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Mother's Day At Restland-Lincoln Memorial Cemetery
“This house is not our home anymore. It’s just an empty building.” I’m writing this while at the cemetery. My dad, my sister, and three of my nieces came out here to visit my mom today. It was a beautiful day. Warm and sunny, but not oppressively hot or humid, it was as beautiful of…
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The 10 Worst Drinks Black People Ever Thought It Was Cool To Drink
10. Cristal Because you will never convince me there’s any discernible difference between Cristal and Andre. 9. Malt liquor (any) I know it’s not politically correct to victim blame, but if you willingly sleep with someone who drinks malt liquor and you wake up with your TV, toothbrushes, and four steps off of your staircase…
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Marriage Is Awesome And Amazing And All That Great Shit. It's Also Hard As Fuck.
Last week, The Wife Person and I had a “we’re not arguing, but we’re not completely good” four day stretch that began while binge watching Game of Thrones and ended in the parking lot of a Market District Giant Eagle. We celebrated the end of our mini cold war with gelato shakes and pizza, and listened to Radiohead’s…
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Shit Bougie Black People Love: 28. Full Beards
Everyone knows that if you were to happen to encounter a random pack of Bougie Black People in the wild — perhaps at a gallery crawl or a Delta Sigma Theta potluck — and you wanted to make a good first impression, the best way of doing so would be to find a woman (any woman,…
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VSB Call For Submissions And Shit
You may have noticed that VSB underwent some changes over the weekend. Some tweaks have been made to the layout, which should help the site be more responsive and cohesive. And, most importantly, we switched servers, which, well, HOLY SHIT IT IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO EXPRESS HOW HAPPY I AM ABOUT THIS! No…
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Bad-Ass, Kick-Ass Black Female Lawyers Are Running 2015
Three thoughts going through my head while watching and reading about Maryland State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s press conference this morning: 1. Add me to the line of cynics genuinely surprised that the entire book seems to be getting thrown at these officers. Not only was one of them charged with murder — which, while (somewhat)…
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An Uncomfortable Convo Between A Black Person And A White Coworker
Setting: Some office, somewhere, with office shit and shit everywhere. Background: After spending much of the previous evening watching and reading about Baltimore, random Black guy (“Deron”) goes to work. Since Deron is a Pittsburgher, all of his coworkers are White. While at work, Deron actually wants to…work. Or talk about work. Or perhaps talk…
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Respectability Politics Are No Solution; They Are A Surrender
At times like these, when the uncomfortable behavior of (mostly) Black people is broadcast to a (mostly) White audience and becomes a national discussion point, a particular type of Black person tends to emerge. Actually, “emerge” might not even be the best word, because it implies that this person rose from somewhere, when in reality…
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Baltimore Is Not Ferguson; Freddie Gray Is Not Michael Brown
It is not difficult to witness what’s happening in Baltimore, Maryland right now and immediately think of Ferguson, Missouri. Or New York City. Or Cleveland, Ohio. Or Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Or perhaps even Los Angeles in 1992. The parallels are obvious; heartbreakingly, evisceratingly, surreally obvious. So obvious are these similarities that it does not take much…
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How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Divine Nine
I attended a wedding last Friday. It was a great event. Good food, a live band, a great DJ, and it featured a bride/groom first dance that, if someone uploads it to YouTube, has a legitimate chance of going viral. And, since both The Wife Person and I knew both the bride and the groom, there…
