Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude

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News, Race Matters

We Need to Talk About the 'Twisted Tea' Incident and Why This Story Matters

Let me first just say that we at The Root do not promote violence. We believe that you should use your words and that “an eye for an eye leaves everyone’s sticks and stones unturned.” (I don’t think that’s how it goes, but whichever adage means “don’t punch people” is what I’m saying.) We believe…

By

Zack Linly

Published

December 29, 2020
Culture

9 Proper Nouns That Sound Better When You Add the Oh-So-Necessary, Very Unnecessary Extra 'S' on the End

If you are Black in America, there’s a better than 50 percent chance (this is non-scientific, by the way) that you watched Monday night’s Verzuz featuring Brandy and Monica, two singers of significant renown with a sordid history that was very much on display (to me) during the Verzuz. At its peak, it topped out…

By

Panama Jackson

Published

September 1, 2020
News, Opinion, Some Thoughts

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…

By

Damon Young

Published

August 5, 2020
Entertainment, Movies

Hard Pass: Jeremy Saville's Loqueesha Panned as Modern-Day Minstrel 'Comedy'

On Friday, social media let out a collective ‘wtf??’ after a trailer for an upcoming movie went viral: a white bartender disguises his voice as a stereotypical black woman’s to get the radio host job he couldn’t as a white man. They named the movie Loqueesha and I wish I was making this shit up…

By

Aliya Semper Ewing

Published

May 11, 2019
Very Smart Brothas

7 Irksome Ways Your Beloved Elders Fuck Up the English Language

If you’re a young person well-versed in blackness, you’re bound to be creative with the English language. But thanks to the Internet, this creativity has become less regional and maddeningly uniform. So a black dude could trek from New York to the Atlanta University Center in his Timbs and not be clowned for saying how…

By

Malaika Jabali

Published

June 3, 2016