
Firstly, I want to make this clear: People often (always) confuse East St. Louis and St. Louis—they are not the same city. Kind of like assuming all black people look alike or just because our names are close than we must be sisters—nah. East St. Louis is literally “east” of St. Louis and is housed…
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The Root's Clapback Mailbag: Just the Tips
Before we get into this week’s emails, tweets, DMs, and comments, many of my mailbag readers know that I am very carol-centric. I believe that no holiday is complete if it doesn’t have a song that people sing to celebrate it. “Silent Night” is for Christmas; “Auld LangSyne” is for New Years Day. “America the…
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Philadelphia, Where Blackness Transcends
If we needed a Capital of Blackness, we’d make it Philadelphia. Philly is the soundtrack to blackness, every facet of black life rolled into a hoagie of diasporic oneness. Every elastic, painful, ebullient chord, like Gerald Price’s mystically floating fingers across piano keys at Zanzibar Blue, or young brothers freestyle battling elder cats on trumpet…
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A History of Heroes
I became black at age 7. I was in second grade, missing two front teeth, and talking a mile a minute to my mom while she stood at the stove, telling her about my newest school project. I’d been instructed that day by my teacher, Ms. Jefferson, to go into our extensive elementary library and…