culture
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Hazing Doesn’t Exist Only in Black Greek Organizations
“It is easier to build strong children than repair broken men,” advises Professor Hughes (played by Alfre Woodard), dropping a Frederick Douglass quotation on Zurich (Trevor Jackson), the protagonist of Netflix’s black frat drama Burning Sands. Set at a nameless HBCU where pledging is forced underground because hazing has been banned, Netflix’s Burning Sands follows…
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A Happy, Healthy and Hilarious Lil Wayne Rocked Stubb’s BBQ at SXSW
When you’re given the chance to see living rap legend Lil Wayne perform live at Stubb’s, one of Austin, Texas’ famed BBQ restaurants, you take it. Nothing goes better with a brisket sandwich like a side of Weezy! The name of the show was Lil Wayne & Friends, and those friends—DJ Mustard, Dave East, MadeinTYO, Denzel…
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The Root’s Divine 9 Members Watched Burning Sands and We Have Some Thoughts
If Netflix’s Burning Sands were about drug addiction instead of hazing, would people be talking about it? (Seriously, the main character smells, has all sorts of mysterious injuries, and starts falling off in his schoolwork and personal life, destroying his relationships … pledging a frat that hazes is just like taking up a crack habit!)…
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Scandal Recap: We Finally Find Out Who Killed Frankie Vargas (as if We Didn’t Know)
Papa Pope did it. He killed President-elect Frankie Vargas. On election night. With a gun. Who knew? I mean, everyone knew that Papa Pope was involved in Vargas’ assassination. He’s always pulling the strings, but this episode shows us how Papa Pope came to pull the trigger this time. We start off 53 days before…
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The 10: These Black Women in Computer Science Are Changing the Face of Tech
We’re always hearing about the lack of diversity in the technology industry, especially when it comes to black women. While their numbers may be small, black women are doing big things in the tech world. From leading research and engineering at Google to directing robotics and autonomous vehicle programs at top-tier universities, a black woman’s…
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Is There a Method to Being Messy? The Do’s and Don’ts of Airing Dirty Laundry
It was the “hell hath no fury” moment many women have had … and even more wish they’d had. A good, old-fashioned read for an utter and complete filth-of-a-no-count man and his side hustle—broadcast for the salacious awe and delight of anyone active on black Twitter. With a single post titled, “Open Letter to My…
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Greenleaf Returns, Self-Righteous but as Necessary as Ever
Last season, OWN premiered the church-family drama Greenleaf. I caught the previews between commercials for Tyler Perry’s soap opera, If Loving You Is Wrong, and made a mental note that it might be worth checking out, if only to see whether it veered left into Perry melodramatic land. Then I promptly forgot about it. Thankfully, Netflix’s…
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Unique Views, Episode 34: Can You Hear Us Now?
This episode is filled with people we hate, HBCU presidents, Ben Carson, embarrassing fat moments that Ms. Patti Patti and I bond over, and Donald Trump’s usual foolishness. But first, an apology. I want to apologize to all the listeners who have had to endure over 30 episodes of The Root’s podcast and have not…
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Living Among Trolls
Have you ever looked at The Root’s comment section? You should. It is populated by smart, hilarious, opinionated readers who share their thoughts on news, opinion, politics, race and everything else under the sun. It’s where our audience engages in intelligent debate, expounds on articles and slaps virtual high-fives. If nothing else, you can always…
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21 Times in Get Out When Chris Should Have Gotten the Hell Out
Although Jordan Peele’s brilliant (and now record-breaking) Get Out inverts classic horror tropes and societal expectations by making the “well-meaning” white people the bogeymen and the black dude the damsel in distress, its dramatic tension still relies on one thing you’ll find in pretty much every other horror film: the protagonist ignoring his gut and…