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Consent, Explained, for People Who Still Don’t Get It
Who is Rev. Run? And who is Tyrese? Rev. Run is a hip-hop legend who’s made a second career out of disseminating homespun, succinct and alliterative aphorisms that manage to sound 17 times wittier and wiser than they actually are. He’s basically the working-class man’s Steve Harvey. And Tyrese? Well, Tyrese is a man with an…
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106-Year-Old Virginia McLaurin Dancing With The Obamas Is The Blackest Thing That Ever Happened This Week
Twitter screenshot via @ObamaWhiteHouse Virginia McLaurin is 106 years old. Which means she was 11 years old during the Tulsa race riots; an act of terrorism that burned the Greenwood District — the wealthiest Black community in the country (aka “Black Wall Street”) — to the ground. 39 people were “officially” killed then. And “officially” is in…
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Shit Bougie Black People Love: 31. Unnecessary Hashtags
Bougie Black People are always doing things. In college, while the rest of their classmates were doing things like “listening to Sisqo” and “fucking on twin beds,” Bougie Black People spent the bulk of their time “writing spoken word poetry they’d never perform” and “vacillating between ‘hating White people’ and ‘dating White people.” As they transitioned…
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Kendrick Lamar Is Not Who Kanye West Could Have Been
It’s Wednesday, two days removed from the Grammy Awards. Yet much of America—black America, specifically—is still recovering from the hangover induced by Kendrick Lamar’s sublime performance Monday night. His explosive mashup of “The Blacker the Berry,” “Alright” and a yet-to-be-titled new track referencing Trayvon Martin was equal parts brilliant, bold, ebullient, boiling and unapologetically black.…
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Kendrick Confirms It: February 2016 Is The Blackest Black History Month Ever
February is the month designated to be Black History Month. It is also the shortest month of the calendar year. This happens to be a coincidence — today’s Black History Month is the evolution of Carter G. Woodson’s “Negro History Week,” created in 1926 and intended to be recognized the second week of February — but I…
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The Worst People To Walk In On You Having Sex, Ranked
Last week, I had a conversation with someone about whether it would be worse for your parents or your children to catch you having sex. She thought the answer (parents) was obvious. I agreed, but thought it depended largely on age-related variables. Your parents walking in on you when you’re grown is not the same…
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"The Life Of Pablo," Reviewed, By Someone Who Cannot Be Objective About Kanye West
So, let’s get three things out of the way first: 1. The Life of Pablo was made available to stream on Tidal early Sunday morning. It, apparently, will not officially be for sale for another week. By the time you read this, it will be (at the earliest) Monday afternoon. Between then and now, I’ve listened…
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Dear Black America: Be Prepared to Be Bernie’s and Hillary’s Token Black Friend for the Next 5 Months
It was the first semester of my freshman year in college. I met “David” while at one of the bars near campus. The people I went there with that night were all too young to drink, but David (who was a junior) made a point to buy shots for each of us. My friends and…
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The Agony Of Being A Kanye West Fan In 2016
“You hear about Kanye?” You see the message flash across your phone, and your heart jumps. And then stops. Then jumps. Then stops. Your heart becomes Zach Lavine. Your mind races. “What did he do this time?” you think. You hope perhaps he said something inane but innocuous. Maybe something about dolphins. Yes, that’s it.…
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The 10 Blackest Things Michelle Obama Has Ever Done
At the time of this writing, “I Miss Barack Obama” is one of Twitter’s top trending topics; a response to a viral piece from David Brooks of the New York Times, where he opines on the president’s many virtues (most notably, the fact that President Obama is, above all else, a good and decent person).…
