culture
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The Bolshevik Revolution Took Place 100 Years Ago. What Is Its Legacy With Black People?
One of the most powerful proclamations of the Bolshevik Revolution was that it would form a nation where everyone would be treated equally. The Kremlin was eager to exploit Western imperialism in Africa and the United States, where colonialism and Jim Crow were the rules of the land. The pledge was very appealing to black…
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For Dreadlocked Servicewomen, the Fight for Acceptance Is Both a Military and Civilian Battle
First Lt. Whennah Andrews of the U.S. Army National Guard tries to hide her braces while showing off her smile. But four years since first advocating against grooming regulations that barred soldiers from wearing natural hairstyles, her smile hints at relief over one of the final steps in the fight for acceptance. A decade-old ban…
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For Those Considering Blaxit, I Present to You: Japan
If Hollywood is to be believed, then gap years are the sole domain of white folks “finding themselves” in foreign lands. From Sean Penn’s accidental comedy Into the Wild, in which a diary entry that keeps threatening like a storm cloud to be a meaningful anecdote is reduced to an absurd cautionary tale about the…
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Black Heroes for Hire: Scratching the Black Panther Itch
As colorful as comics are, they have not always been kind to people of color. Even though Stan Lee and Marvel were bold enough to create the X-Men in reaction to the civil rights movement, not everyone else was so enlightened or has been so enlightened since (see #DonaldforSpiderman). The gap is noticeably present in…
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Oh No, White People! What Is Y’all Doing? Why Every Caucasian Needs a Black Friend
Contrary to popular belief, I do not wake up every morning trying to figure out how to attack my beloved Caucasian brothers. I only wish them peace and prosperity. In fact, every day I wake up before sunrise and whisper a plea to the Most High (Snoop Dog) for a special favor: Can I leave…
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Jemele Hill, Jerry Jones, the NCAA and the Sports Slave System
Stop. Before you object to my use of the word “slave,” let us be clear: I do not mean “slave” in the way you are thinking. I am not trying to invoke the pain and trauma of our ancestors in a hyperbolic comparison. When I write “slave,” I am not using it in the narrow…
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SNL Alum Jay Pharoah Is Ready to Become White Famous on Showtime
Fans who’ve missed comedian Jay Pharoah since his official exit from Saturday Night Live last year after six seasons now can have him all to themselves thanks to his new Showtime series, White Famous. Executive-produced by Jamie Foxx and Tim Story (director of Ride Along and Think Like a Man), White Famous puts Pharoah, a…
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It’s Not Class, It’s Race: Why America Can’t Move Forward Until It Addresses the Racial Wealth Gap
We don’t tend to look at the wealth gap as a form of violence, even though it’s certainly rooted in it. Take the massacre in Wilmington, N.C. The 1898 race riot is one of those stories that have been willfully erased from history, even though it is the only coup d’état to ever take place…
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Writer-Director Angela Robinson Tells the Story of How Psychology and Polyamory Created Wonder Woman
Even if you’re familiar with Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, the film about the man behind Wonder Woman, you might not know that a black woman wrote and directed it. Probably because most of Angela Robinson’s career has largely been in the shadows of television, directing and producing such hit series as The L…
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The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: The Whitest Email of All Time
I’m sorry, y’all, but this week we’re featuring only one piece of email. It’s not that we didn’t receive a lot of hate mail this week. (Don’t worry; we won’t ever run out of shitty comments from disgruntled readers of The Root—ever). It’s just that answering more than one piece of email this week would…