culture

Before Sly and the Family Stone came along in 1967, no band had ever sounded like them, and since they disbanded, only Prince and D’Angelo, in his finest moments, have built on their sound. Sly and the Family Stone were unique, legendary and yet possibly underappreciated in their heyday (roughly from their formation in 1967…

“I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has survived it,” James Baldwin wrote in a 1962 letter to his teenage nephew. “And I know, which is much worse, and this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen and for which neither I nor time nor…

One million dollars” has a nice ring to it doesn’t it? As a youngster becoming a millionaire meant you made it. It was fun daydreaming about the luxurious items you would buy with all of the money that flowed infinitely. For many, becoming a millionaire means automatic security and a life of luxury and leisure.…

My ex is very active on social media. Whenever he is upset or annoyed with me, he writes about me in a condescending manner. He doesn’t say my name, but I know it’s about me because I know what’s going on. So do my friends. I’ve asked him so many times to stop, but he…

Harriette Cole is the author of the book of meditations 108 Stitches: Words We Live By and a contributing editor at The Root. Follow her on Twitter. 

Chris Rock summed up the black experience in the United States kind of perfectly during his HBO special Never Scared more than a decade ago: “If you’re black, you got to look at America a little bit different,” he joked, stone-faced. “You got to look at America like the uncle who paid for you to…

“I write you in your fifteenth year. I am writing you because this was the year you saw Eric Garner choked to death for selling cigarettes; because you know now that Renisha McBride was shot for seeking help, that John Crawford was shot down for browsing in a department store. And you have seen men…

Black folks in America have always had a funny relationship with conspiracy theories. Given the actual lengths and depths to which white racists actually have been willing to go to harm black folks, it makes us particularly susceptible to believing just about anything is possible if the man has it in his mind to cause trouble.…

Historically white activities. Nontraditional participants. Serena Williams and Misty Copeland are the faces of their respective professions in the United States. Williams is the face of American tennis (men’s and women’s), while Copeland is the face of American ballet. Both came from humble beginnings in California. Both took unique paths into their professions. Both faced…