culture
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5 Things Movie Theaters Can Do to Win Audiences Back in 2018
When is the last time you actually sat in the movie theater to watch a film? What movie was it? How much money did you spend on the entire experience? How soon are you likely to go to the movies again? These are the questions that came to mind for me as I looked at…
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Azealia Banks Issues Apology to Beyoncé
Azealia Banks must have gotten common sense for Christmas, because she just issued an apology to Beyoncé. In 2016, Banks poked at the Beyhive when she came for the Queen in a series of social media posts that not only criticized the greatness that is Lemonade but also claimed that Beyoncé had sold her soul.…
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Watch: ‘Make Kwanzaa Great Again’ Campaign Video
[This post originally ran on Dec. 26, 2017.] Many people have wondered why Kwanzaa is not a bigger holiday or why it is overshadowed by Christmas every year (and when we say “many people,” like our esteemed president, we mean four … maybe five, tops). In response, we decided to celebrate Kwanzaa Week by pouring…
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If You’re Not Watching Ts Madison and Khia’s The Queens Court, What’s Taking You So Long?
My introduction to Ts Madison, the adult entertainer-turned-trans activist, recording artist and internet personality, was a video of her cursing out critics who felt she may not be the right kind of transgender activist. “Fuck alll you hoes that feel some type of way about Ts Madison, ’cause guess what, bitch? I’m that ho in…
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#2017WeMadeIt: What The Root’s Top 25 Stories of the Year Say About 2017
Donald Trump became president. White supremacy became normalized. Black women had to strap on their work boots to prevent an alleged pedophile from becoming a U.S. senator. We discovered that men everywhere were sexually harassing women. The Atlanta Falcons blew a 25-point halftime lead in the Super Bowl … Let’s face it: 2017 sucked. And…
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Habari Gani?! Umoja! Tarana Burke Was the Embodiment of Unity in 2017
This year, The Root is making the blackest holiday of them all great again! And for each day of Kwanzaa, we will be highlighting one person from the community who exemplifies the principle of the day. On the first day of Kwanzaa, Dec. 26, the principle is Umoja, or “unity.” To practice Umoja is to…
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Welcome to Kwanzaa Week at The Root!
Yes, we’re serious. When I was asked (or, um, “volunteered”) to edit our Kwanzaa Week series, I was hype! Last year, I decided to try to celebrate the holiday for the first time in a long time. This was pre-Donald Trump, and my family and I admittedly bumbled through it, but now more than ever, this…
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#MakeKwanzaaGreatAgain, Explained
Sure. This will be one of our shortest explainers ever. The Root has started a grassroots campaign to place Kwanzaa at the top of the list of the most important black cultural traditions. Essentially—I know it’s hard to tell our intentions from the hashtag—we want to make Kwanzaa great again. No need to be embarrassed.…
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Why 2017 Was the Year of Rose Armitage
To be a person of color in America is to always be tangled between dueling worlds. What was different in 2017, more so than any other year in recent memory, was how those polarities were laid bare for everyone else to see. It was the year American streets were crowded with both pussy hats and…