the root tv
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Watch: Dee Rees Says It’s Not Enough to Just Be a Black Woman; You Must Be Excellent
Dee Rees is out here making movies that stick to your ribs. From Pariah to Bessie to her latest, Mudbound, which was released on Netflix Friday. It’s because of these amazing films that Rees was recognized on The Root 100 as an honoree, holding down the 42nd spot. Full Disclosure: Netflix flew The Root to…
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Judge of Characters: Trump Helps Black People Now?
To hear the authorities tell it, UCLA basketball players LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley all decided that stealing from a store while their team was in China was the best idea ever, and they were subsequently caught, arrested and faced 10 years in a Chinese prison. But then the impossible happened! Your president,…
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Watch: Don’t Tell Michael Smith to ‘Stick to Sports’
“The people who rail against shows like ours that embrace the intersection of sport and society, what they’re really saying is, ‘It’s too black for me.’ The difference is you have a black man and a black woman being unapologetically black, and that turns some people off.” -—Michael Smith, co-host of ESPN’s SC6 The Root…
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Watch: Angela Rye Makes Power Moves at The Root 100 Gala
“I was being Taylor Swift and you just Kanye’d me,” Angela Rye said, scolding her The Root 100 gala co-host, Extra’s A.J. Calloway. Only someone as strong-willed as Rye could use “Kanye” as a verb. But what else do you do when you’re having your shining moment and A.J. Calloway comes up, attempting to take that…
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Watch: Gabrielle Union: ‘Hollywood Is Very Segregated’
I’ll take “What We Already Know” for $1,000, Alex (as in Trebek, as in Jeopardy). It’s no secret that Hollywood carries a (tiki) torch for racism and that when movies feature a predominantly black cast, they’re considered “black movies,” and budgets and expectations are lower. Superstar actress Gabrielle Union stopped by The Root to talk…
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Judge of Characters: We’re Just Out Here Making America Great … for Once
The 2016 election took the wind out of most of our sails because it led us into a presidency that’s just so … orange. But not all hope is lost. It’s been a year since y’all elected Toupee Fiasco as president, but this year’s elections proved that maybe—just maybe—Americans know how to vote for change.…
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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…
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Judge of Characters: It’s Time to Trust Black Women
The stories of black women are often met with closed ears. And if the ears happen to be open, oftentimes we’re regarded as liars. From Rep. Frederica Wilson to Lupita Nyong’o and every black woman in between, our lived experiences are challenged in a way that says there’s no way anything we say could or…
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Watch: 3 Athletes Who Risked It All Before Colin Kaepernick
When now-former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee to bring attention to injustice, he may have lost his career simply by speaking out. We’ve seen this happen before: Muhammad Ali gave up almost four of his prime fighting years to stand against the Vietnam War, and Tommie Smith and John Carlos were…