culture

  • A Woman-to-Woman Conversation About a Man Is Not Always the Move

    “Hello? May I speak to Barbara? Barbara, this is Shirley.” So begins a classic R&B song where one sista reaches out to another to have a woman-to-woman conversation about the man they are unwittingly sharing. Shirley found Barbara’s number in her man’s pockets and decided to call Barbara to break the news to her. But…

  • What to Do if You’re Experiencing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

    Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’re probably aware of the many cases of sexual harassment and assault that have dominated the news recently. From the #MeToo movement to Matt Lauer being fired, these stories have led to many people revealing their own horrifying experiences in the workplace. It feels as if each one…

  • Will Mississippi’s New Civil Rights Museum Tell the Truth About the State’s Troublesome Past?

    Myrlie Evers-Williams once had a hard time understanding how her husband could still love their home state of Mississippi so deeply. After all, Medgar Evers grew up in the segregated South and, like many African Americans, left America to fight in Europe during World War II, only to return to a state where black veterans…

  • Why Nola Darling 2.0 Is Not a Good Example of Polyamory

    Let me start off by saying that I loved the Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It. I thought it was brilliant, and I highly recommend it. It is classic Spike Lee—everything we want and expect from him in a film on the small screen. From the cinematography to the soundtrack to the acting, everything was…

  • #Chance2018: Can We Just Impeach Donald Trump and Make Chance the Rapper President Already?

    Google has teamed up with Chance the Rapper for a million-dollar campaign to bring computer science education to Chicago schools. USA Today reports that Google.org, the philanthropic division of the company that owns the internet, will donate $1 million to Chance’s* SocialWorks organization to increase the computer skills of kids from all racial, ethnic and…

  • Golden Krust Is a Major Part of the Caribbean New Yorker Identity

    Golden Krust CEO Lowell Hawthorne’s unabashed capitalist optimism feels out of step in a time of emboldened anti-black resentment. Still, when the businessman spoke to the Jamaican Observer as recently as October, he echoed the belief of many West Indian transplants—the blind hope that the American dream can be manifested through sheer will. “In my…

  • Black Women, Don’t Throw Up Hands—Call the Bank of Hysteria to Vent

    Sexual harassment got you down? Microaggressions become too much? Poverty a pain in the ass? Racism got you fucked up? Well, black women, there’s now a place to place all of your justifiable but sometimes “problematic” anger, an actual depository to just vent, let loose and scream (or text) your ass off like Nola Darling…

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    Once on This Island’s Opening Night Gives Me Jitters While I Consider Reginald F. Lewis’ Billion-Dollar Deal

    OK, first off, in this revival of the 1991 Tony Award-nominated musical Once on This Island, I had no clue that it was Merle Dandrige from Greenleaf playing the death demon, Papa Ge. I’ve watched one-and-a-half entire seasons of the OWN religious drama, and I thought I could pick her out of a lineup, but…

  • The 16 Best Books of the Year by Black Authors

    The end of 2017 is near, which means it is time for annual year-end “best of” lists to pop up everywhere. Here, The Root presents our annual list of the most compelling books published in 2017 by black authors in affordable, regular print runs—which is why Beyoncé’s $300 literary opus on the making of Lemonade…

  • The Bizarre Case of Meek Mill’s Incarceration, Explained

    Let me make this clear: I’m not team #FreeMeekMill, but I am team #FreeRobertRihmeekWilliams. There is a difference. Meek Mill is a highly touted street dude-turned-rapper from Philly. Robert Rihmeek Williams is a Philadelphia man who many believe has been wrongly incarcerated by an overzealous judge who is using her influence and judicial power to…