culture
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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…
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Tracing Your Roots: Was Great-Grandma Part Creek Indian?
Historic records point to a life of mixed heritage in the American West. Dear Professor Gates: My great-grandmother Lula Craig/Creg, born Jan. 26, 1870, appears on both the federal 1910 census in Depew City, Creek County, Okla., and the 1910 Indian-population census for that city and county. Lula and her children (including my grandfather Bobby)…
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5 Ways Black People Can Force Commonsense Gun Control
They wouldn’t do it after the Las Vegas massacre. They wouldn’t do it after Gabby Giffords was shot. They wouldn’t even do it after Sandy Hook. Maybe there is no one who can break the toxic romance that America has with guns … I bet black people could. You know we have to do all…
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I Tried It: Bacon Is the SZA of Meats
In my quest to become a whole, functioning human being, I have been going through a yearslong process of undoing and unpacking the subconscious biases and fears that created the person who could never be described any funnier or more succinctly than by my line brother, who once said: “Michael Harriot, you’re one weird-ass strain…
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The Crisis in Puerto Rico Is a Racial Issue. Here’s Why
Last week, CNN’s Jake Tapper interviewed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and asked if he thought President Donald Trump’s punishing response to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico had something to do with “race or ethnicity.” Sanders hesitated a bit but ultimately said, “We have a right to be suspect.” The relative surge in coverage about Puerto Rico after…
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I’m About to Be a Father to a Black Boy and I’m Scared to Death for Him (and Me)
My wife and I had gone to the doctor’s for a routine appointment. We weren’t married then; in fact, we weren’t even engaged, but we were ready for a baby. We had a name. We’d gone to Target and purchased a pair of crocheted bunny ears and a rubber duck that can tell the bath…
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BIE, Felicia: Fighting for Justice and Our Basic Human Rights Isn’t Extremism
They are trying to turn black people into the bogeyman. They want everyone else in America to see us as a threat so that when we are killed with impunity, no one bats an eyelash. This is already happening anyway. In a country that was founded on the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit…
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The 6 Degrees of Wokeness
I hate the word “woke.” It is defined as a heightened state of social, political and cultural awareness. Being woke is like taking the red pill from The Matrix, drinking a Red Bull and reading a Ta-Nehisi Coates essay while listening to a Talib Kweli song with Solange on the hook. The only word in…