culture
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The Root Goes to the Least Exciting White House Correspondents' Dinner Ever
Every year for the last nine years The Root usually gets lucky and gets one or two tickets (but usually just one) to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. During the Obama years this celebration of Washington’s nerdiest journalism nerds turned into a celebrity super bowl of sorts, a place where you could embarrass yourself in…
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Fighting for Environmental Justice Is Fighting for Racial Justice
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Governmental neglect left majority-black wards destitute. Seventy-three percent of those displaced by Katrina were black, and more than one-third of them were estimated to have been poor. Although the hardest-hit areas in New Orleans were low-income communities and communities of color, white residents were favored over black residents…
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Watch: LA Riots: Then and Now
Los Angeles looks a lot different than it did in 1992. The smoke and shattered glass are long gone, but the memories of the Los Angeles uprising, commonly known as the “L.A. riots,” have had lingering effects on black Angelenos. Twenty-five years ago, four white Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King.…
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Whitney: Can I Be Me Succeeds in Not Exploiting but Celebrating Whitney Houston’s Life
As the Tribeca Film Festival rolls through New York City this week and next, perhaps no film has been more anticipated or controversial than Whitney: Can I Be Me , an inside look at troubled pop icon Whitney Houston. At the world premiere of the film Wednesday evening, directors Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal (no relation…
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Unique Views, Episode 40: Will Clay Davis Hold Isiah Whitlock Back? Sheeeeeiiittttt!
We are officially 40! That’s right; Unique Views, the little podcast that could, the Sanford and Son of podcasts, has made it to 40 episodes, and we aren’t slowing down. In fact, we are speeding up. Hopefully I will pick up enough speed to lose Patti LaDanielle, aka Ms. Patti Patti, aka Senior Liturgical Dance…
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I Tried to Read Nbecki’s, I Mean Rachel Dolezal’s, In Full Color so You Didn’t Have to, and I Failed
“Because I felt black, I liked being seen as black.” —Nkechi Amare Diallo … or Nbecki text I feel rich and I like being seen as rich. So am I rich? Is that how this works? Maybe it was because my eyeballs have never rolled to the white meat so many times, rendering me unable…
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Where ‘Get Your Shit and Go’ Is Still a Way of Life
When we were kids growing up in Los Angeles, our favorite thing to do on weekends was to walk around the corner from our mother’s Mid-City duplex and spend all our money on snacks and candy from three small stores all within blocks of one another on Pico Boulevard. Our first stop was always the…
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This Is What Happens When People of Color Appropriate Other Cultures
Everyone knows we do not hesitate to call out cultural appropriation at The Root. So what happens when someone reports a person of color to the fashion police for engaging in that misdemeanor? Will that person use their nonwhite privilege to excuse their behavior? Will they push back against the accusations? Will they shuffle the…
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Does a Black Face in a White Place Count as Progress at the University of Ala.?
When is progress actual progress and when is it an act of tokenism? That’s the question some have pondered since the election of Jared Hunter as student president at the University of Alabama. While many praised his victory as a symbol of progress—the 21-year-old junior being only the third black student to win the student…
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Scandal Recap: You Can’t Take Olivia Pope
At the end of last week’s Scandal episode, Mellie Grant had been voted president-elect, Olivia Pope and Fitz Grant were sleeping together … again, and Fitz had rescued Olivia’s father and placed him in custody at the White House. This week’s episode begins with Olivia waking up in Fitz’s bed wearing Fitz’s Navy T-shirt, just…