black lives matter
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'Do Black Lives Only Matter in Election Years?' Ayanna Pressley Gives Democratic Donors the Talk They Need
The question for many newly elected politicians is whether they can keep the same energy they had on the campaign trail once their names are written on the office door. With Massachusetts Congresswoman-elect Ayanna Pressley, it appears that concern can be laid to rest. As BuzzFeed News reports, Pressley gave Democratic Party donors a stern—and…
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12 Days of Gifting, Day 9: For Folk Who Stay Woke
If you’re reading this, you likely already know that, here at The Root, Black Lives Matter every day. That said, while we readily condemn all tyranny and marginalization that crosses our paths, due to the demands of our workloads, we’re admittedly predominantly laptop activists—and accordingly, online shoppers. (Hey, everybody has their lane.) But what about…
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Art and Activism Create Darker Gods for Art Basel Miami
Activism and art are frequently complimentary forces, but a new exhibit at Miami’s Art Basel brings the two together in a visionary new way. Artist Damon Davis is using sound, photography, film, illustration and written word to reframe and deify blackness—specifically, the ways in which the media represents and fetishizes blackness and black pain—in his…
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Breaking: Former Dallas Cop Amber Guyger Indicted for Murder of Botham Jean
A grand jury has indicted white ex-Dallas cop Amber Guyger on murder charges for shooting and killing an unarmed black man, Botham Jean, after intruding into his apartment in September. The grand jury began hearing evidence for the case on Monday, delivering its verdict on Friday afternoon. Guyger, who was fired from the Dallas police…
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Laquan McDonald’s Murderer Was Found Guilty—Will a Judge Convict the Chicago Cops Who Allegedly Lied to Cover for Him?
In what’s being called an “unprecedented” case, three Chicago cops accused of lying to protect one of their own in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald will begin their trial today. They are facing criminal “code of silence” charges—the first Chicago cops to ever do so. Former Detective David March, former Officer Joseph Walsh…
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Jemel Roberson, the Guard Shot and Killed by Police, Was Working Extra Shifts to Pay for Son’s Christmas
Jemel Roberson, like many first-time parents, was concerned about making his family’s first Christmas special. With a 9-month-old son and another child on the way, Roberson was picking up extra shifts ahead of the holidays, Roberson’s family attorney Lee Merritt said last week. CNN reported Merritt’s comments. He and Roberson’s girlfriend, Avontae Boose, have been…
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The Hate U Give Isn't a Very Good Movie and It's Very Hard to Say That Out Loud
On October 3, Wesley Morris, in a piece for the New York Times Magazine titled “The Morality Wars,” sounded the alarm (in a nutshell) about the difficulty in critiquing black art in today’s political climate in favor of protecting the culture. Basically, he said that because the stakes are higher for black art, it has…
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It’s Time to Listen to Black Women. We’ve Been Talking About Police Sexual Violence for a Long Time
“It’s never true that *no one* is talking about a thing. It’s often true that *not enough* people are talking about a thing …,” anti-violence activist Mariame Kaba recently tweeted from her popular @prisonculture account. That is certainly true of sexual violence by police officers, described as something “no one talks about” in a recent…