culture
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Sofia Coppola’s Blatant Erasure of Black Women in The Beguiled Highlights How White Women Are Complicit in White Supremacy
It’s been quite a busy couple of months for white women. After 53 percent of them handed Donald Trump the election at the conclusion of 2016, they have turned the nonsense up to 11. From going on redemption tours where they cry into the arms of black men in order to breathe life into floppin’…
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The Root Is Going to the BET Awards Even Though 1 of Us Can’t Pick Migos Out of a Crowd
That one is me. I used to be so good at faces, until suddenly I met so many faces, they all started to just blur together. Did I see Erika Alexander of Living Single in a Walmart parking lot in Los Angeles last week, or was it just some other stylish black lady driving through?…
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For Those Considering Blaxit, I Present to You: Budapest, Hungary
I’ll be completely honest: When it comes to hypothetical homes for African Americans who are considering a post-Trump “blaxodus,” Eastern Europe was way off my radar. Like many former Soviet-bloc states, Hungary is a place that grapples with unemployment and poverty while its leaders hoard taxpayer funds to line their own pockets. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/a-whiff-of-corruption-in-orban-s-hungary-a-1129713.html Prime Minister…
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Watch: The Cast of Power on the Meaning of Loyalty
Loyalty. It’s not something to be bought or sold. In life, one could only wish to find a tribe of loyal people. Hopefully, this is the case more often than not. But are the characters on Power loyal? I mean, really. Folks are being betrayed left and right: murder, infidelity, the works. C’mon, son. I…
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Limit(less) Reminds Us That Africans Can Be Queer, Too, and Debunks Stereotypes
For centuries, U.S.-based evangelical Christians have traversed the continent of Africa spreading messages of homophobia and transphobia against the LGBTQ community. People like Scott Lively, an anti-gay extremist, for example, who was subjected to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts (pdf) because of his travel abroad to promote Uganda’s anti-gay propaganda—the Anti-Homosexuality…
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Al Sharpton Explains Why His Thirst-Trap Selfies Might Steal Your Great-Auntie
Listen, if you’re not following the Rev. Al Sharpton on social media, what are you doing with your life? Lately, the civil rights leader has been posting selfies like the one above, and while he thinks it’s just a harmless promotion of a healthy lifestyle, the internet, namely black Twitter, thought it was hilarious meme…
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Tracing Your Roots: Is My Family’s Big Secret Presidential?
A reader wonders if she could be related to Andrew Jackson through one of his slaves. Dear Professor Gates: The story goes that my great-grandmother Laura Emily Jackson shouted to her only daughter, “I found my family. I found my family!” That night my grandmother went downstairs and found her mother burning all the family…
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Black Sororities Are a Straight, Cisgender Women’s Club, and That Needs to Change
Black sororities are a cisgender, straight women’s club. There, I said it! And as a straight, cisgender Afro-Caribbean woman, I noticed how my privilege shielded me from certain challenges as a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. I say this about my organization and others when I say it’s time to revisit what it…
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Black Music Month Playlist No. 4: Damn! Damn! Damn!
Editor’s note: Every Friday for the month of June, aka African-American Music Appreciation Month, aka Black Music Month, we’ll be creating a Spotify playlist based on the news of the week. Check out the stories behind playlist No. 1, playlist No. 2 and playlist No. 3. Real talk: This week was fucked up. There were…
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#Justice4Kyira Means Justice for Black Mothers Everywhere
Kyira Dixon Johnson’s story is one of the thousands, if not millions, of black mothers who have died because of the history of an inadequate health care system in this country. She is one of too many black mothers who have died because of this country’s legacy of structural racism. Kyira Johnson, affectionately called Kira…