culture
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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…
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Everything You Think You Know About the Death of Mike Brown Is Wrong, and the Man Who Killed Him Admits It
Updated Wednesday, March 15, 2017, 3:45 p.m. EDT: Earlier today, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery, who uncovered the U.S. District Court document this article was based on, tweeted the following: And this: Lowery understandably disagrees with some of the conclusions found in our original article. It is not unusual for two parties to hear testimony…
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Being Mary Jane Recap: This Isn’t Going to End Well
I’ll give it to Mary Jane—Justin certainly is a lot more attractive now that he’s dropped the icebox where his heart used to be, but that still doesn’t make up for why Mary Jane and Justin are on the pathway to a hookup. With the midseason finale next week, there will soon be an end…
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Why Can’t We Cover Trump’s Twitter Fingers and His Presidency?
President Vladimir TrumPutin has been a busy man since taking office. Mostly he’s been busy hiding his taxes from the American public, and hiding his relationship with Russian operatives. He’s surely spent time keeping the video of paid Russian thots R. Kelly-ing all over a hotel room out of the hands of the public, and…
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What Trump’s Tweets Teach Us About Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown and Emmett Till
Explaining racism is hard. When you’re illustrating the complexities of racial prejudice in America, it is difficult to bridge the gap between understanding and skepticism in a populace pretending to listen with its arms folded, ready to dismiss any reasonable, salient point that demonstrates the existence of privilege and bigotry. Sometimes it’s not that people…
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Trans Women Are Women. This Isn’t a Debate.
Nigerian writer and feminist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been a favorite of mine since I first saw her “We Should All Be Feminists” speech. It was just a few months shy of Beyoncé’s release of her iconic anthem “***Flawless,” which heavily sampled Adichie’s stripped-down thesis on what feminism means. I was inspired by seeing another…
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I Am My Trans Sister’s Keeper
Mesha Campbell. Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow. JoJo Striker. Keke Collier. Chyna Gibson. Ciara McElveen. Jaquarrius Holland. Their names and faces lit up my laptop in a macabre montage. In the first few months of 2017, seven transgender women have been murdered—four within a single week, and most of them black. It is the continuation of…
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How the AMERICAN WOMAN Project Aims to Make Black Women the Face of America
When you think of the all-American-girl type of woman, you probably think of a sun-kissed, blond-haired woman, wearing a size 6 dress and either “leaning in” or happily being a doting, work-from-home mom. Sure, some may say there’s nothing wrong with either of these representations, but there are other types of American women who are…