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Being Bipolar Means Always Having to Say, ‘Um…What’s Your Name Again?’
Charlie Sheen, who at one time was definitely a terrible person who also happens to struggle with mental illness and addiction, once said (and I paraphrase) that most people wouldn’t last very long in his head. While during the very manic time when he said these “tiger blood”-related things, Sheen was, again, a chaotic, awful…
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I Won an Award, but Who's the Real MVP?
Last week, on Monday night, was the 19th annual Women’s eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century gala at Club 101 in Manhattan, N.Y. There was some revelry, but there was a lot more talk about how we can advance our cause as women, and ultimately, not just save ourselves, but save the world. As…
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Being ‘The Black Snob’ Was a Joke, Until the Day I Actually Became One
“I don’t know how you ended up so bougie when we came out of the same family,” said my baby sister, one day over the phone. I was taken aback. Me? Bougie? And yet, I was. Painfully so. And had been, at this point, for several years. But I was still offended. At the time…
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Ridin' Solo: Cory Booker May Be 'Boo'd Up' But It's Not Too Late to Appeal to Us Single Folk
When Cory Booker announced he was running for president, a lot of fodder was made about his status. His marital status. As in, he is single and America hasn’t had a bachelor president since Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president, who married while in office. Booker, to his credit, has tried to appeal to…
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Eyelash Extensions Are a Gorgeous, Frivolous, Expensive Habit That I Can't Keep Up
The Lord blessed me with a lot of thick, curly hair that can go from Teenie Weenie Afro short, to all the way to the middle of my back long. But what I did not get blessed with was much in the ways of eyelashes. Sure, they’re “there” and they’re thick, but they’re very short…
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How I Finally Learned to (Sort of) Stop Hitting Myself
As I often tell people, what got me to finally get my life together (of sorts) was not me. I wish I was enough, but alas, for me, as I’ve demonstrated time and time again, I am not. The first time I pulled it together out of the darkness of bipolar disorder was for my…
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The Ms. Foundation for Women Goes for a Welcome Laugh in Aggressively Unfunny Times
A long time ago (2016), in a land similar to our own but very different (pre-Trump America), comedy was about the absurd. Presidents were fun to make fun of because they were confined by the stature of the office. It was fun to imagine how they would be if they were a more extreme version…
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So, What's Marijuana Got to Do With It?
In a search affidavit that we apparently know all the contents of, we now know that the police apparently found some marijuana—about .37 ounces—in Botham Jean’s apartment after he was shot by Dallas police officer Amber Guyger. My response: So what? Marijuana, a substance that is legal, either recreationally or medically, in nine states, and…
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From Get-Out-the-Vote to Respectability Politics, Aretha Franklin's Homegoing Was a Dramatic, Political Affair
DETROIT—A stage is a stage, even when it’s a church and the performance is a marathon of a funeral. Clocking in at more than nine hours long for those who showed up at 8:30 a.m. Friday morning to view her body, perhaps Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul and daughter of Detroit, wouldn’t have had…
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Dear Mariah and Shades on Luke Cage … I Love You, but 'OMG Please Stop!'
Unlike everyone else in the world, I didn’t watch all of season 2 of Luke Cage until this weekend. So that meant I didn’t get to be thoroughly and properly freaked out by this season’s “It” couple, Mariah Stokes Dillard (Alfre Woodard) and Hernan “Shades” Alvarez (Theo Rossi), until June 30, a full week after…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
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Being Bipolar Means Always Having to Say, ‘Um…What’s Your Name Again?’
Charlie Sheen, who at one time was definitely a terrible person who also happens to struggle with mental illness and addiction, once said (and I paraphrase) that most people wouldn’t last very long in his head. While during the very manic time when he said these “tiger blood”-related things, Sheen was, again, a chaotic, awful…
-
Being ‘The Black Snob’ Was a Joke, Until the Day I Actually Became One
“I don’t know how you ended up so bougie when we came out of the same family,” said my baby sister, one day over the phone. I was taken aback. Me? Bougie? And yet, I was. Painfully so. And had been, at this point, for several years. But I was still offended. At the time…
-
Ridin' Solo: Cory Booker May Be 'Boo'd Up' But It's Not Too Late to Appeal to Us Single Folk
When Cory Booker announced he was running for president, a lot of fodder was made about his status. His marital status. As in, he is single and America hasn’t had a bachelor president since Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president, who married while in office. Booker, to his credit, has tried to appeal to…
-
Eyelash Extensions Are a Gorgeous, Frivolous, Expensive Habit That I Can't Keep Up
The Lord blessed me with a lot of thick, curly hair that can go from Teenie Weenie Afro short, to all the way to the middle of my back long. But what I did not get blessed with was much in the ways of eyelashes. Sure, they’re “there” and they’re thick, but they’re very short…
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So, What's Marijuana Got to Do With It?
In a search affidavit that we apparently know all the contents of, we now know that the police apparently found some marijuana—about .37 ounces—in Botham Jean’s apartment after he was shot by Dallas police officer Amber Guyger. My response: So what? Marijuana, a substance that is legal, either recreationally or medically, in nine states, and…
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Dear Mariah and Shades on Luke Cage … I Love You, but 'OMG Please Stop!'
Unlike everyone else in the world, I didn’t watch all of season 2 of Luke Cage until this weekend. So that meant I didn’t get to be thoroughly and properly freaked out by this season’s “It” couple, Mariah Stokes Dillard (Alfre Woodard) and Hernan “Shades” Alvarez (Theo Rossi), until June 30, a full week after…
