video
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Watch: Jordan Peele Loves How Black People Watch Horror at the Movie Theater
Jordan Peele’s Get Out took home major awards at this year’s African-American Film Critics Association Awards, winning best director, best picture, best actor (a nod to Daniel Kaluuya, who played the main character, Chris) and best screenplay. During his acceptance speech, Peele had jokes about the way black people watch horror movies in the theater.…
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Watch: As Flint, Mich., Literacy Rates Plummet, Is Poisoned Water to Blame?
New data shows that less than 11 percent of Flint, Mich., children are proficient in reading. According to the Michigan Department of Education, reading rates have significantly dropped since the start of the Flint water crisis in 2014, from 41.6 percent to 10.7 percent. Could the lead-contaminated water be to blame? Watch above.
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Episode 3: ‘I Know Hard Work’: Memphis Sanitation Strikers on Childhoods Sharecropping in the Jim Crow South
Sharecropping in the United States was slavery by another name, and many of the 1968 Memphis, Tenn., sanitation strikers were well acquainted with it. After the Reconstruction Era ended in 1877, Jim Crow laws intended to maintain white supremacy through violence, intimidation and segregation, spread across the Southern states—and some Northern states, too (pdf). Even…
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Watch: Rashida Jones Says #MeToo and Time’s Up Must Be Inclusive
In a panel discussion moderated by Ava DuVernay at the Makers Conference on Monday, women in Hollywood discussed the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up initiative. The panel consisted of women in the film and TV industries and the Time’s Up initiative: director Melina Matsoukas, attorney Nina Shaw, writer and comedian Jill Soloway, agent Maha Dakhil,…
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Watch: Who Will Kneel for You? Artists Speak Out
The Super Bowl may have been noticeably devoid of on-field protests, but the multiple “head injuries” within the game itself were a not-so-subtle reminder of the controversies that led to the low ratings of the 2017 NFL season. In this video, Danny Glover, Anna Deavere Smith and a chorus of other artists recite “To Kneel”…
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Black Unemployment Is Back Up. Way Up. What Will Trump Have to Say Now?
Well, that was fast. The black unemployment rate in the United States, which fell to a record low in December, something President Donald Trump gleefully took credit for, has made its biggest jump upward since 2012. Now run tell that. According to the Labor Department’s monthly employment report, released Friday, joblessness among black Americans rose…
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Watch: Did Donald Trump Really Bring Down Black Unemployment?
For someone who likes to call out “fake news,” 45 is the king of misinformation. In the past few weeks, Donald Trump has repeatedly tried to take credit for the steadily declining black unemployment rate. But is it true? Watch above.
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Episode 2: The Tragic Deaths of Robert Walker and Echol Cole Sparked 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike
Robert Walker, 30, and Echol Cole, 36, woke up on Thursday, Feb. 1, 1968, and went to work for the Memphis (Tenn.) Sanitation Department. They left their families for a long day of collecting garbage with the full expectation of returning home to them. Instead, as their shifts were about to end and heavy rain…
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Watch: The Root Editor-in-Chief Danielle Belton’s Got 10 on It
The Root just turned 10! To celebrate, some of our nearest and dearest will sit in the hot seat to answer 10 burning questions. First up is our very own editor-in-chief, Danielle Belton. Watch above.
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Watch: Is Racism Turning Teens Into Smokers?
Racism is bad for you. Surprise! Honestly, most research that surfaces about the harmful effects of racism leaves the majority of us unimpressed and unsurprised. It’s been proved that experiencing racism is tied to stress, heart disease, pregnancy complications and probably everything else you can think of that can lead to death or a lower…