culture
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If Nick Cannon Leaves America’s Got Talent, Does It Make a Sound?
Nick Cannon is a comedian. And I’m not talking about that hair thing that he’s taken to wearing lately or his rap career; like, Nick Cannon really believes himself to be a comedian. And so do the people at Showtime apparently, because they gave Cannon a stand-up comedy special, and his current boss, NBC, isn’t…
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Living With History: The Descendants of Ida B. Wells Believe Everyone Has the Potential for Greatness
Editor’s note: For Black History Month, The Root is speaking to the relatives of our most cherished African-American heroes in a series called Living With History. To open the series, we interviewed a descendant of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. Today we feature Michelle and Daniel Duster, the great-grandchildren of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, renowned…
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Killer Mike: Black People Are Like the ‘Neglected Wife’ of the Democratic Party
Since being launched into the hip-hop stratosphere by Outkast on their 2001 single “The Whole World,” Killer Mike has been a fixture on the Southern hip-hop landscape. However, during the presidential election, he became a national political presence after backing Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton. Mike’s fervent support of the white Jewish grandpa from Vermont…
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Adele Showed Exactly What Solidarity Looks Like: Of Course Beyoncé Was Robbed at Grammys
I can’t really pinpoint exactly when Adele realized that Beyoncé was robbed of a couple of Grammys, but as she took the stage during Sunday night’s award show to accept the Grammy for Album of the Year, she showed that solidarity was more important than a gold award. Adele swept the categories in which both…
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Watch: 48th NAACP Image Award Winners and Nominees Explain Why ‘Image Is Everything’
On Saturday, black excellence gathered in Pasadena, Calif., to celebrate its greatness, and The Root was on the red carpet! Image is everything, and because it was the NAACP Image Awards, we decided to ask the celebrants about the image they portray to the world and the importance of that image. So before you gush…
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Would Prince Be Happy With His Music Streaming on All Services? Probably Not
As of Sunday, you can find Prince’s music from Warner Bros. streaming on all music services, including Apple, Spotify, Pandora and Amazon.com. Previously it streamed only on Tidal. Cameron Strang, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Records, announced the news hours before the Grammys, where Prince will be honored. “Prince recorded his most influential and…
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Al Jarreau, a Unique Musical Stylist, Dead at 76
Renowned for his unique vocal style and musical expressiveness, Al Jarreau died Sunday, Feb. 12, at the age of 76, just a week after being admitted to the hospital for exhaustion. The seven-time Grammy Award winner was the second vocalist in music history to receive the coveted award in three categories: jazz, pop and R&B.…
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The Black Viewer’s Guide to the Grammys
Stuck between the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards, the Grammys have always seemed like the red-headed stepchild of the awards season. But I always look forward to the Grammys because the show always seems less uptight than awards shows that focus on movies and TV, and it’s also a chance to see some of…
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The Greatest Love of All: Remembering Whitney
I can’t exactly remember what I was doing at 8:22 p.m. on Feb. 11, 2012, but according to Facebook, that’s the exact time I found out Whitney Houston died. As a girl growing up in New Jersey, not too far from where Houston grew up, we took pride in her being one of Jersey’s own.…
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Stop Pretending to Be Shocked at Homophobia in the Black Community
Do you remember how shocked white people acted a couple of years ago when a video surfaced of a group of Sigma Alpha Epsilon members at the University of Oklahoma chanting about how they’d never let a “nigger” into their fraternity? Can you recollect how Caucasians publicly caught the vapors when they heard the audio…