culture
-
I Tried It: If You’re Looking for a Way to Doze Off, Meditation May Be the Key
I’m a wannabe yogi. I’m working on myself as a human being, and yoga calls to me more than anything else ever has. I love yoga, I practice yoga at minimum three times a week, I teach yoga a few times a week and I read all the yoga books. In my few years of…
-
New Clinical Trial That Cured 6-Year-Old of Sickle Cell Disease Shows Promise for All
In July 2016, a resilient, joyful 5-year-old named Bryce took part in a first-of-its-kind clinical trial at Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C. As an infant, Bryce had been diagnosed with a particularly severe form of sickle cell disease and had already suffered at least four strokes related to the blood disorder. A little…
-
An Annotated Breakdown of a Nazi Getting Punched in the Face
First, let us pray: Dear 7-pound, 8-ounce sweet newborn, but still with dreadlocks and a do-rag, dark-skinneded baby Jesus. We come unto you, dear Lord, to give praise. To offer up our most precious hallelujahs, amens and “Do that shit, Savior” supplications. For it was you, our melanin messiah, who, after a week of our…
-
The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: Always Bringing Up Old Stuff
I’m sorry. First, I would like to apologize to the readers who trusted me to bring them the latest and best clapbacks of the week. Next, I want to issue my deepest regrets to all the idiots, racists and people with generally bad grammar who feel ignored. I have failed you. This week, through the…
-
How TV Writer Angela Nissel Is Bringing Her Unique Voice to Tyler, the Creator’s The Jellies, and Why Black Female Writers in Hollywood Need to Be Heard
If you took a look at the writers’ room of some of your favorite television shows, you’d be hard-pressed to find a black person, and even harder pressed to find a black woman. But for the last decade, Angela Nissel has been leaving her mark behind the scenes on shows like Scrubs, The Boondocks and,…
-
Tracing Your Roots: Did My Ancestor Work in a Prior Enslaver’s Home?
Repeating patterns in Reconstruction-era census records point to possible connections during slavery. Dear Professor Gates: I’m trying to determine if my third great-grandmother (from my mother’s paternal side of the family) was a slave or if her mother was. In the 1880 census in Lytle’s Fork of Scott County, Ky., she is listed as Polly…
-
I Tried It: My Co-Worker Shamed Me Into Watching Purple Rain
Yesha Callahan, The Root’s deputy managing editor, is a tyrant. I think my troubles really began in earnest last April when the greatest of all time, Prince Rogers Nelson, departed this earthly plane and the office was reminiscing. Of course, Purple Rain, both the album and the film, came up in conversation. I casually mentioned…
-
Trump Treated Sgt. La David Johnson the Way America Has Always Treated Black Soldiers
… And then there’s the story of Col. Charles Young. In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Charles Young, the son of former slaves, was the Army’s highest-ranking black officer. He was the only serving black officer who was a West Point graduate, and the third black man to ever graduate from…
-
Slowly in the 4th Quarter
Today was one of those “Barely get dressed” kind of days. Today was one of those “You gotta get out of the house” kind of days. Today was one of those “You can’t let the world drain you” kind of days. Today was a “Leggings off the floor, relatively clean T-shirt and closest sneakers” kinda…
-
Is Infidelity Inevitable?
In 2009 a family friend I hadn’t seen since I was a kid came into Chicago for a work conference and took me out for drinks. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the conversation of a woman who was a little under twice my age at the time, but certainly not what I received:…