The Root

By Jessica Washington -- Black candidates celebrated historic victories in elections across the country Tuesday (Nov. 7), including a few notable firsts. In Philadelphia, Cherelle Parker became the first woman and first Black woman to win the mayoral election. In Rhode Island, Gabe Amo became the first...

by Keith Reed -- Like most Gen-Xers, I know exactly where I was when the news broke that Tupac Shakur had expired at Las Vegas’ University Medical Center. To say the news ‘broke’ is an exaggeration. As a college student, I was volunteering in a...

by Candace McDuffie -- On Tuesday (Sept. 26), Kerry Washington released her new memoir, “Thicker Than Water.” The “Scandal” and “Little Fires Everywhere” star opens up about her personal life in the book and shares revelations that has shocked fans. Washington, 47, is a proud Bronx...

by Shanelle Genai -- Picture it: Sicily 1922 Picture it: South Central Los Angeles, 2023. Rapper Ice Cube and conservative talking head Tucker Carlson taking a midday drive through the hood as they wax poetic about their ideologies and opinions—chief among them Cube’s anti-COVID-19 vaccine stance. If it sounds too bad to be...

by Jessica Washington --  The Supreme Court has been pumping out a steady stream of life-altering decisions on everything from LGBTQ+ rights to affirmative action. But there’s one case that didn’t make it onto their docket that’s worth a deeper look. On Friday, the Supreme...

by Candace McDuffie -- A Reuters investigation published Tuesday revealed that numerous U.S. leaders – those who are influential in policies related to race – have ancestral ties to slavery. More specifically, it named the politicians who directly descend from slaveholders. The piece discovered that a fifth of...

The U.S. Supreme Court is, again, living in the Land of Make-Believe. On Thursday, six of the Court’s nine justices issued a ruling that bars colleges and universities from using race as a factor in admissions. However, this decision locks in advantages enjoyed by people with wealth...

by Angela Johnson -- Last week, we told you about a Miami-area parent whose complaints about Amanda Gorman’s poem, “The Hill We Climb,” caused its removal from a local elementary school. Now, that parent is admitting to what the rest of us already knew to be...

by Keith Reid -- As Democrats celebrated Sen. Raphael Warnock’s win over Herschel Walker in the U.S. Senate runoff race last night, my phone lit up with a text that perfectly summarized the outcome: “It took $500 million to have Raphael Warnock win GA by less than half...

by Shanelle Genai -- On Monday, Academy Award-winning actor Will Smith gave his first TV interview since the infamous Oscars slap during an appearance on "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah." While there, in promotion of his new film, "Emancipation," which is set to hit theaters Dec....