culture
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A Reminder: Black Queer People Are Whole
The Emmys were this past Sunday, and they were nothing short of black star power. From a black actor winning for the first time in decades in the drama category to a black comedian winning in a comedy series directed and written by all black people, one could say that the event was the most…
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Jordan Peele is No. 1 on The Root 100, Our Annual List of the Most Influential African Americans
When we launched The Root 100 in 2009, it was the perfect time to celebrate black excellence. The arrival of the country’s first black president was an occasion to champion the achievements of today’s African-Americans heroes—achievements that could exist only in our ancestors’ wildest dreams. But this year, in a political and cultural climate that…
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Sean ‘Spicy Facts’ Spicer Is on a Crusade to Change History’s Account of Him. So Why Is Liberal White America Providing the Stage?
1. Sean “Spicy Facts” Spicer is a liar. 2. He’s not only a liar, but he’s an Olympic-level liar who lied on a national stage and wasn’t even good at lying. 3. He’s not a friend of the people; he was President Satan von Shitty Horns’ first line of defense, and he was complicit in…
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Dick Gregory Honored During ‘Celebration of Life’ Service
Thousands lined up outside the City of Praise Family Ministries church outside Washington, D.C., on Saturday to celebrate the life of comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory, who died Aug. 19. As the crowd waited for the doors to open, some sang freedom songs like “Ella’s Song” and the black national anthem, “Lift Every…
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1 Year After #BankBlack, America’s Biggest Black-Owned Bank Still Doing the Work
Hip-hop has become a cultural powerhouse that fuels everything from fashion to corporate profits. They rap in beer commercials. Politicians come to Jay-Z for endorsements. With all its faults, more than any form of art that ever existed, hip-hop has always openly acknowledged the most powerful force in America: Money. Every conversation about equality, civil…
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Netflix to Premiere Tragic Documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
On Oct. 6, Netflix will globally premiere The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, directed by Oscar-nominated documentarian David France. The documentary courses through the untimely death and unsolved murder of the transgender trailblazer Marsha P. Johnson, all the while shedding light on the impact she had as a leader of the gay-rights movement.…
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An Astonishing Percentage of Americans Believe White People Are ‘Under Attack.’ Here’s Why They’re Wrong
This week, the polling company Ipsos released a poll in conjunction with Reuters and the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. Most of the numbers coincided with what one would assume the average American thinks about subjects like Confederate statues, neo-Nazis and white nationalism, but there were two results that stunningly revealed the attitudes of…
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Nooses Are All the Rage; Can Lynchings Be Far Behind?
Nooses, nooses, everywhere. “Noose.” Such a sinister thing that rhymes with happy words like “goose” and “loose.” Nice words. Ain’t nothing nice about a noose, though, a tried-and-true racial-terror tactic that, according to a recent report by the Equal Justice Initiative, killed more than 4,000 black Americans between 1877 and 1950, and in all parts…
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Tracing Your Roots: Have I Found My Ancestor’s Plantation?
She found a photo of her great-grandmother in the records of a historic plantation house in Georgia, but little information about her life under slavery. Dear Professor Gates: I have located my great-grandmother Cora Lundy in the 1880 census. I would like to learn about her life before 1880 but have so few clues. She…
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The Richard Pryor Show: A Master Class of Innovation vs. Censorship
The severity of Richard Pryor’s influence on comedy—black comedy especially—cannot be quantified. The late comedian-actor shaped the art form with his uncanny ability to retain all the unique turmoil of his upbringing and disdain for institutional prejudice, and use it to tell amazing, gut-busting stories and jokes, all while sliding in biting social commentary along…