• More to Love? 5 Partners Sound Off on Juicy Pregnancy Sex

    More to Love? 5 Partners Sound Off on Juicy Pregnancy Sex

    This week, after scrolling through my social media feeds following reports that Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams’ fiance Dennis McKinley blamed his ongoing infidelity on lack of interest in pregnancy sex, the world seemed to be confessing how gross they felt having sex during pregnancy. With black women already fighting for our lives…

    By

  • It’s Time to Fully Welcome LGBTQ Members Into the AME Church

    It’s Time to Fully Welcome LGBTQ Members Into the AME Church

    A hand grasped the supplicator’s shoulder and pulled him upright in the middle of his “Our Father.” Absalom Jones, a regular parishioner at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, along with Richard Allen, prayed at their usual space in the lower pews at St. George’s, but this particular Sunday was different. The leaders at…

    By

  • New Kentucky Governor Restores Voting Rights to More Than 100,000 Formerly Incarcerated

    New Kentucky Governor Restores Voting Rights to More Than 100,000 Formerly Incarcerated

    Fresh into his new job as governor of Kentucky, Democrat Andy Beshear signed an executive order Thursday to restore voting rights to more than 140,000 formerly incarcerated Kentuckians—a move that inordinately affects voting rights for African Americans in the Bluegrass State. As the Washington Post reports: On its face, Mr. Beshear’s executive order is race-blind.…

    By

  • Revolution, Reparations, Revelry: The Root’s Black (AF) Gift Guide 2019

    Revolution, Reparations, Revelry: The Root’s Black (AF) Gift Guide 2019

    The theme from last year’s Black AF Gift Guide was self-care; in 2017, it was about being woke. This year, we’re talking “Revolution, Reparations, and Revelry,” because we like alliteration, and because these three go together like greens, yams, and ham (turkey ham, if you don’t swill swine. If you don’t eat meat, please pass).…

    By

  • Black Friday: A Special Rite of Passage With My Black Family

    Black Friday: A Special Rite of Passage With My Black Family

    I’m not always the fondest of turkey, but I always look forward to shopping on Black Friday. Although the day after Thanksgiving is often reduced to “capitalist consumption for the un-woke masses,” it has become a favorite family tradition of time spent with two women I love, my mom and aunt. It always includes a…

    By

  • Black Bodies Will Not Be Your Platform, Jameela Jamil

    Black Bodies Will Not Be Your Platform, Jameela Jamil

    As a black woman, I’m still learning to love my big tits, thick thighs, and heavy hips—but what I do know about my body is that it isn’t the literal or figurative platform for anyone’s agenda but my own. Yesterday morning, I woke up to some essential conversation on Black Twitter about eating disorders and…

    By

  • Never Forget: 5 Years After His Death, Family, Activists Continue to Build Tamir Rice’s Legacy

    Never Forget: 5 Years After His Death, Family, Activists Continue to Build Tamir Rice’s Legacy

    The tragedy of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, the young black boy with the cherubic face, will never leave me. We see a lot of extrajudicial abuse and murder here at The Root, but this one is especially long-abiding, given his age, how Tamir and his sister were treated after he was shot, and, of course, the…

    By

  • Not Getting My Hair Wet Was Keeping My Sex Life Dry

    Not Getting My Hair Wet Was Keeping My Sex Life Dry

    After years of wearing wigs and quick weaves, I recently decided to give my hair a break and try protective styles—and the transition sexually liberated me in ways I never expected. For years, I’d navigated anxiety and insecurities around body image and my sexual performance, but I can also say I’ve spent countless sexual encounters…

    By

  • Eric Garner’s Family Pushes for Anti-Chokehold Bill After Screening of American Trial: The Eric Garner Story

    Eric Garner’s Family Pushes for Anti-Chokehold Bill After Screening of American Trial: The Eric Garner Story

    The controversial hybrid documentary/drama American Trial: The Eric Garner Story premiered in mid-October at the 57th New York Film Festival, providing insight into the judicial process, police brutality and race relations in America. The experimental film features a mock trial that was filmed live to represent a fictionalized depiction of what might have happened if…

    By

  • Taraji P. Henson Says Cookie Lyon’s Therapy Storyline Is Long Overdue: She’s Needed Help Since ‘She First Got Out of Prison’

    The once and forever Dynasty of our time, Fox’s Empire has, with mixed results, explored mental illness since its inception—first with Andre Lyon’s bipolar diagnosis and then with Lucious Lyon’s mother’s psychosis. In the sixth and smartly written final season, Cookie Lyon, matriarch, fashion maven and all-around bad mama jamma, begins her own attempt at…

    By

Angela Helm Avatar