culture
-
How to Stop Locking Up Kids
Editor’s note: This is the first of two essays The Root is publishing in partnership with Caught, a new podcast from WNYC Studios about the juvenile-justice system. We hope to generate a conversation about how we can support rather than merely punish young people who are in crisis, and we want to hear from you…
-
Issa Trap: How Killer Mike Became the NRA’s Token Negro
“All warfare is based on deception.” —Sun Tzu, The Art of War A few days ago, I received a phone call from Kyla Lacey, a friend and contributor to The Root. Kyla informed me that she had received a request to appear on Laura Ingraham’s show on Fox News and asked if I thought it…
-
Pacific Rim Uprising Is a Terrible Movie That’s Actually Good for Black People
Spoiler alert: There will be spoilers and a plot review in this write-up. The original Pacific Rim (2013) is one of my favorite movies of all time. Yes, as a sci-fi and fantasy fan, I realize that a live-action film about robots fighting giant lizards from another dimension sounds like something scribbled in the margins…
-
An Incomplete List of Things Black People Should Avoid Doing so They Won’t Be Killed by Police
On Sunday, March 18, police in Sacramento, Calif., fired 20 shots at Stephon Clark, killing him. Clark was unarmed and in his own backyard, leading many to ask what black people must do to escape the indiscriminate killing of black people. A 2015 study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, showed that there…
-
Tracing Your Roots: Who Were Our Kin Before Tragedy Struck the Family?
Needing answers after a family was torn asunder by fatal acts of domestic violence. Dear Professor Gates: My sister Yahnique Sparks and I are having trouble finding information on our parents, Joseph Shirley Sparks and Ruby Lee Sparks (maiden name Johnson). They both died in 1981 when I was a child. Our mother perished at…
-
Despite Terrorizing Black People, the Serial-Killing Suicide Bomber Was Not a Terrorist Because, Well … He’s White
The words are back. You know which words I’m talking about. The politically correct nouns, verbs and adjectives used to shield their sayers and writers from criticism. The ones that tiptoe along the protective, precipitously thin fence of caucasity to whitesplain any act committed by an Anglo-Saxon Protestant who claps on the one and three.…
-
Reverse Racism, Explained
Why not? And by “many people” I assume you mean … That’s OK. You should know that I absolutely believe that black people can be racist. I don’t, however, use the terminology “reverse racism” or believe that using words that offend white people is an act of racism. Most of the time, when white people…
-
There’s a Secret Government Document Called the ‘Race Paper’ and It’s Probably Being Used to Monitor Black Activists
When civil rights groups forced the government to release information on how federal law enforcement agencies monitor the scary collective of black bogeyman activists classified as “black identity extremists,” the groups noticed a repeated reference to one specific document. Although it is top secret, the government has confirmed its existence. We know it is nine…