U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who won’t allow bomb threats to intimidate her, is encouraging voters to “step up to the plate” on Election Day. The Root caught up with Auntie Maxine at this year’s Women in Media Awards in New York City.

Have you ever slid in anyone’s DMs? Done online dating? Gotten back at an ex? Better question: Are you willing to reveal that you have done those things on camera, in front of millions of adoring fans? Tiffany Haddish and Tika Sumpter’s response: Yup! They’re ready!

The Root’s Video Producer Felice Leon and I went to Harlem to ask black voters what issues they want to see addressed. We found people who were more than ready to get to the polls but, as important as these upcoming elections are, we still found some folks were not motivated to vote.

Jordan Casteel wants to change the staleness of the high art world and how it views black men. The Denver artist has been painting portraits of people in her community before she was an art student at Yale and it evolved as she made a home in Harlem, N.Y.

Terence Nance is the lead visionary behind HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness and was recently named as the director for Space Jam 2. His first film, 2012's An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, won rave reviews at Sundance and put Nance on the map in the indie film world. The film even impressed Jay-Z, who became an…

At only 17 years old, Tania Speaks turned her pain into a huge profit after classmates bullied her for her bushy eyebrows. She is now the founder of the successful beauty product, Brow Boost—as well as the recent men’s grooming line, Beard Boost.

Joe Morton is widely known for his Emmy-winning role as Elijah Pope on ABC’s Scandal, but don’t get it twisted, Morton has been Forrest Gump’ing through a lot of iconic shows and films including What’s Happening, Sanford & Son, Terminator 2 and even M.A.S.H. “Papa Pope” walks us through some of his roles over the…

On Friday afternoon, after a day of deliberation, a Cook County jury found Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014. The high-profile shooting commanded national attention after video footage of the shooting—which the city delayed…

Comedians Lil’ Rel Howery and Tiffany Haddish are besties. While both of their stars are shining brighter with each new role and opportunity, things were always this golden for the both of them.

Spades or dominoes? Drums or flats? Jheri curl or S-Curl?

Bill Cosby, in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era, was sentenced to three to 10 years for one count of sexual assault on Tuesday. Cosby will serve his sentence in a state prison.

If there was a signature color at the 2018 Emmys, it was pink. Yara Shahidi (in Gucci), nominee Tracee Ellis Ross (in Valentino Haute Couture), and award winner Thandie Newton (in Brandon Maxwell) all showed up in rosy hues, as did several other celebs, who wore shades ranging from blush to bold pink.

Four things you don’t really need to know before watching this (but I’m going to tell you anyway)

At The Root, we don’t employ a psychologist or a psychiatrist (although Michael Harriot serves as the senior wypipoloigist on staff), so we are unable to assess the president’s mental health. Therefore no one on The Root staff can currently say whether or not the president suffers from some narcissist personality…

Amanda Seales is a lot of things: comedian, intellect, actress, opinionated Instagram commentator, among many other labels. But did you know she’s also the host of one of the best game shows the world has ever seen?

First, there were the tiki torch marches by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va.; then there was the Roy Moore, Sean Hannity-inspired coffee smashing protest, and now there is the “cut the Nike symbol off socks you already own” protest of 2018.

A Texas jury has decided that former Balch Springs, Texas officer Roy Oliver will spend the next 15 years of his life in prison for the murder of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards.

In a surprising win, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum earned the Democratic nomination in Florida’s primary race for governor Tuesday night, putting him in a position to become the state’s first black governor if he wins in November, the Washington Post reports.

BlacKkKlansman director Spike Lee sees a lot of similarities between the Ku Klux Klan and today’s administration, specifically around fear-mongering and coded rhetoric (see: the origins of Trump’s popular slogan- “America first.”)

MTV, I’mma let you finish—but Aretha Franklin was one of the greatest singers of all time, so I would expect the Video Music Awards to go above and beyond to pay her proper respect.