culture
-
The Root’s Clapback Mailbag: The Gray Area
I want to dedicate this mailbag to my hangover. I think someone slipped a headache into my drink last night at The Root 100 gala. It’s either a hangover or I have sudden-onset brain cancer. That’s not a thing, is it? Or maybe it was Social Media Editor Corey Townsend screaming the lyrics to Cardi…
-
Tracing Your Roots: What Are My In-Laws’ Texas Slavery Roots?
Her mother-in-law’s paternal roots lie in what was once Texas’ richest county, made so off the backs of slaves. Dear Professor Gates: My mother-in-law is in her mid-80s, and per her request, I would like to do what I can to find information about her father’s family. I have searched on Ancestry.com and I am…
-
The Root 100 Is Tonight … and You Aren’t Ready
It’s. About. To. Go. Down. I know this because last night, despite having my dress and accessories planned weeks in advance, I found myself at the Zara store across from The Root’s office holding a pair of red-black-and-green heels. “Woke-ass heels,” as I now call them. So woke, they felt too good to be a…
-
Why Is Society Intent on Erasing Black People in Fantasy and Sci-fi’s Imaginary Worlds?
Over the weekend I binge-watched 3%, a dystopian sci-fi Netflix original set in Brazil. The plot was rife with quirks and unexpected turns, but the biggest surprise of all was that the diversity in the show reflected the diversity in Brazil. The cast featured myriad shades and races, absent the stereotypical casting, such as the…
-
Replacing Confederate Fables With Black-Girl Magic: UVA Honors Vivian Pinn
Editor’s note: Once a month, the National Interest column will tackle broader questions about what the country should do to increase educational opportunities for black youths. “I still remember my first trip to UVA, to the hospital, was in the ’50s,” the renowned physician Vivian Pinn recounted to board directors of the National Medical Association…
-
Watch: Gabrielle Union Gets Candid About Her Own Rape
As he raped me, I began to hover over myself. I could see the whole room. I looked at that poor crying girl as she was being raped and thought, “Things like this happen to bad people. Things like this don’t happen to people like me.” My psyche, my body, my soul, simply could not…
-
I Tried It: Notes From a Silent Party
Confession: I was absolutely thinking about pulling out of my first silent party an hour before I was to leave for it. I was running on minimal sleep and nursing a dehydration headache all day; and it was one of those cold, rainy fall days for which God invented cuffing season, malbec and Showtime Anytime.…
-
A Crime by Any Other Name Is Probably Not Mental Illness
Stop me if you have heard this before: A person with a gun walks into a church and shoots as many people as he can before being killed. What is to blame for this? Regarding the recent Texas church massacre, President Donald Trump stated that this was caused by a “mental health problem.” In other…
-
If the Texas Church Shooter Wasn’t White
At least 26 people were killed and another 20 wounded in a brutal terror attack when a white, Christian American from gun-loving rural Texas opened fire in a Lone Star State house of worship Sunday. The shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, had a long history of violence and white-on-white crime before committing this act of terrorism. Tenderhearted…