culture
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In HBO’s Problem Areas, Wyatt Cenac Explores Policing and Leaves Trump to Everyone Else
When Wyatt Cenac unveiled his new late-night show, Problem Areas, at HBO’s New York City headquarters in midtown Manhattan last week, he wore a knit cardigan. From the front, it looked like a regular-ass knit sweater, the sort of soft, thick clothing appropriate for this year’s excessively chilly spring. It wasn’t until Cenac, after entertaining…
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Tracing Your Roots: Help! My Great-Granddad’s Trail Ran Cold
Sometimes, following the paper trail left by a close relative of the person you’re tracing will yield better results. Dear Professor Gates: I have been looking for the father of my great-grandfather George Washington Bridges, born in 1875 in Georgia. I have located records placing him in Butts County, Ga. One of the census records…
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Watch: Embracing the Otherness With Unreal’s Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman
Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman is an other. He’s a biracial, queer man who was adopted and raised in a teeny-tiny town in Alberta, Canada, where he was the only person of color. So yeah, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman stood out. “I was the other. I was different than everybody else around me and I was told what I was,”…
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This Is Probably My Last Day at The Root Before Janet Jackson Hires Me as a Backup Dancer
First, I’d like to apologize to Editor-in-Chief Danielle Belton for lying to her when she interviewed me for this position that it was my dream job. At that point in my life, I thought playing point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers or starting at quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys was a long shot. More…
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‘Diversity of Thought’ Is Just a Euphemism for ‘White Supremacy’
Every so often a new phrase emerges that encapsulates the cunning Caucasian ability to keep power and dominance within their clutches by painting themselves as the oppressed class. Whether it is “reverse racism,” “Make America great again” or “separate but equal,” coining catchphrases as a means of maintaining white supremacy has been one of our…
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Of Art and Plunder: Why Black Curators Are Still Shut Out of the Art World—and Why It Matters
In the movie Black Panther, the first person we see Erik Killmonger confront is a white museum curator. Contemplative and curious, Killmonger gazes at a series of African artifacts—his locs, denim jacket and designer combat boots thrown into sharp relief by the female curator’s prim, blond cut and dark suit. He interrogates the white expert…
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The Difference Between Soul Food and Southern Cuisine, Explained
I was recently alerted to a troubling trend in the food industry by someone who contacted me to voice their outrage. The concerned citizen explained that there was a large population of people who were confused, or were being intentionally misled, about the difference between soul food and the more widely available fare often described…
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Kamilah Forbes’ Beautiful Struggle: Bringing Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me to the Stage
We are not crazy. We know all is not well. Despite what they say. We know that the “greatest country in the world” has never been. That our skin bears the mark that easily presages death. That our kin are in danger. We know that our bodies can be snatched at will, that our children…
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Atlanta, Donald Glover and the Invisibility of Black Genius
A few weeks ago, a video surfaced of a white kid named Cooper participating in a step show. Cooper’s enthusiasm immediately made him a YouTube sensation. Although the clip was cute, as I watched the video I realized that the black kids in the video were just as enthusiastic and worked just as hard as…