culture
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In Honor of Jaden Smith’s 18th Birthday, Here Are His Most Bizarre Tweets
It’s safe to say that Jaden Smith is a little … strange. With a catalog of tweets, and a record number of interesting interviews to prove it, the child star seems to be living life on his own terms—and also in his own world. Today, on his 18th birthday, we celebrate Smith’s embrace of his…
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A Letter to My 3 Black Children About How America Will See Them
Dear children, You are kind. You are smart. You are important. It’s funny to me how a few unintentionally hilarious lines from a movie called The Help, which you will probably never see, actually seem important to say to you today. And every day for the rest of your lives. They’ve always been true words, but…
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Who’s Black in America: Cape Verde
Who’s Black in America? That’s the question we at The Root are asking—and answering—as we take a look at the various nations throughout the African Diaspora whose immigrants make up the black population in the United States. In this new video series, we’ll examine these populations that are often mentioned, but whose rich history is rarely…
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The 2nd Amendment Is So White: What the Past 24 Hours Have Taught Me About Black People’s Right to Bear Arms
In less than 24 hours, two black men have been killed by police officers even though the Second Amendment indicates that they should have been protected. Black America yet again bears witness to state-sanctioned violence at the hands of trigger-happy rogue cops—one in Louisiana, a state that has open-carry laws, and the other in Minnesota,…
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What Will It Take to Actually Convict a Cop?
Digesting police violence against innocent civilians is a complicated and difficult process. Perhaps the only thing more difficult, however, is reconciling the reality that, even as repeated violations by law enforcement continue to occur, there seems almost no chance that cops will ever face any level of significant accountability from America’s two-tiered justice system. The…
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What The Secret Life of Pets Gets Wrong About Black Power and White Privilege
There is no such thing as a kids movie anymore. Those days ended around the time that Aladdin and his genie were bopping around a fake Agrabah on a magic carpet. In the last 25 years or so, exclusively children-targeted programs have moved to Netflix, Cartoon Network or direct-to-video. Somebody in Hollywood wisely realized that…
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The Alton Sterling Footage Is a Terrorist Video
I have not yet seen the video of the Alton Sterling shooting in Baton Rouge, La., because I refuse to watch it. I’m not particularly squeamish or averse to violence; it’s just that I’ve seen the video too many times before. I saw it when the city of Chicago finally released footage of Laquan McDonald’s…
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My Friend Wouldn’t Get Off My Case After I Told Her I Was Having Unsafe Sex
Dear Demetria: My friend scolded me because I choose to engage in unprotected sex more often than not. I agreed with her, but she kept going. I know she means well, but I can’t help feelilng judged, even after seeing her point. She told me I won’t stop until I get AIDS. What do I…
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#AltonSterling: Black People and Our Collective Hustle to Survive
The police killed another black man on Tuesday. His name was Alton Sterling, and he lived in Baton Rouge, La. For most black folks, trying to make it from paycheck to paycheck is a hard reality. The perils of poverty, anti-black racism, intergenerational traumas and compounding structural inequalities make the day-to-day hustles—whatever they might be—necessary.…