culture

  • Breaking In: Gabrielle Union Plays One Bad Mother

    The opening of Breaking In is jarring and confusing and sets the tone for the rest of the roughly 90-minute film, which could best be described as Panic Room-meets-Eye for an Eye—with black people. A handsome, older black man is jogging through a residential neighborhood when he is suddenly and without warning struck by a…

  • My Mother’s Daughter, a Multigenerational Talk About Motherhood, Part 4: Aissatou

    Editor’s note: This year, to celebrate Mother’s Day, The Glow Up interviewed four generations of mothers within a single Harlem family that recently welcomed its fifth generation. We’ve asked these mothers, ages 19 to 83, the same 12 questions about motherhood, daughterhood and matriarchy. These are their stories.  If you want to know about a…

  • My Mother’s Daughter, a Multigenerational Talk About Motherhood, Part 5: Rasheedah

    Editor’s note: This year, to celebrate Mother’s Day, The Glow Up interviewed four generations of mothers within a single Harlem family that recently welcomed its fifth generation. We’ve asked these mothers, ages 19 to 83, the same 12 questions about motherhood, daughterhood and matriarchy. This final installment is the conclusion—and also the beginning—of their stories. …

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    Beyond the Blue

    Vibrantly glowing inside a dark hall, a small ball of fire burned suspended midair. The flaming orb bounced upward, lingering shortly, before landing in Princess Inara’s palm. Her brown eyes stared intently into the flame as if it were a mystical crystal ball. Unfortunately, she found no answers to her problems hidden within the circular…

  • A Sincere Apology to the Strong Black Men Being Attacked by #TheRootArticles

    As someone whose job is writing about race, I often receive a broad spectrum of criticism from people aggrieved by my inherent bigotry. My inbox is constantly wet from the salty white tears of Mayo Americans upset about The Root’s anti-white agenda. Apparently, when I and other writers at The Root point out white supremacy,…

  • Breaking All Barriers: Funny Gal Amber Ruffin Hosts the 2018 Webby Awards

    For the very first time (yes, we’re still doing that in 2018), a black woman, Amber Ruffin, will be hosting the annual Webby Awards, aka “the Oscars of the internets” (my words). Ruffin, a comedian and comedy writer for Late Night With Seth Meyers, as well as a writer for Drunk History and many other…

  • ‘White Caller Crime’: The Worst Wypipo Police Calls of All Time

    According to the global white agenda, every year, white people pick one slogan on which they will focus their undivided attention. While they are certainly capable of multitasking their oppression, they like to devote their energy to specific marketing campaigns. In 2016 the “alt-right’s” “Make America great again” motto overtook 2015’s “All Lives Matter” as…

  • Powerful, Immersive Play As Much as I Can Brings Voices of Southern Gay Black Men and HIV/AIDS Awareness to Harlem

    Currently, Angels in America, the most Tony Award-nominated play in history, is smack in the middle of its much anticipated revival on Broadway in New York City. Debuting in 1992, Tony Kushner’s iconic and surreal tale tackles external and internal homophobia, Reaganism, McCarthyism and the AIDS epidemic in a much grittier mid-’80s New York City.…

  • Bad Publicity Only Works for the Kardashians

    In case you haven’t heard, no one showed up to Kanye West’s Yeezy X 2XU event in Sydney. First of all, I didn’t even know this was happening or a thing; nor do I know who or what a 2XU is. If I know anything about Kanye, I figure that this is a fashion collaboration…

  • Some Did Choose to Return to Slavery Because They Chose Family Over Everything

    It is 1857 and Kanye, a carpenter, has finally saved up enough money to buy his freedom from Massa West. Trouble is, he has to leave his wife, Kimba, and five children on the plantation until he can buy them out of slavery as well. Kanye is free from the constant threat of the lash…