culture
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Low Graduation Rates Aren’t an HBCU Thing
A black woman with a teenage son told me that several people had sent her the recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution article about black colleges “struggling” with low graduation rates to warn her against sending her son to an HBCU. The article’s headline stated that the six-year graduation rates at “many” HBCUs are lower than 20 percent.…
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Could Kim Kardashian’s Cold, Overstuffed Hot Pockets Actually Be the Sunken Place?
On Monday, the human black-man succubus, also known as Kim Kardashian, continued her trek to colonize the entirety of black womanness, thus completing her transition to become the first-ever cloned Armenian sex doll with black mannerisms. She accomplished this latest maneuver by appropriating cornrows. To date, Kardashian and her merry band of familial pirates have…
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On Reinvention and Remission: Chef Elle Simone Scott Is Paving the Way for Women of Color in the Culinary Industry
Detroit native chef Elle Simone Scott is one of the scintillating on-air talents and food stylists on America’s Test Kitchen. Her rich roots and passion for culinary arts were inspired by cooking with her grandmother at a very young age; years later, she’d moonlight in the hospitality industry after earning credentials from Eastern Michigan University…
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Should Black Artists Care About the Grammys?
“Who gives a fuck about a goddamn Grammy?” These venerable words came from the mouth of Public Enemy’s Chuck D on 1988’s “Terminator X to the Edge of Panic.” It is a sentiment that’s been shared by so many other artists, critics and fans over the years. When it comes to the Recording Academy, black…
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On Black Panther, Black Leopard and the Politics of Being a Black Superhero
In approximately three weeks, on Feb. 16, the biggest and blackest movie extravaganza that we have seen since the turn of ’00 will finally be hitting theaters. It’s funny, really. The premiere of Black Panther is so close and yet so far away. But that’s not stopping all of the buzz that’s abounding. Everywhere you…
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#POTUSRAP: White Twitter Dissing Jay-Z Might Just Be the Greatest Thing Wypipo Have Ever Done
Whenever I’m feeling down and out, I have discovered a cure for depression that doesn’t involve narcotics, thousands of dollars in therapist fees or finding a USB outlet to recharge my sex robot. (No, I don’t have a sex robot. I’m still waiting for Apple to come out with one because I might be desperate,…
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From the Roots to Chris Rock: How Tina Farris Launched a Successful Tour-Management Company—and Now Wants to Empower Women
It was a cold morning in Washington, D.C. Before Tina Farris landed at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, she texted me that she had left her scarf in Los Angeles, which she wouldn’t need after leaving D.C., so I offered to bring her mine, as we planned for me to shadow her for the day.…
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How I Barely Survived #GrammyWeek
It’s Grammy Week here in New York City. I’ve RSVP’d for and attended about six events. Once the Grammys are over, I will be taking a nap until further notice. This girl is exhausted. The Grammy Awards have returned to the Big Apple for the first time since 2003, and as a New Yorker (by…
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Black to the Future: What The Root Will Be Writing About in 2028
Happy birthday to us! On Jan. 28, 2008, The Root came into the world just as a young, black senator from Chicago was making his way to the White House, spreading a message of hope and change for America. In a changing media landscape, The Root emerged as a platform for the new voices of…
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#OscarsSoBlackAndWhite and the Myth of Black Privilege
It’s become an annual late-January Twitter tradition to examine, cheer and/or mock the diversity (or lack thereof) of the Oscar nominees ever since writer, activist and media critic April Reign started the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite in 2015. But as the derivative hashtag #OscarsSoBlackAndWhite rears its ugly head once again this year, it’s worth revisiting a countertradition:…