culture
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Does Condoning Racist Family Members Make You an Accessory to Their Bigotry?
I haven’t stepped foot in a playground in decades, but a recent conversation revived that sinking feeling I used to get every time I was near a dome climber. All the other kids seemed to rise to the top with ease, but I always struggled to make it only halfway up. Ah, recess—and childhood. They…
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Why We Need More Women of Color Running Their Own Businesses Under a Trump Presidency
Let’s face it: Half the country has been in a funk since Nov. 9. Not only did Donald Trump become president, but he went about shoring up white supremacy as swiftly as possible. Under his leadership, hate groups have grown and protections for marginalized people have been eagerly dismantled by the administration. And people of…
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The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: The Reverse Clapback
It’s Friday, you ain’t got no job (the U.S. lost 33,000 jobs this month, according to the new unemployment numbers), so you might as well chill with us and check out some mail from some of The Root’s disgruntled readers. (Is that enough of a lede, Deputy Managing Editor Yesha Callahan?* Yes, I’m dedicating this…
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Was Marsha P. Johnson Killed Because of Her LGBT Activism?
At one point in the Netflix documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, an incarcerated transgender woman named Kitty asks another, Victoria Cruz, who is an activist and counselor for domestic abuse: “What happens when a flower gets wilted? Does it just die away and it’s forgotten?” The question serves as subtext for the…
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We Need to Talk About Jeremy Lin’s Dreadlocks
Jeremy Lin has dreadlocks. As a writer, I was taught to craft a “lede” to a story that concisely summarizes the who, what, when, where and how of the story. I’ve been doing this for a long time, but sometimes you have to use the words that Jesus puts in your heart. When I bent,…
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Tracing Your Roots: How Did My Black Ancestor Come to Own Land?
Finding out how a great-grandfather came to own 300 acres of land in post-Civil War South Carolina. Dear Professor Gates: It is a mystery to me how and when my great-grandfather Peter Golphin obtained his wealth and holdings. He was born about 1858 in Barnwell, S.C. Somehow he obtained 300 acres of land. I have…
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From a Black DACA Recipient: African-American Support Critical to Reform
Mwewa* always knew she was undocumented. “I just didn’t understand what that meant and the consequences it would create for me,” she says. It wasn’t until a high school classmate, while studying financial planning, asked Mwewa if she had her Social Security number memorized that it began to hit home. As an immigrant from Zambia…
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The Privilege of White Individuality
Stop lying; you did it, too. I’m sure I’m not alone in being among those who—for a brief moment when they heard about the Las Vegas shooting—quietly mumbled to themselves, “Dear God, please don’t let the shooter be black.” As you’re reading this, someone is typing a variation of the comment “Nah, I knew. Black…
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Russian Artists Explore Soviet Union’s History With Black People
Claude McKay was a young writer exploring the possibilities of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics when he addressed the 4th Congress of the Comintern in the Kremlin’s Throne Room in 1922. A key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, the Jamaican writer wondered if the USSR could offer him what the United States did not:…