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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…
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5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Talk About Your Ex on the Internet Like Eric Benét and David Justice Did
Earlier this week, a middle-aged black man named “David” and another middle-aged black man named “Eric” bonded over the memory of an ex they share. According to them, this ex’s public persona was much different from her private one, and since they were both painted as “the person in the wrong” when each of their…
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Is ‘Nappy’ an Insult? … Hint: No, It’s Not
Last week The Root published “The Nappyheaded Black Male Revolution Is On”—a piece articulating my reasons for deciding to grow my hair out, and also tying this decision to a trend I’ve observed over the last couple of years, in which young black men seem to be experimenting with and embracing new hairstyles. The piece…
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The Nappyheaded Black Male Revolution Is On
Named after Rakim from Eric B. & Rakim, the Rakim cut was a box with a part going from the front of the head to the back. It was a very popular hairstyle in 1989, a fact I remember quite vividly because I had one, too. By sixth grade, I’d cut the Rakim off and just had…
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The 2nd-Dumbest Reason to Hate NBA Basketball Has Everything to Do With the NFL
At the moment, the New England Patriots, partially fueled by a gaggle of sociopathic self-righteousness after being “vindicated” in Deflategate, are undefeated and would seem to be the early favorites to win the Super Bowl. This information should come as no surprise to anyone who’s even a casual fan of the NFL. Because that exact-same thing…
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10 More Things That Are Worse Than Slavery, According to Ben Carson
While on Meet the Press Sunday, unintentionally ironic former neurosurgeon Ben Carson compared abortion to slavery, stating, “During slavery, a lot of the slave owners thought that they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave. Anything that they chose to do. And what if the abolitionists had said, ‘I don’t believe…
