culture
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7 Times Harriet Tubman Was a Badass Superhero
Harriet Tubman is having a moment. Right now she is the “it” girl of history. No longer relegated to the pages of schoolbooks during Black History Month, the freedom-fighting, self-liberating she-warrior and “conductor” on the Underground Railroad is getting the recognition she so richly deserves. Last year the Treasury Department announced that Tubman would replace…
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8 Mysterious Black Deaths That Social Media Forgot
Not every black person who dies under suspect circumstances becomes a hashtag. In fact, more often than not, the death goes unnoticed by the national media and social media alike, leaving friends and families of the victims with more questions than answers. In the past two years, in small towns all across the country, bodies…
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How Umar Johnson Cured Me of Being a Hidden Hotep
I am a recovering hidden Hotep. Mind you, not the ankh-wearing, incense-selling, lecture-women-about-their menstrual-cycles kind of Hotep. I was more Hotep-adjacent. Hidden beneath my public-Ivy education and functional relationship with my parents lurked a man who would disappear down YouTube click holes of Tariq Nasheed, Professor Griff, ZaZa Ali and, of course, Dr. Umar Johnson.…
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If Andrew Caldwell Is So ‘Delivert,’ Why Is He Talking So Much About Kordell Stewart’s Dick?
Whenever Andrew Caldwell speaks, I’m left with the feeling that the inside of his head is full of the lyrics from Janet Jackson’s “Miss You Much” coupled with the images of various, floating penises. I know, I know: When someone tells you who they are, believe them. However, as the colored court jester of gay…
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The Quad’s Writers’ Room Addresses Criticism
When it comes to portraying the black college experience on television or on the silver screen, most people will cite School Daze and A Different World as points of reference. Both of these put a fictional spin on life at an HBCU, and were way ahead of their time when it came to touching on…
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Black Feminism Should Serve the Women Who Aren’t at the Table, Too
There’s a young woman who lives on the first floor of my apartment building. She’s cute, probably in her mid-20s, although life has prematurely etched the signature of age across her face and carriage. She’s a mama to four sons, none of them more than 5 or 6 years old, all absolutely adorable, stair-jumping, ripping-and-tearing,…
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The Men of The Root on ‘A Day Without a Woman’
By now we’re sure that you are aware of this, but if you aren’t, then let us hip you to game: The Root is run and managed by righteous black women. Managing Editor Danielle Belton, Deputy Editor Genetta Adams, Senior Editor Yesha Callahan, Associate Editor Kirsten West Savali, News Editor Breanna Edwards, Social-Content Producer Danielle…
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Underground: A Stellar Slave Tale Even if You’re Slaved Out
Whenever I hear skinfolk exclaim that they are exhausted by slave-related stories, my immediate reaction traditionally is to extend to them the invitation to shut their black asses up. About a year ago, though, I inadvertently behaved like the kind of people I have written about. The kind who more or less profess to be…
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Being Mary Jane Recap: The Ex Marks the Spot
When cold-as-freezer-burn Justin becomes the supporter and Lee, the suave, endearing boyfriend, becomes the overly aloof one in one breath while we are being set up for a very obvious and cliché storyline in another, this was one of the more entertaining episodes of this season. I’ll put my dismay at the prospect of Justin…
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The Women of The Root Are on Strike Today
Abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth is famously attributed with asking, “Ain’t I a woman?” Her extemporaneous speech about the nature of womanhood was edited, adjusted and remixed to fit the sensibilities of the white progressives of the time, i.e., abolitionists and suffragettes. Meaning, while Truth was from the Northeast and spoke Dutch as…