Haha! The only way that nobody will be offended by what you say, is if you say nothing. Especially on the internet. That said, if somebody reads the word "coal" in a comment and instantly thinks of black people, chances are they're the racist.😄

As for The Root, they've got over 600k followrs on Twitter and over a million on Facebook. "Mainstream" is subjective I guess, but they're definitely influential.