culture
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Want to Retire Early? Watch The Root Live at 11 A.M.
In many African-American families, when we have an important issue to discuss, we gather in the kitchen and bring it to the table. That’s especially true for financial discussions, whether about how to pay the bills, how to send Junior to college or where to start looking for a new job. For the next four…
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DC Woman Leaves Ambulance, Takes Metro to Hospital After Paramedics Argue
A Washington, D.C., woman who believed she was having a stroke called 911 but ended up getting out of an ambulance and taking the subway to a hospital after the paramedics wouldn’t stop arguing with each other, NBC 4 Washington reports. Rose Preston told the news station that she became worried March 15 when she…
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Google celebrates the ‘Godmother’ of Civil Rights
Something is different about today’s Google landing page. In the middle of the search engine’s logo, there’s the soft image of a smiling woman wearing a signature hat atop her curls. It is Dr. Dorothy Irene Height, dubbed the “godmother of the civil rights movement,” as President Barack Obama aptly put it when mourning her passing four…
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Brother of Autistic Teen Found Dead Pens Heartbreaking Essay
The older brother of Avonte Oquendo, the New York City autistic teen who went missing and was found dead, took to the Autism Speaks website to voice his family’s pain over losing Avonte only two months ago. “Picture in your mind having a loved one who does not possess the ability to communicate effectively. Now…
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Girl, 14, Dies in Phoenix Fire Police Say Could Have Been Set Intentionally
A Sunday-morning fire at an apartment building in Phoenix has killed a 14-year-old girl and left her mother and three siblings in critical condition, the Associated Press reports. Firefighters were dealing with an early-morning blaze in a second-floor unit of a west Phoenix apartment building when five people were found unconscious. “What [one firefighter] found…
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Calif. Teen Killed Trying to Push Girlfriend Out of Path of Freight Train
A California high school couple on their way to a dance on Friday were walking on train tracks when an approaching freight train caught them unawares. The 16-year-old boy tried to push his girlfriend out of the way and was struck and killed immediately. The girl, also 16, suffered critical injuries, a hospital spokesman confirmed…
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Fla. High School Teen Offered 150 Scholarships
It’s good to have options. And if you’re Chad Thomas, a senior at Booker T. Washington Senior High in Miami, you have a ton of options. Thomas, 18, has received 150 scholarship offers for his football skills and his abilities as a nine-instrument musician, 10 News Tampa Bay reports. Thomas, who helped the Booker T. Tornadoes…
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Natural Hair Has Never Meant Freedom for Me
Growing up, I was the only biracial girl in a white family in a rural Wisconsin town. My hair has always been natural, but back then, I had no idea what “natural” was. I was raised ignorant of most black cultural issues, leaving my education about the debate between natural vs. processed hair to college…
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Black Theater Success Is Reshaping One of America’s Whitest Fields
The theater world has long been considered one of the most elite—and least diverse—in American culture. And as I’ve previously covered for The Root, at present there are only a handful of African-American Broadway producers, despite the fact that 46 new shows opened last season. Over the years, though, there have been occasional African-American playwriting…
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Digital Soul: The Computer, Imagination and Social Change
Science fiction authors and philosophers have asked: Could a computer have a soul? I have a different question: Could a computer produce soul (if you dig what I mean)? The computer is an instrument, just like a piano and a human voice. So just as Nina Simone used those instruments in her song “Mississippi Goddam,” the computer…