culture
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Is Airbnb Turning NYC’s Brooklyn White? Airbnb Responds
Editor’s note: A quote by Murray Cox has been added to provide full context. Updated Tuesday, June 27, 2017, 1:38 p.m. EDT: On Monday The Root published this original article, which used data to argue that the home-sharing company Airbnb is being used as a tool for gentrification in Brooklyn, N.Y. After the article was…
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The NFL’s Race Problem Is Deeper Than Colin Kaepernick
The NFL has a race problem. This certainly sounds ludicrous on its face. How can an organization with so many recognizable black stars have a race problem? In short, the NFL serves as a case study for the difference between inclusion and representation. Want to annihilate yourselves for our amusement? Cool. Want to promote the…
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Watch: A Brief History of Jazz by Some of the Genre’s Freshest Faces
So, what, exactly, is jazz? We know it’s black music, we know that many of the artists of the genre are political. But how does one define an art form so heavily based on improvisation and live instrumentation? Better question: Is jazz dead? The Root asked three fresh faces in jazz to school us on…
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Live Blog: The Root Goes to the BET Awards and Tries to Look Cool
Day, oh glorious day is here! Yes, tonight The Root is at the BET Awards trying not to be awkward! Our outfit selections are at the ready, and we assume BET is ready to kick off its biggest and best party, hosted by comedian Leslie Jones. Follow this space as I, Danielle Belton, The Root’s…
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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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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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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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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…