culture
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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…
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What About Rodney King? Spike Lee and Roger Guenveur Smith Speak on Their Netflix Film
Footage of four Los Angeles Police Department officers beating Rodney King kicked off Spike Lee’s great 1992 film, Malcolm X, months after the Los Angeles riots had died down. Now, 25 years later, he has directed Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man show, Rodney King. Interestingly, Rodney King premieres on Netflix the day before the one on…
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I, a White, Rode the Train With Blacks 1 Day, and It Was Crazy: An Atlanta-Newspaper Reader Writes on Race
Melton Bennett is a resident of Cumming, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. As a white man living in the metropolitan Atlanta area, Melton had some thoughts to share on the topic of race—specifically the ones he had as he rode the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, or MARTA, train from his mostly white neighborhood in…
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Why SHE Is the Epitome of Black Women’s Radical Self-Care
It’s no secret that black women are caught in the crosshairs of violence—not just when encountering the police but also in our own communities and homes. But how often do we really talk about it? While the Black Lives Matter Network was co-founded by three black women—two of whom identify as queer—police brutality continues to…