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Apparently Donald Trump’s Feelings Will Be Hurt if the Obamas Get a Royal-Wedding Invite and He Doesn’t. Please, 2018, Make This Happen!
So we can talk about what Meghan Markle’s engagement to Prince Harry “means”—and what “means” even means in this context—and imperialism and colorism and capitalism and neoliberalism and whether the Obamas being invited to the royal wedding is something to be celebrated and the racist brooch-rocking Darth Abigails currently in the royal family, and we…
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10 Struggles That Only Men With Big-Ass Beards Will Understand
Hello. My name is Damon Young, and I have a big-ass beard. It’s not an obnoxiously big-ass beard. I’m not the bougie-nigga Rick Rubin. But it’s big enough that it has its own personality, likes and dislikes (for instance, my beard looooooves Broad City). It is also fortunate enough to exist during a big-ass beard…
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LaVar Ball Is the Wrong Guy With the Right Ideas
A sizable part of LaVar Ball’s appeal for people he happens to appeal to is that he’s a walking, talking distillation of many of the half-baked but smart-sounding arguments about sports that often occur in barbershops, during happy hours, over barbecue pits, at spades tables and on the bleachers of midget-league football games. It’s in…
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Playing the National Anthem Before Sporting Events Is a Stupid and Silly Tradition and We Need to Stop Doing It
My nephew is the starting point guard for his high school basketball team. I try to make as many games as I can, which means I’ve spent (and will be spending) many Tuesday and Friday evenings this winter in various high school gymnasiums throughout Western Pennsylvania. I was in one of these gyms last night…
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Men Who Were Also ‘About to Buy NBC, Tho,’ Ranked
10. New York Knick Charles Smith, who’s still the only ball player in recorded history to get his shit punched under the rim the exact-same way four consecutive times. 9. That Kappa at the last cookout you went to who got picked last for co-ed kickball and got mad and broke all of the candy…
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Cornel West Seems to Believe Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Writing From the Sidelines, but Sidelines Don’t Exist for Black People
I’m writing this from the third floor of the brownstone in Pittsburgh’s Northside that my wife and I have been renting for a year and a half now. I’m in a bedroom that has been repurposed as both my office and my de facto closet. My daughter’s bedroom is on the same floor, and the…
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Each Time I Watch This Video of 16-Year-Old Ayrton Little Learning He Was Accepted Into Harvard, a Ghost or Something Near Me Cuts an Onion
Earlier today, I came across a video on my Facebook feed of 16-year-old Ayrton Little learning that he was accepted into Harvard University. In the video, several of his classmates are in the room with him, and they all erupt with joy when he receives some sort of confirmation on the computer he’s browsing. The…
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Black Thought’s Beautiful Mind
I was part of a conversation last week with two writers of color in which the concept of genius in art was discussed—specifically, how white men have anointed themselves both the sole possessors and the arbiters of it and how reluctant they can be to consider works created by people of color to be worthy…
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Why Don’t You Know How to Play Spades? An Important Question
Over the next couple of weeks, families all over the country will congregate to observe and celebrate whichever holiday those particular families observe and celebrate. Some of these families will be black—including mine—and in these particular holiday celebrations, there may be many unique things present, including (but not limited to) … Dining room tables with…
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New Orleans Saints Season Ticket Holder Sues Team Because of Anthem Kneeling, Then Drowns in Tub of Salty White Tears
A man named “Lee Dragna” filed a lawsuit against the New Orleans Saints in which he claimed that the protests during the national anthem upset him and his family so much that he was unable to enjoy the games. I am not completely convinced that this lawsuit is a real thing—or even that “Lee Dragna”…
