culture
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Exclusive: Preview Netflix’s Burning Sands Movie, an Exploration of Pledging and Hazing
There is a certain unspoken etiquette to which members of all families must agree. Whether they are blood relatives, football teammates or sorority sisters, they all understand the unwritten rule that applies to these bonds: Don’t put our business in the streets. Before Netflix has even released its newest movie focusing on a black fraternity…
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Watch: SNL’s Skit About Drugs That Sound Like Black Names Is Just Dumb, Racist Trash
Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer made her debut as host of Saturday Night Live last night. I’ll confess I missed it because I had better things to do on a Saturday night. But then this dumb-ass skit of Spencer playing a woman who’s suing a drug company because they stole the names of her family…
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Get Out Proves That ‘Nice Racism’ and White Liberalism Are Never to Be Trusted
Editor’s note: This article contains major spoilers about the plot of Get Out. Last year was a difficult time for many black people in America. We saw now-President Donald Trump making his way to executive power through sheer racist, sexist vitriol. We witnessed the continued state of institutional violence against black bodies, such as those…
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Unique Views, Episode 33: Black Don’t Crack, Featuring Vanessa Bell Calloway
Whenever Patti LaDanielle (aka The Root’s social-content producer, and our podcast co-host, Danielle Young) and I talk hip-hop—like, real hip-hop—I have a tendency to throw on my hip-hop voice, which includes a faux New York accent and a whole lot of “yos” and “sons” and “gods.” It happened this past episode because Ms. Patti Patti…
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This App Lets You Take Selfies With Your Dead Relatives
For a generation raised on The Matrix and two seasons of Black Mirror, we clearly have not learned enough lessons about technology running amok. This week, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the question “Can you hear me now?” went a little further than trying to get in touch with someone across the…
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This Rachel Dolezal Tea About the Oppression of Darth Becky Is Delicious
Every time you think the story of the Fake Felicia is over, Black Jesus drops another hilariously sad bomb on us. A few days ago, the Imposter Formerly Known as Rachel Dolezal informed the world that she had officially changed her name to Nkechi Amare Diallo because—desperation. Because crazy. Because underneath the Donald Trump-brand skin…
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Confronting My Addiction
I remember the first time I tried it. I had heard about other people doing it, and I knew that a few of my friends used it from time to time, but I thought it was stupid at first. I looked down my nose at people who occasionally did it at parties or in social…
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Gary From Chicago’s Redemption Road: Whom Do We Forgive and When?
Well, so much for 15 minutes of fame. Gary Alan Coe—or, as we lovingly (and laughingly) came to know him, “Gary from Chicago”—barely got five to enjoy being a media darling after the unexpected hilarity he brought to Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony. Aside from the surprise ending (and triumphant underdog win of Moonlight), most agreed…
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Racial Progress in Film Remains Slow Drag 30 Years After Hollywood Shuffle
Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle was released 30 years ago this year. Although it couldn’t have been noted at the time, Shuffle became a foundational film that launched the careers of two of our most prolific filmmakers and made us aware of an entire family of comedic geniuses—the Wayans family. I most remember the film for…