culture
-
White Men Can’t Murder: Why White Cops Are Immune to the Law
Philando Castile was not murdered, because white police officers don’t murder black men. If that statement upsets you, allow me to cheer you up with a joke: What’s rarer than getting struck by lightning, being killed by a terrorist or winning the lottery? Well, in the past 10 years, 123 people or groups have hit…
-
The Brother Also Rises: As ‘White Dave,’ Noah Coogler’s Got Next
It’s a wet, frigid and very late night on an Atlanta music video set, and the crew is feeling it. Specifically, Hollywood wunderkind Ryan Coogler is concerned about the artist, instructing him to zip up his coat. But despite being one of the hottest writer-directors in the industry, Coogler is merely an observer tonight, having…
-
On Philando Castile, Terror and the Trauma That Remains
In Toni Morrison’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Beloved, the character Baby Suggs has survived more than 60 years in slavery and has lost eight children. She preaches a sermon to a group of formerly enslaved people and beseeches her audience to love themselves—their hands, their backs, their hearts, their laughter, their dances, their very flesh—because…
-
Mobb Deep’s Prodigy and Sickle Cell: What You Need to Know About a Disease That Takes Down the Young
Forty years ago, Albert “Prodigy” Johnson of Mobb Deep, who died Tuesday at age 42, would likely never have had a music career. In 1973, those born with sickle cell disease had a life expectancy of just 14 years. Today that number is as young as 40 and extends to the late 60s. It’s better.…
-
The Cosby Trial Reminded Me Why I’ll Never Seek Justice
I have been sexually assaulted twice in my life. Each incident was almost textbook in what we know about how sexual assault usually works. I was younger than my assaulter, and in both instances, he was in a position of power over me. In one instance, we had a relationship prior to the attack, including…
-
We Looked at Kamala Harris’ Black Music Month Playlist and Here’s What We Found
Kamala Harris, the junior Democratic U.S. senator from California, released a Spotify playlist in honor of Black Music Month on Tuesday, featuring 50 of her favorite tracks from black artists in the genres of rhythm and blues, jazz, gospel, hip-hop, rap, soul, pop, reggae and funk, allowing us a peek into her personality and what…
-
#TheRootTrip: The Great American Ice Experiment
Willie Wardell owns the Mighty Midget Mart Shell gas station, located at 4936 Albemarle Road in Charlotte, N.C., and he’s been in the convenience store business for the past 40 years. His store has everything that other gas stations in the neighborhood have, and he makes sure to price things competitively. But when I started…
-
If You’re Mad About the Black and Brown Stripes Added to the Rainbow Flag, You’re Probably White Nonsense
Who could be bothered to debate the merits of adding two additional colors to the rainbow flag, a symbol of pride for members of the LGBTQ community Evidently, quite a few folks across Al Gore’s internet who meet one of the following descriptors: bored out of their minds; insensitive to the plight of even more…
-
The Ku Klux Klan’s Big Recruiting Weekend
As neo-Nazis, Confederate leagues, “alt-right” fight clubs and emo, lone-wolf white boys compete in the crowded arena for the white supremacist world championship, everyone seems to have forgotten about the old-school, perennial powerhouse that has reigned supreme since the Civil War. The Ku Klux Klan are the New York Yankees of white supremacy; the Alabama…