culture
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She Got Game: ESPN’s Jemele Hill Is the Queen of Sports Talk
When people see ESPN personality Jemele Hill sitting among a sea of male prognosticators, effortlessly spewing her valued opinions on current and compelling sports topics, not everyone may agree with her—but you have to respect her gangsta. Although she was raised humbly in crime-ridden Detroit at a time when poverty was protocol, jobs were leaving…
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Scandal Recap: Family Matters
This week’s Scandal episode introduced us to some new faces, brought back a familiar one and raised a number of questions. Olivia’s gut is back. Sort of? Olivia wakes up—flawless and without a head scarf (girl, please)—next to the sexy stranger she picked up at a bar a few episodes ago. Scandal’s DJ should have played “Brown Skin” by…
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Being Too Scared to Reveal You Have an STD Is No Excuse for Ruining Someone Else’s Life
I started talking to this guy and he was great—everything I could ask for and more. There’s just one problem: I have a sexually transmitted disease, and I was completely embarrassed and scared to tell him, especially after the way I have been treated in the past. I kept it to myself and continued to…
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Stuart Scott: The Story of How He Fought Until the End
ESPN anchor Stuart Scott is in a production trailer by himself and he is in tears. It is days before the Jimmy V Perseverance Award speech he will give during the ESPYs that will become the pièce de résistance of his brilliant career; a career full of in-depth interviews, “boo-yahs” and well-timed, creative, black-folk puns like,…
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That Afro Is a Lie
A friend of a friend of mine a while back was lamenting why her natural hair did not look like X celebrity she really liked. That celeb’s hair was so big, thick and full, the curls so dynamic and bouncy. What products could this celeb be using? Was there a twist-out technique she could use…
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Violence Against South Asians Is Linked to Bias Against African Americans
When 57-year-old Sureshbhai Patel was slammed facedown to the ground by an Alabama police officer in February, leaving him partially paralyzed, the Hindu American Foundation moved quickly to announce that it was developing a Hinduism 101 training for first responders “to improve the cultural competency of police officers and avoid the escalation of incidents based on language…
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Why a Comical Book About Slavery? Ask Paul Beatty
Paul Beatty’s writing defies categorization. The author’s two collections of poetry and three novels have alternately been called satirical, dystopian, absurdist and postmodern. While the closest classification, Beatty himself admits, is absurdist, even that is rather wide of the mark. Beatty’s latest novel, The Sellout, is, on a plot level, the story of Mr. Me,…
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‘Anti-Semitic’ Tweets or Not, Comedy Central Will Stand by Trevor Noah
Given the speed at which modern news operates, it’s a miracle that anybody ever gets to have any fun. No sooner had Comedy Central announced that biracial South African standup comedian Trevor Noah would be taking over The Daily Show after Jon Stewart than the social media vetting began. First with the ubiquitous “Who is Trevor Noah?”…
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Celebrating Pioneering Black Trans Women
Thanks to the groundbreaking work of Emmy-nominated actress Laverne Cox and cultural critic and author Janet Mock (both The Root 100 honorees), the stigma and ignorance surrounding both the exterior and interior lives of trans women is slowly being chipped away. The work of such organizations as the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and the Trans…
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Poll: Who Should Play Dorothy in the TV Version of The Wiz?
When we think of “Home” we think of Stephanie Mills in her iconic performance as Dorothy in the original 1974 production of The Wiz on Broadway. Diana Ross took over the role in the 1978 film version alongside Michael Jackson, who gave an unforgettable performance as the Scarecrow. Now NBC is launching a live television…