culture
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Undocumented Black Immigrants May Fare Worse Without DACA Protections
Tobore Oweh knows the next six months of her life will be stressful after Donald Trump’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program Tuesday. She is one of 800,000 people covered under the Obama-era policy who fears the worst if Congress doesn’t come together to resolve the crisis Trump created. She and…
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Sending Unsolicited Pictures of Your Penis Is a Form of Sexual Harassment. Please Stop Doing This
The other day, I got a notification on Snapchat that a man I wasn’t sure I knew added me. It said that he had added me by my user name, and his user name looked somewhat familiar, so, thinking it was possible we were already connected via social media, I added him back. Yesterday morning,…
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‘Bodak Yellow’ Is Trash, and if You Like It, Your Taste in Music Is Trash
I love Cardi B. I love everything about her. I love that she is aggressively real. I love that she is aggressively beautiful. I love that she is aggressively Cardi. I had a sister who was killed a few years ago. She was Cardi B before Cardi B was Cardi B. Her name was Robin,…
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No Woman Left Behind: Has the Plus-Size Industry Forgotten Its Roots?
“I think I’m literally the biggest, blackest model at IMG,” plus-size phenom Precious Lee says plainly, referring to the persistent lack of bodies and skin tones like hers at the world-renowned agency that represents her. In anticipation of another New York Fashion Week, Lee joined a bevy of models of varying races and sizes to…
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The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: No Free Lunch
This is a terrible time for our country. Our president has the IQ of a third-place Wheel of Fortune contestant. Hurricanes are making it rain across the United States like they’re Floyd Mayweather in a strip club. Kim Jong Un is strapping nuclear warheads on the backs of bottle rockets. Jason Whitlock has a brand-new…
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Tracing Your Roots: Who Were My Grandparents?
Census records reveal clues to an African-American lineage stretching back in time to the years before slavery ended. Dear Professor Gates: My mother, Maggie Nell Lyons, is an only child. Her mother, Magnolia Battle, died when my mother was 5 years old. Magnolia Battle married Nelson Lyons, my grandfather. They lived, we think, in Gordon,…
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7 Truisms Creatives Will Appreciate
Are you a creative? Do you create shit for a living? If you answered “yes” to either of those questions, you are a creative. If you are a creative (you answered “yes” to either of the two aforementioned questions), then I’d bet you a plum nickel that while people are happy for you and your…
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There Is No Such Thing as ‘Alt-Left’
On July 5, 1969, a group of musicians waited in the wings in London’s Hyde Park before singing at a free concert. They were members of one of the most famous groups in the world. But the Beatles were bigger than they were. The Temptations would sell more records than they did that year. And…