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6 Tips on Approaching Women (Without Scaring Them)
According to certain people on the Internets, men just don’t know how to approach women anymore. Because feminism apparently gives these men mixed messages. Or maybe it’s the fear of street-harassment whistles. Or Planned Parenthood. Or Beyoncé’s “7/11” video. Either way, (some) men are apparently confused as hell, because “Hey, it’s probably not the best…
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Exactly How Fired Would Jack Kelly Have Been If He Wrote About The Holocaust Instead Of Slavery?
Jack Kelly writes a weekly column at the Post-Gazette. His views are conservative and contribute to the diversity of opinion featured in our newspaper. We have liberal columnists, too, who, like Jack, are provocative and can stir up reaction by readers. Obviously, readers need to keep in mind that our signed columnists, liberal or conservative,…
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Why I Dislike Facebook’s New Dislike Button
Has a news story ever made you extremely happy, at first, and then extremely salty by the time you finished reading it? Like putting a spoonful of lime sherbet in your mouth, only to realize it’s actually wasabi? I’m asking to make sure I’m not alone, because that happened to me twice last week. First…
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Nancy Lee Grahn’s White Tears, Explained
So, I’ve heard this term “white tears” used before. What exactly does it mean? As I’ve written before, “white tears” is a phrase 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 person.…
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10 Things President Obama Has Not Been Accused of Being
It’s a day during a week during a year, which means we were overdue for another fun round of “President Obama is a Muslim,” the game that is basically the conservatives’ version of spades. I actually wouldn’t even be surprised if some of them had regular “President Obama is a Muslim” game nights and potlucks,…
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An Argument For Why We Need Five PTOWB (Paid Time Off While Black) Days A Year
If you’re Black and in America, there’s somewhere between a 100 percent and a 100 percent chance that the following has happened to you at least once. And somewhere between a 95 percent and 99 percent chance that it’s happened at least once this week. You’re minding your Black-ass business, living your Black-ass life. You…
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Why PTOWB (Paid Time Off While Black) Needs to Happen
If you’re black and in America, there’s somewhere between a 100 percent and a 100 percent chance that the following has happened to you at least once. And somewhere between a 95 percent and 99 percent chance that it’s happened at least once this week. You’re minding your black-ass business, living your black-ass life. You…
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Jack Kelly Of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Is A Fucking Disgrace, And (Probably) Needs To Get Fired
A few months ago, I published a response to a strikingly tone deaf column from Eric Heyl of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. In it, I stated that “Neighboring districts shy away from Wilkinsburg’s forbidden fruit” (Heyl’s column) was literally the worst major newspaper column I’d ever read. I (obviously) did not mince words then, but I also held back…
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7 Things Black Folks Haven’t Been Arrested for … Yet
What makes the choke-slam, arrest and street detainment of James Blake so remarkably telling is the fact that he is, well, remarkably unprofilable. He’s an underwear-model-ad-handsome and wholesome Harvard grad who’s a retired star in the American sport with perhaps the most affluent demographic. He was also standing in front of an upscale hotel in…
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Aisha Harris Is A Writing Ass Chick We Love
I don’t know exactly how long I’ve been a fan of Aisha Harris. (Three years, maybe?) But I do know that the 27-year-old staff writer at Slate has been a personal favorite long enough for me to confidently state that she is the shit. (Also, I can confidently state that she is not Aisha Tyler.) With…
