culture
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Alt-White: On How White People Use Language to Deny the Existence of White Supremacy
Somewhere in the good ol’ book, there’s a saying that goes, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Now, I’m about six years removed from my last Sunday school class, but I’m pretty sure this concept also applies to a fairly old concept: Language. Now, I am not here to recount the origins of language…
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How 3 Black Visionaries Are Bringing the Hood Into the Marijuana Industry
What if all the drug money made in black neighborhoods stayed in black neighborhoods? Even better, what if the people selling the weed in communities of color didn’t have to hide the money? What if they didn’t have to worry about being arrested three times more often than whites? What if the tax revenue for…
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It’s Michael Jackson’s Birthday: Are Your Favorite M.J. Songs on Our List?
On this day 59 years ago, the world was blessed with the birth of one Michael Joseph Jackson. From his humble beginnings in Gary, Ind., he would rise to a worldwide level of stardom that most entertainers can only hope to achieve. Eight years after he left us, his music lives on and continues to…
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The 5 Types of ‘Becky’
Becky: (noun); a white woman who uses her privilege as a weapon, a ladder or an excuse. Ex: “A random Becky hit me up on Twitter to explain why not all white women are racist.” What started as a controversial term for fellatio has blossomed into an all-encompassing term for a specific class of white…
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Race and Class Are the Biggest Issues Around Hurricane Harvey and We Need to Start Talking About Them
Our national conversation on Hurricane Harvey should be much like those about Charlottesville, Va., or Flint, Mich. But as the Houston area braces for much more flooding, that won’t happen until receding floodwaters reveal the dangerously gaping holes of disparity between white haves and black have-nots. Right now the nation just sees flooding and burly,…
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5 Questions the Game of Thrones Season Finale Answered for Black America
By now we shouldn’t have to discuss how Game of Thrones parallels the social, political and economic climate of black America. But this season, the show wasn’t just a metaphor for being black in America—it was a guide for survival. It was a parable about resistance. It was a preamble for the resistance (and by…
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The Root 100 No. 1s: Ta-Nehisi Coates Wanted to Be ‘the Baddest Motherfucking Writer on the Planet’
It is a rare piece of long-form journalism that breaks the internet. But that’s exactly what happened when Ta-Nehisi Coates’ keen, decisive reportage, “The Case for Reparations,” dropped in June 2014, compelling the editors at The Root to give him that year’s No. 1 spot. Part of his The Root 100 bio read: Two years…
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Taylor Swift and the Tale of Unstoppable White Privilege Meeting Immovable White Privilege
I’ll be honest. I thought it was going to be a boring-ass week—until Taylor Swift “surprise”-dropped her new single from her next album, “Reputation,” this past Friday. And, you know, everyone acted as expected, mostly. Taylor’s detractors fried her accordingly. Half of her stans pretended to like the single, because that is the cross they…
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5 Things Someone Who Didn’t Watch the Fight but Had to Report on the Fight Found Interesting About the Fight
I didn’t have $100 for this so-called fight, and I kinda forbade asked my husband not to order it. Therefore, I got my Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight moments from social media. Here are the five things this reporter found the most interesting: 1. Mayweather came out in some Desus Nice-glittery-ski-mask-rob-a-bank contraption. I guess. 2. The…