culture
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Can Black People Be Racist? A Clapback Mailbag Special Edition
Welcome back to our weekly interactive look into The Root’s mailbag. Instead of our usual Friday hodgepodge of reader mail, today we would like to focus on a specific topic. More than any other complaint, comment or question, there is one in particular about which our readers contact us: Why are we so racist? Instead…
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How the Mint Conference Aims to Cultivate Photographers and Other Creatives
Ask any entrepreneur, advertising or marketing guru and they’ll tell you: Quality stock photography matters. So much so, in fact, that according to MDG Advertising, 67 percent of online shoppers rated high-quality images as being “very important” to their purchasing decisions, even more so than “product specific information,” “long descriptions,” or product “reviews and ratings.”…
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ESPN’s Reprimand of Jemele Hill Reveals How White Supremacy Controls the Media Industry
Updated Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017, 5:52 p.m. EDT: The National Association of Black Journalists released the following statement in support of ESPN’s Jemele Hill: Earlier: ESPN’s reprimand of Jemele Hill for tweeting that Donald Trump’s success is tied to white supremacy angered many on social media, but it was hardly a surprise. Or, at least,…
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I Finally Found the One Who Passed the Wifey Test
Can you hear that sigh? It’s the collective sound of women across the globe weeping upon learning that I, Stephen A. Crockett Jr., have gotten married. I know, ladies, and I assure you that there is someone out here for you, but that someone just isn’t me. Fine. Whatever. No one cares. In fact, my…
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Donald Trump’s White Christian Supremacy
Donald J. Trump is the antithesis of a true follower of Christ. His xenophobic assault against Muslims, racist remarks about Mexicans, troubled history with women and sympathy for neo-Nazis make him remarkably unqualified to represent God’s teachings. He has rarely—if ever, really—mentioned faith as an essential force in his life, though, as a presidential candidate…
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Interview: Mother of 8-Year-Old Nearly Hanged in NH Speaks Out on Moving Forward With Her Son
Most of us were saddened and disgusted by the graphic photo of the little boy from Claremont, N.H., who was nearly hanged from a tree. If that wasn’t bad enough, the town’s police chief went on record shortly thereafter, saying of the kids who assaulted the biracial 8-year-old: “Mistakes they make as a young child…
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Black Public Figures Are Being Silenced for Calling Out White Supremacy
Blackness is a box. Its sides are close enough that if you spread your arms out far enough, you can touch them with both hands. While its ceiling may be tall, if you fly high enough or long enough, you will eventually crash into it. It is an inescapable boundary that every black person in…
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The White People Are Coming! 6 Signs Your Neighborhood Is Being Gentrified
Centuries before anyone noticed Christopher Columbus wandering around the Bahamas searching for gold and a place to buy caramel decaf frappuccinos, wypipo had long been moving into brown neighborhoods and planting flags. It’s how apartheid started. It’s why people in Brazil speak Portuguese. It’s why the Native American genocide was rebranded as “manifest destiny.” Now…
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I Love Watching Insecure With Twitter and I Hate Watching Insecure With Twitter
I like to watch certain shows alongside social media because it gives me the chance to see what other people are thinking without being burdened by the sound of their voices interrupting the dialogue. This has long been true for me when it comes to reality shows like Love & Hip Hop and The Real…