culture
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The Root Live: Bring It to the Table Tackles Career Changes
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 of 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 nine…
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Oklahoma Pharmacy Agrees Not to Sell Drug for Missouri Execution
A pharmacy in Oklahoma has agreed not to give Missouri a drug to use for a convicted rapist-murderer’s execution after the man’s lawyers filed a case against the pharmacy, hoping to stop the business from providing the drug, the Associated Press reports. Part of the deal included the pharmacy’s acknowledgment that it had not already…
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NBA All Star Charles Barkley: Public More Homophobic Than the Locker Room
Former basketball star Charles Barkley is defending his sport, saying in an interview on Monday with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that the view of the sports world as homophobic and dangerous for gay teammates is not true. “I think they would be safe with their teammates,” Barkley said, when asked if openly gay teammates would be welcome…
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The Root’s Response to the Worst Letter We’ve Ever Gotten
On Saturday evening the Michael Dunn verdict came in, and I was thrown. Not because he wouldn’t be serving time, as the jury found him guilty for shooting at the three boys he didn’t kill, but because I, like many people around the nation, felt like another grown white man had gotten away with killing…
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Tom Ford Pays Tribute to Jay Z at London’s Fashion Week
Turns out that Tom Ford also rocks Tom Ford. The high-end fashion retailer included two sequined football-jersey-style dresses with “TOM FORD” emblazoned across the back in his runway show at London’s Fashion Week on Monday. In between his luxurious fur coats and cashmere dresses, the designer sent down two versions of the dress, which had…
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Fox News Anchor Calls Don Lemon ‘the Al Sharpton of CNN’
Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett doubled down on his attacks on CNN’s Don Lemon. On Sunday the two had a war of tweets over Lemon’s live, impassioned delivery of the news after receiving the verdict in the Michael Dunn “loud music” murder trial. Jarrett called Lemon a “pompous, pretentious jerk,” to which Lemon replied, “mind…
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George Zimmerman: Only God Can Judge Me
On Monday, George Zimmerman appeared on CNN’s New Day to say that he was the victim in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. He doesn’t watch the news anymore, he said, so he isn’t up on the Michael Dunn case, and only God can judge him. Zimmerman also told host Chris Cuomo, in one of…
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Memo to Park Service: Don’t Put Black Women’s History Away on the Shelf
As a young graduate student conducting research on the black freedom struggle, I had the distinct honor and privilege of visiting the National Archives for Black Women’s History, a vital repository of the history of black women’s contributions to this country, housed in the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, a national historic site in the…
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10 Get-Me-Outta-Here Beach Getaways
There’s snow on the ground in much of the United States, with some areas seeing several inches and below-freezing temperatures in the past couple of days. Visions of sandy beaches and rays of sun seem like far-fetched daydreams while staring at mounds of snow and icy streets. But why not treat yourself to a quick…
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Figure Skater Surya Bonaly Flipped Her Way Into Our Hearts
Winter Olympic sports are notoriously lacking in racial diversity, but there have been a handful of black stars to emerge at the games over the years. One of them is Surya Bonaly. The figure-skating legend won the national title in France a record nine times and was a world silver medalist three times. She appeared at…