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The Root, one of the most popular spaces for Black culture on the Internet, found itself the target of a hashtag making light of its headlines. The hashtag, #TheRootArticles, is still going strong after hitting Twitter timelines over the weekend and even got a response from the outlet via one of its writers.
How the hashtag came to be is something of a mystery, but Twitter user @Craig’s_VCR was credited with making it popular, although he gave that honor to a number of other Twitter users. To sum it up, there is a contingent of Black Twitter that feels The Root is pushing an agenda that attacks straight Black men, the “hoteps,” and the generally ashy to use the terms to describe those on that squad (no shots).
The hashtag takes articles using The Root’s headline bent but twisting them to suggest the so-called agenda. In response, writer Michael Harriot slammed the chorus of critics but did so in a way to show they’re not studying their haters at all.
“This past weekend, a group of heroes united to form f*ckboy Voltron on social media and created the hashtag #TheRootArticles to fight our agenda of destroying the straight black man,” Harriot wrote.
Harriot went on to say that Black men were driving the hashtag home and while men definitely dominated the output, some Black women chimed in with their own hit backs.
We’ve collected some of the tweets below and on the following pages. Let us know what you think of this debate in the comments.
https://twitter.com/cogexm/status/995110272842059776
https://twitter.com/Constance_Shea/status/996151870023401472
https://twitter.com/TheWisdomBody/status/996099438883024896
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