culture

At some point during an international film festival, in response to an inquiry about whether a quite Caucasian jury would be able to evaluate and understand North African films, Meryl Streep decided to go full Hotep and inform us that “We’re all Africans, really.” That clink you hear is the sound of Lady Meryl officially falling…

It was the first semester of my freshman year in college. I met “David” while at one of the bars near campus. The people I went there with that night were all too young to drink, but David (who was a junior) made a point to buy shots for each of us. My friends and…

Scandal is back from winter break, and it’s operating in a post-apoc-Olitz-ic world where old alliances were destroyed and strange new ones are being formed out of the rubble. Olivia and Papa Pope: Remember when Olivia Pope tried to shoot and kill her dad? And then had him sent to prison? And then had him released…

Aliya’s turn: My daughter Lauren, who will be 19 next month, is a first-year college student. She’s incredibly mature for her age and always has been. From the time she was a very young child, I noticed that she saw the world differently from most kids in her peer group. She was incredibly self-possessed and…

Welp. It looks like Scandal’s winter hiatus might have lasted longer than Olivia and Fitz’s disastrous attempt to finally give their relationship a legitimate chance. In case you forgot, the first half of season 5 of Scandal brought us a quickie divorce, a wack proposal, a canceled wedding, an abortion and a bunch of moving boxes. Here’s a quick refresher…

Editor’s note: This short-film series is a collaboration between The Root and El Rey Network to support, elevate and promote African-American filmmakers throughout Black History Month via on-air, digital and editorial platforms. Filmmakers were contacted and recruited through film festivals and industry partnerships in December, with finalists selected by both El Rey Network and The…

I grew up in Frankfurt, Germany, as a military brat in the mid-’80s and early ’90s. Those of us who grew up overseas had one channel to watch on television: AFN, which stands for the Armed Forces Network. We all watched the same cartoons, the same soap operas (General Hospital was followed by Guiding Light),…

After “Who made the potato salad?” and “What had happened was,” black love is one of the most ubiquitous topics of discussion within 21st-century Negronia. Over the years, there have been many couples who come to mind that have embodied the concept—Cliff and Clair Huxtable, Denzel and Pauletta Washington, Cam’ron and JuJu, Oscar and Trudy…

The second installment of FX’s The People v. O.J. Simpson covers familiar terrain to most viewers: the infamous Bronco chase. Or, as one character in Tuesday night’s episode describes it, “the world’s longest Ford Bronco commercial.” On one surreal Friday night in 1994, Simpson and his high school bestie, A.C. Cowlings, kept police in an…