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The Privilege of Being Remembered Like a Dead White Man
Did you know that houses owned by black Americans are undervalued by an average of $48,000 per home? Combined, this makes for 156 billion dollars in losses—a discrepancy called a “segregation tax.” I didn’t know this either, until a recent study by the Brookings Institute articulated exactly how pervasive this brand of bias is, and…
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My Little Girl Turns Three Today. Here’s a Story About My Dad, Her ‘Peepaw’
In the summer of 1990, each day the weather and his schedule permitted, my dad and I would leave our rowhouse on Mellon Street and walk four blocks up Hays Street to the basketball courts lurking behind what was then Peabody High School. Once there, we’d park at one of the “good” hoops — either…
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Things That Are Racist, Ranked
50. Gravity. 49. Cold weather. 48. Stop signs. 47. Chicken-fried steak. 46. Astrology. 45. Male pattern baldness. 44. Kawhi Leonard’s laugh. 43. Gout. 42. Daylight saving time. 41. Internet browsing and chat histories. 40. White people, generally. 39. Colonoscopy prep. 38. Wet socks. 37. The apartment buildings that are erected in urban spaces after they’ve…
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10 Awkward AF Things That Soliciting Blurbs for Your Book Also Feels Like
The writing of blurbs—the succinct quotes of praise from an author’s peers that exist on a book’s front and back covers—has become a “nuclear arms race” that can drain blurb writers of their most valuable asset (time), writes Marie Myung-Ok Lee yesterday in an extensive feature on this quirk of the publishing industry. (A piece…
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I Think I'm Done Pretending to Enjoy Cold Weather
“Oh,” I’d say, occasionally and irritatingly, to the people who’d lament the approaching cold, “but what about the sweaters?” Of course, I don’t wear sweaters. I own sweaters—many luxurious sweaters, and some even from The Gap. But I don’t wear them anymore because I don’t like how they look on my body. Instead, I wear…
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Throw Away Your Romaine Lettuce and Then Put the Rest of These Trash Foods in the Trash, Too
Jello Green bean casserole Turkey lunch meat Dates Boiled hot dogs Cottage cheese Coconut water Tiramisu Candy corn Easter Peeps Iceberg lettuce All puddings Mountain Dew Beets Turkey bacon Chicken nuggets Gin Pumpkin-flavored anything Hard-boiled eggs Caviar Prunes Hard pretzels Marriott Rewards Continental Breakfast sausage gravy Muffins Brownies Relish Unsweetened iced tea Coffee Sauerkraut Beer-battered…
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Racist White Woman Sues Bank of New York Mellon; Claims She Was Fired Because She's a…Racist White Woman
Perhaps there should be a section at Giant Eagle or Whole Foods (or any other supermarket with a bakery) that’s solely devoted to racist pastries. Racist donuts, racist cookies, racist pies, racist cannoli—a one-stop shop for all of your bigoted baked goods. You could even have racist bakers who specialize in flakey racist sweet treats.…
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Like Many Black Women, Kim Porter Was Under a Doctor's Care and Still Died. That's Terrifying
To prepare for the expected birth of our second child next month, my wife and I are enrolled in one of those new age birthing classes where the bulk of each two-hour-long session is devoted to language and connotation. (“Don’t say birthing canal. Say birthing stream, because streams are calming.”) I am bored out of…
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Dear White People: Please Get the Fuck Out of Michelle Obama’s Pockets
There is, I believe, a conversation that could be had about an unease we (black people) might have with the Obamas’ post-White House relationship with money. And not just with money as a tangible object, but in surrounding themselves with it and being ensconced in markers and signifiers of it. The word “Obama” has crossed…
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What Happens When You Visit The Root’s Office With Exposed (and Moderately Ashy) Ankles
I flew to New York City last Thursday for The Root 100 gala and left yesterday evening after a marketing meeting at Harper Collins for my book. In the time between, I 1) hosted a happy hour with Panama at my hotel, 2) went to karaoke after said happy hour and sang very on-brand renditions…
