culture
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So You Suddenly Need a #BlizzardBae? Here Are 14 People We’d Like to Be Snowed in With During the Blizzard of 2015
It’s miserable across the Northeast, and while some of us may very well be confined indoors, that doesn’t mean our imaginations are confined to the four walls. So without further ado, here’s The Root’s #BlizzardBae 2015 list—aka 14 people with whom we’d love to be snowbound. 1. Beyoncé Obvs. You knew a bae list without…
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3 Black Adoptees on Racial Identity After Growing Up in White Homes
Does love know no color? The ad campaign for Kevin Costner’s new film Black or White definitely supports that idea, pushing the hashtag #LoveKnowsNoColor while promoting the transracial custody drama. Black or White pits a child’s white maternal grandfather (Costner) against her black paternal grandmother (played by Octavia Spencer) in a legal battle for custody.…
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One Night in Miami Brings the Meeting of Ali, Malcolm, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown to Life
In the immediate moments after Cassius Clay shocked the world—defeating notorious bruiser Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Fla., to win the heavyweight boxing championship in February 1964—he’s joined in the ring by Sam Cooke. Mr. Soul, as Cooke was known, also joined Clay, pro-football great Jim Brown and Malcolm X afterward at the Hampton House…
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Watch: 3 Baltimore Teens Injured in Fight With School Police Officer
A Northeast Baltimore school is investigating a fight involving a female school police officer and three middle school girls that ended with the students being rushed to the hospital. According to security video footage obtained and released by WBAL-TV, the incident, which happened in October, began inside Vanguard Middle School between the school officer and…
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Nina Simone: A Complex and Troubled Legacy
What Happened, Miss Simone? takes an unflinching look at the sometimes troubled life and complex legacy of the singer, pianist and civil rights activist. At one point in her career, Nina Simone was a celebrated performer playing Carnegie Hall, but fast-forward, and she’s singing in dive bars in Paris for a couple of hundred dollars…
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A Detroit Collage: How a Graffiti Artist, Apparel Company and Nonprofit Are Helping to Keep Art in Schools
As Detroit continues to suffer from the scorching effects of bankruptcy, art—a cultural underpinning of the iconic town—remains strong, with artists, particularly urban artists, thriving amid the ashes. And yet even as the urban art scene flourishes, the art curriculum in schools has all but smoldered out, leaving students with little or no hope of…
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Straight Out of Brownsville: A Student’s Viral Image Salutes Revolutionary Brooklyn School Principal Nadia Lopez
Updated Jan. 29, 2015: In fewer than five days, more than $1 million has been raised for Motts Hall Bridges Academy; that’s close to an IndieGoGo record! The initial goal was $100,000 to send MHBA students to Harvard University for a visit. Once it reached $350,000, it was determined by Principal Lopez and Humans of…
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X: A Novel: How Malcolm X Grew From ‘Little’ to the Leader of a Revolution
In medieval Europe, when a man vanquished his enemy, he killed the enemy’s wife, the enemy’s children and any other kin he could find. It was brutal; it was terrible. But it was done so that the enemy’s family would have no support, strength or even knowledge of who the man was. So that no…
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Maintain Marital Bliss by Compromising on Conflicting Family Obligations
My husband’s younger brother is turning 30, lives in another state and is planning a night-out party. My family reunion is the same weekend and I’d like us to go. He says he is going to hang with his brother and not go to the reunion. Can you weigh in here? Am I wrong for…
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Violence Against Black Transgender Women Goes Largely Ignored
Elle Hearns was hoping to share in the collective pain other black people were feeling during a Trayvon Martin rally in Columbus, Ohio, in April 2012. But instead of feeling embraced, she said both men and women around her engaged in very loud, transphobic conversations and encroached on her personal space. “It made me feel…