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How Being Petty Won 2015
On July 21 at 11:46 p.m., Meek Mill, upset that Drake didn’t help him promote his recent album, took to Twitter to announce to his millions of followers that Drake doesn’t write his own rhymes. Then, 11 minutes later, he tweeted that he wouldn’t have even allowed Drake to be on his album if he…
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What Would R. Kelly Have to Do to Make His Supporters Turn Against Him?
Last week R. Kelly was invited onstage to perform at the Soul Train Awards—an event that was as close to a Memorial Day BBQ at a black family’s house as you’ll ever see on live TV. The only thing missing was an uncle in tube socks and flip-flops burning his shins while deep-frying a turkey.…
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The Difference Between ‘white people’ and ‘White People’
Last week I read a piece you wrote called “The Friendly, Caring, and Kind Crossing Guard on My Block Hates Muslims.” It talked about your reaction to this usually nice, white-lady crossing guard making an offhandedly bigoted remark about Muslims to you. Anyway, I’m bringing it up because of something you said in it: “Sometimes you…
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Kobe Bryant Is the Best Kobe Bryant of All Time
Sunday afternoon, while much of the country was either watching NFL games or fantasizing about rib eyes and milk shakes while completing day 3 of their annual post-Thanksgiving Day green-juice cleanse, Kobe Bryant announced that this NBA season would be his last. The news was both completely shocking and completely foreseeable. Because while it made…
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Laquan McDonald And The Slow Death Of Black Joy
This is how it happens. This is how it fucks you up. It’s Tuesday. It’s a little after 7pm EST. On most Tuesdays, at this time, I’m either walking my dog or feeding my dog before walking him. After walking the dog, I usually go to the gym. And then, after the gym, I pick…
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What to Do at Thanksgiving Dinner When Someone Says Something Offensive
It was Thanksgiving at my parents’ house, maybe 20 years ago. All the usuals were there: my parents and I, my sister and her three kids, my (maternal) grandmother, and my great-aunt Gladys. Dinner was over, and everyone had left the dining room to watch TV in the living room. Well, everyone except Aunt Gladys…
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What Mizzou and the Cam Newton Letter Really Exposed About White America’s Relationship With the Black Athlete
It is apropos that the Charlotte Observer would publish Rosemary Plorin’s hysterical open letter to Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton a week after a threat of a boycott by the black football players at the University of Missouri led university President Tim Wolfe to step down. Because both instances—while separate in scale and seriousness—articulate how…
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The 10 Blackest Things President Obama Has Done While in Office
When President Barack Obama found a way to incorporate “folks wanna pop off” at an international press conference Monday to address people with misinformation, it was just the latest confirmation of something many of us have suspected for some time: that the president, fully secured in his second and last term in office, is not…
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The Term ‘White Tears’ Is Funny, but What It Often Leads to Isn’t
There aren’t many recently invented terms in our cultural lexicon that I enjoy using more than I enjoy using “white tears”—the phrase created to describe what happens when certain types of white people either complain about a nonexistent racial injustice or are upset by a nonwhite person’s success at the supposed expense of a white…
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Why the NFL Probably Won’t Fix Its Greg Hardy Problem … or Any Problem
Last week, Deadspin released images of the bruises Nicole Holder received when assaulted by then-boyfriend Greg Hardy, a star defensive end for the Dallas Cowboys, who, at the time of the assault, played for the Carolina Panthers. The images were included in an extensive and harrowing piece from Diana Moskovitz on the assault. And even…
