culture
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Jenifer Lewis Is the Mother of Black Hollywood and She Has the Receipts to Back It Up
It seems as if you can hear her laugh from miles away. Her smile is so bright it lights up the darkest theater, cabaret, movie or television screen. Jenifer Lewis—of Black-ish; Broadway’s Eubie!; the films Beaches, Poetic Justice and What’s Love Got to Do With It, among scores of others—is fearless. That’s a good thing…
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I Tried It: I’m Not Mad at the ‘Come Meet a Black Person’ Event Organizer and You Shouldn’t Be Either
When I told my mother I was going to the “Come Meet a Black Person” event in Lawrenceville, Ga., she readily told me, “Pickeny gal, a mind dem a nah sum ku klux klan sin ting yah nuh.” This is Jamaican patois for “It’s a trap!” My friends also warned me that it was a…
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Denzel Washington’s Roman J. Israel, Esq. Isn’t Exactly What You’re Expecting, but What You Might Need to See
I walked into Roman J. Israel, Esq. with an open mind. I knew that director Dan Gilroy’s previous film Nightcrawler was dark and gritty. I also knew that Denzel Washington, before his most recent appearance in Fences, had taken a leap into the world of dark and gritty with his award-winning performance in Training Day…
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Mudbound Is Another Exhausting Tale of Inequality and Racism in America, but at Least It Was Executed Properly
When there’s historical blackness in film, it’s usually displayed through slavery or Jim Crow. There’s never really any in between. But there is a very palpable significance in remembering, reliving and recognizing black history and respecting how far we’ve come (even though 2017 mirrors the past more times than we’re comfortable with). I guess that’s…
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These 7 Young Futurists Are Already Changing the World
At The Root, we love to celebrate young people who are excelling beyond belief. Year after year, our list of Young Futurists reminds us that age really ain’t nothin’ but a number. That group of 15- to 22-year-olds always impresses us with their tenacity, passion and ability to turn big dreams into reality. Here, we…
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Tracing Your Roots: Do I Have Gullah Roots?
A reader wonders if her family originates from a unique coastal Southern community that has retained many West African traditions. Dear Professor Gates: I’m hoping you can help me figure out whether my family is of Gullah origins. My mother’s family is from a tiny town in South Carolina’s Low Country called Brittons Neck. While…
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‘She’s Gotta Have It’ … but Do We?
I remember the first time I saw She’s Gotta Have It, Spike Lee’s groundbreaking, critically acclaimed and very first “joint,” which premiered in 1986. When it debuted on HBO a year later, I was 12, a latchkey kid, and the parental controls that would lock me out of my parents’ premium channels after school had…
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The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: Not All Mailbags
Today’s Clapback Mailbag is dedicated to last week’s mailbag. I know this sounds like some Inception-level shit where we make references to a mailbag inside a mailbag about the mailbag, so I will include some new stuff, too. Last week was a rough week for mail. I feel like you guys weren’t bringing your racist…
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I’m Tired of Hearing About White Men’s Penises
A Los Angeles woman accused Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) of sexual misconduct while the two were on a USO tour to entertain American troops nearly 11 years ago. The woman, Leeann Tweeden, a Los Angeles radio news anchor and occasional Fox News contributor, says that she kept quiet about the incident for so long because…