black america
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They Can't Kill Us and We Won't Die
Twenty-nine presidents ago, America kicked the state of Georgia out of the United States for killing Black elected officials and the Black voters who put them in office. Ten presidents ago, this country was still killing Black voters. This morning, an entire country sat in suspended animation waiting to see if there were enough Black…
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Red Table Talk Exclusive Clip: Ice Cube Says Black Folks Are Misled to Believe 'America Is a Household That's Broke'
The Red Table Talk may look a little different this year due to the pandemic, but the content is still as hot as the color of the table. Details of the newest episode via an official press release sent to The Root: “Fed Up and Fired Up: Ice Cube’s Bold Plan for Black America” |…
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Earn Our Votes: The Black National Convention Aims to Set an Agenda That Both Political Parties Must Address
If there won’t be peace, then let there be a lesson in the destruction of Black bodies. Let the funerals of those unarmed Black bodies killed by police resonate on a frequency so high that it breaks through white silence, shakes the rafters of white supremacy, and seeps into the consciousness of America. Let the…
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Day 3 of the How to Make White Friends and Ignore Black Death Conference, aka the Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention dragged on into day three and pulled America into an alternate universe in which Chick-fil-A is open on Sunday, some 177,000 people have not died from COVID-19 and the world didn’t watch an unarmed Black man get shot seven times at point-blank range in front of his children. That can be…
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Should Black Voters Form Their Own Party? Too Late, Someone Already Did
“Aight, bet.” While that colloquialism may seem innocuous to many people, in Black communities across America, those two words are both a threat and a promise. It is the most acceptable answer to the question “What are you gonna do about it?” and is roughly translated as: “I can show you better than I can…
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Roc Nation to Release Social Justice-Themed Compilation Album 'Reprise'; Jorja Smith Drops First Single
The world has transformed into a more socially conscious place in recent months, and if any medium captures the moments our world lives through best, it’s music. Whether Sam Cooke was pouring out his life experiences during the Civil Rights Movement for “A Change Is Gonna Come” in 1964, or Childish Gambino was showing us…
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The Root Jams Weekly (5/29/2020): 'Protest Music'
This week, month, and year have been exhausting for Black America. There’s always a battle raging somewhere against power structures that prey and pray for our downfall. Gathered here are a collection of staff-curated songs that embody the spirit of protest. #RIPGeorgeFloyd “Protest Music” (5/29/2020) Playlist Tonja Stidhum Billie Holiday “Strange Fruit” The Beatles “Come…
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Coronavirus Is Exposing America's Separate but Unequal Healthcare System. But Will It Change It?
As the child of Jamaican immigrants, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to trek across New York City to attend one of the most exclusive high schools in the country (Stuyvesant High School), and one of the country’s best historically black colleges (Hampton University). After serving as an Air Force physician, I intentionally…
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How Black Is it Not to Know the Real Names of Folks in Your Family? Possibly Ever.
So, I have a question that’s been perplexing me that will illuminate some things, possibly about me and you, your momma and your cousin, too. I’m hoping that I’m not alone in this; in fact, I’m assuming that I’m not. The question is: How black is this? But there’s a sub-question here, too. You see,…