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Mother of Young Woman Killed at Tennessee Waffle House Accepts Her College Diploma
The mother of a young woman senselessly gunned down at a Tennessee Waffle House in April accepted her daughter’s posthumous college diploma this weekend. Shirl Baker, the mother of 21-year-old DeEbony Groves, walked across the stage Saturday evening to receive her daughter’s degree in social work from Belmont University. “Almost two weeks ago, our community…
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3 Times American Slaves Did Rebel
There’s been a lot of talk about slavery lately, and sadly, some of it is wildly misinformed. For the record, enslaved black folks didn’t choose to be shackled, torn from their families, then bought and sold in the U.S., only to be tortured by slave owners. And some of them fought back.At minimum, there were…
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Trump Just Thanked Kanye for Doubling His Poll Numbers; Here’s Why This Has Become Dangerous
To many, Kanye West is merely an egomaniacal rapper. To others, he’s a powerful black force with T’Challa-like abilities to rally those who worship at the altar of Yeezus. I believe the former, but it sounds like President Donald Trump believes the latter, since he just thanked “Make America great again” Ye for doubling his…
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Judge of Characters: We’re Not Laughing at Slavery, We’re Laughing at Kanye
Kanye West’s name has been on most of our lips throughout the last week as he slides from digital rant to in-person rant and back again. Even when you want nothing more than to avoid all that Kanye’s been spewing, it’s tough to do. Perhaps his most damaging statement is simplifying 400 years of slavery…
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Meek Mill Says Because of His Probation, He Would Have Gone to Prison if Philly Starbucks Had Called Police on Him
Meek Mill isn’t a free man. Despite his joyous appearances at Philadelphia 76ers games or his return to Kevin Hart’s Instagram, the Philly native is still navigating the terms of his probation ahead of a hearing in June. “I’m nervous every day being on probation,” he said at a press conference Thursday. During the conference,…
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Philosophizing With Nick Cannon
Nick Cannon may like to make people laugh, but standing up for what you believe in isn’t always funny. “When an artist or individual or an anti-authoritarian as myself chooses to say what he believes and speaks his mind, people get nervous,” Cannon told The Root. The “Fuck Him” singer has been known to speak…
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White Producers Threw W. Kamau Bell to the KKK on Day 1, so He Got Rid of Them
W. Kamau Bell’s United Shades of America became infamous for its first episode, “The New KKK,” in 2016. In the series opener, Bell attends a cross-burning ceremony and interviews hooded Klansmen. At the end of the cross burning, Bell poignantly states, “I actually feel lucky. Unlike most of the black people in this country who…
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Kanye, Words Matter!
On Wednesday morning I appeared on CNN with John Berman and Poppy Harlow to discuss Kanye West’s comments about how slavery was a “choice” for black people. My take is that Kanye’s remarks were wholly irresponsible, lacked good judgment and came from an uneducated stance. With his broad reach and appeal, Kanye should be more…
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Stop Calling Us ‘Females’ for Real, Though
The past few weeks have been a shit show. Between Kanye’s “free thoughts” and news about Nas, Bill Cosby and R. Kelly, we’ve been inundated with anti-black, misogynistic and overall trash takes disguised as “unpopular opinions.” Men and women alike are defending people like Kelly and Cosby for their decades’ worth of sexual abuse allegations.…
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Free Thought Is for White People
I am free. I am a black man. Perhaps the biggest challenge a father raising a black child in America will ever face is conveying the difference between those two things. It is hard to explain the oxymoron of making sure a person believes that the world provides them with limitless opportunity while ensuring that…