video
-
Make It Count: Stacey Abrams on Why the 2020 Census and Fighting Voter Suppression Go Hand in Hand for Black Americans
“When we are not counted, we do not count. And when we do not count, we do not improve our communities.” —Stacey Abrams text In 2018, Stacey Abrams ran for governor of Georgia as the first black woman to be nominated by a major party. Despite gaining more votes than any Democrat ever during a…
-
How Black Flint Residents Are Fighting the Water Crisis Despite Government Inaction
“They want Flint to die.” —Liberty Bell text Walking around Flint, Mich., the epicenter of one of America’s most prominent self-inflicted environmental tragedies, residents feel that its water crisis was purposefully allowed to happen. State officials, from the former GOP governor on down, are letting the mostly black city suffer through lead-laced water as a…
-
Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr. and Harriet Cast Talk Their Visions of Freedom
Let there be no ambiguity: Harriet is a film about freedom. Despite the many critiques of the film, I think it’s fair to say that you might leave the Kasi Lemmons-directed movie feeling “good.” I did. Perhaps it’s because the film intentionally steers away from the slave narrative, despite centering a woman who was once…
-
Why'd They Kill Tyrone? Unpacking Blackness in Horror Films
Black folks don’t do horror—right?! Wrong. The correct answer: It’s complicated. Blackness and horror are two concepts that until recently, didn’t really seem to harmoniously coexist. After all, who wants to pay to see their play-cousins either be axed first—to flutter around as the magical negro or sacrifice their life so the white savior may…
-
Here's How the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is Erasing Black Latinxs
When Dominican-American poet Melania-Luisa Marte began writing a poem about what it means to be Afro-Latinx, a simple Google search led her to realize that Afro-Latinx/a/o was not in some of the most commonly used dictionaries. For her, the blatant disregard for the term itself reaffirmed the feelings of erasure that black people of Latin…
-
Extreme Heat, Flooding and Public Health Issues: How Climate Change Is an Existential Threat to Black People
We should all be pretty familiar with the term “climate change” by now. But knowing buzzwords isn’t the same as understanding how the phenomenon affects black people on a global scale in more severe ways than other groups. The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Political instability in sub-Saharan Africa. Heatwaves in Chicago. What do these…
-
Sophia Chang and The Root's Danielle Belton on Race, Hip-Hop, Friendship and Being The Baddest Bitch in the Room
We laugh a lot. A lot. And we’re very good friends. And one of us wrote a book (psst … it’s called The Baddest Bitch in the Room and it’s available on Audible right now). But probably the most fascinating thing about being The Root’s editor-in-chief, Danielle Belton, and former music industry veteran-turned-author Sophia Chang—and…
-
Black and Indigenous Millennials Are Canceling Latinidad. Here’s Why
Latin America been black and indigenous. After all, indigenous people are by definition native to a particular place. So indigenous people in Latin America—the region in the Western hemisphere South of the U.S., where romance languages are spoken—yeah, they’ve been there. Now onto the black part. For those who are unaware, during the slave trade,…