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Itâs Been a Week; Can We Finally Admit That Everybody Won at the White House Correspondentsâ Dinner?
Sometimes you have to wait a week to see if something really takes hold. Did I actually like Infinity War or was I just shocked and emotional? Is Ben Simmons really the new LeBron James or just Jason Kidd with less baggage? Did I really like that new Travis Scott track or was I just…
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Diamond and Silk Broke About a Million Laws Thursday in Congress, and They Might Need a Lawyer
Do you know how hard it is, in a week of Kanye and Candace and Ben and Bill, to still win the Most Embarrassing Negro of the Week Award? That takes a special kind of dedication. A commitment to such a grotesque caricature of blackness that even Michael Rapaport would let time expire before picking…
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Universal Fan âConâ? A Conversation With Black Girl Nerdsâ Jamie Broadnax on the Biggest Black Convention That Wasnât
Remember Fyre Festival, that âhigh endâ event in 2017 that was supposed to be Girls Gone Wild mixed with Coachella but ended up being a millennial version of Naked and Afraid, with hundreds of people spending thousands of dollars to end up trapped on an island eating bologna sandwiches? Remember how, even though the real…
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Here Are the House Races Where Sinclair Broadcastâs Propaganda Could Have the Biggest Impact
Sinclair Broadcastâs pythonlike grip on local news stations across America became a national issue two weeks ago when our sister site Deadspin posted a video story showing dozens of anchors at Sinclair stations forced to recite Donald Trumpâs talking points about âfake news.â On top of making trusted anchors across America look as if theyâre…
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From Starbucks to Hashtags: We Need to Talk About Why White Americans Call the Police on Black People
âDonât you fucking walk away! Donât fucking walk away from me!â the 20-something-year-old woman screamed as she followed after the 20-something-year-old guy who just got out of her car. It was 2 a.m.; only the streetlights were on, but the guy was clearly done with his girlfriend (probably ex-girlfriend at this point) and was just…
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Deuces! Paul Ryan Calls It Quits, and Republicans Just Lost the House
There are times in your professional life when you look around, see whatâs going on in your company or office, recognize that youâve done your best, made some lasting positive change and peacefully decide itâs time to go. Then thereâs House Speaker Paul Ryan. Heâs the guy who looked around his office, saw people screaming…
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Meet the White Nationalist Most Likely to Take Over for Paul Ryan Now That Ryan Is Retiring
On Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) announced that he would not be seeking re-election and would retire at the end of his term in 2019. This has huge national implications, of course: The GOP will have lost a major fundraiser and party leader, Republicans and Democrats see Ryanâs announcement as another sign that Democrats…
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Eric B. Is President, but He Wants Miranda From Sex and the City to Be New Yorkâs Next Governor
There are a few things that I have come to expect when going to an old-school hip-hop concert. Lots and lots of weed, drunk gentrifiers unironically wearing throwback Kangols and Adidas tracksuits, and most importantlyâno matter what time is posted on the ticketâthe show starting almost two hours late. These three experiences pretty much encapsulate…
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Why Canât Getting a Gun Be Like Getting a Driverâs License? A Conversation With NRA TVâs Colion Noir
In the 24 hours it takes for this column to be written, edited, copy edited and uploaded to The Root and to end up on your phone, about 318 people across the United States will have been shot (in fact, the shooting at YouTube headquarters happened between writing my first and second drafts of this…
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Ready Player One and the Unbearable Whiteness of â80s Nostalgia
Steven Spielberg is the stunt king of Hollywood; he might be the only American director who could create Ready Player One, a film that is literally an homage to Spielbergâs own work in the 1980s. Ready Player One is all about the adventure of a working-class Midwestern white teen boy who saves the world, the…