culture
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Gentrification and Food Deserts Got You Down? There’s an App for That
There are a number of social-justice movements, but urban-planning movements are starting to catch up. With that comes the next generation of “new urbanists” and creative designers of public spaces who are falling in love with big social terms like “equity” while scrambling to create technology that can visualize it. And if neighborhoods are the…
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The 2016 List of People We Don’t Mess With Anymore
Last year we debuted the list of people to whom black America gave the collective side eye. As 2016 winds to a close, once again we document the people we’ve disinvited from the cookout. Since the apostles got together to talk to Judas in December of the year 1, black people have used this month…
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The Top 10 Racists of 2016 Not Named Trump
“Sup with ya man’s?” I knew Kanye West had done something wrong. The text was from a frat brother I never hear from unless we are debating Ye’s music or behavior. “What did Ye do now?” I replied. He sent a link of Kanye walking into Trump Tower looking like Wesley Snipes in Demolition Man.…
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The Winners of 2016
Flatly, 2016 as a staff, record label and as a motherf—king crew has collectively sucked. Far too many people have died, and a spoiled, mango-colored racist man surrounded by a bunch of like-minded bigots and sycophants will soon make life hell for many who have survived. However, as draining as this year has felt for…
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5 Times George Michael Showed His ‘Blue-Eyed Soul’ to Black America
As 2016 continues to troll us with loss after loss (Muhammad Ali, Prince, Ron Glass, democracy, etc.), the news on Christmas Day that British singer George Michael died peacefully in his home at age 53 was saddening and yet strangely predictable. Michael’s greatest hits in the ’80s and ’90s made him a peer of Prince,…
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Who Lost in 2016?
As the year 2017 waits in the wings to spring onto the stage and initiate us all into the Trumpian era, where the modern-day equivalent of one of the Three Stooges occupies the Oval Office, it is time to look back at the year that was. There will be countless retrospectives on the triumphs of…
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Stephen A. Smith Gets Real About ESPN, Race and His Obligations to Black Viewers
Whether you love him, hate him, quote him or only know the Saturday Night Live Jay Pharoah impressions of him, everyone has a #hottake about Stephen A. Smith. Smith is the senior host of First Take (after his longtime co-host, Skip Bayless, left the show earlier this year), the No. 1-rated sports show on the…
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Kwanzaa Turns 50 This Year. Are You Celebrating?
Get your kinaras (candleholders) out. Kwanzaa’s turning 50, and it’s time to celebrate. Kwanzaa, the seven-day celebration that honors African-American and Pan-African culture while affirming black pride, begins Monday and runs through Jan. 1. Dr. Maulana Karenga, who heads the Africana-studies department at California State University, Long Beach, established the holiday in the midst of the…
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Unique Views Podcast, Episode 23: It's Family Time With Omar Gooding and Angell Conwell
This is the second time that the pod squad—myself, Ms. Patti LaDanielle, and The Root Senior Editor Stephen A. Crockett Jr.—have had something to do with Bounce TV. So excuse us if we’re feeling ourselves a bit. OK, so maybe I am feeling myself, by myself, but that’s because Stephen doesn’t deserve to feel himself.…
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The Black Christmas Music Debate: If ‘Santa Baby’ Isn’t on Your List, Your List Is a Fraud
I love Christmas … but I really love Christmas music. I’m the kind of guy who will start listening to the Yuletide classics immediately after Halloween—and only if I wait that long. While I love the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s “Christmas Time Is Here,” and I can appreciate Frank Sinatra’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,”…