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3 Lessons in Blackness at the Black Solidarity Conference
This past weekend, Damon Young and I had the pleasure of speaking at Yale University as part of its 21st annual Black Solidarity Conference. Since it was a conference dedicated to issues surrounding blackness, I’m going to share a few things that stood out to me: 1. HBCUs and PWIs, HBCUs vs. PWIs, everybody hates…
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An Ode to SWV
I grew up in Frankfurt, Germany, as a military brat in the mid-’80s and early ’90s. Those of us who grew up overseas had one channel to watch on television: AFN, which stands for the Armed Forces Network. We all watched the same cartoons, the same soap operas (General Hospital was followed by Guiding Light),…
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Beyoncé Went Full Black, Apparently. I’m Here for It
Based on the events of the past weekend related to Beyoncé, it’s entirely possible that she’s trolling America, all of it. Beyoncé dropped the video for the song “Formation” on Saturday, converting my Facebook into a de facto Beyoncé fan site. “Formation” is an unapologetically black- and Southern-ass song and video. The words to the…
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How to Get Over Writer’s Block
I’m a writer. As a writer, one of my least favorite things on this planet is Comic Sans. Coming in a close second is writer’s block. If you are a writer, there’s a better than 100,000,000 percent chance that at some point you’ve experienced a case of writer’s block. What is writer’s block? I’m sure…
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The Hip-Hop Dalmatians Are the Greatest Rap Group That Never Was
As far as late-’90s and early-2000s black cinema goes, Brown Sugar is probably my favorite movie. The Wood is as close a second as you can get, much in the way that Reasonable Doubt is my favorite Jay Z album but I can listen to The Blueprint all day every day. In fact, The Wood…
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How Come Nobody Cares About En Vogue Anymore?
I could talk about music incessantly. I’m like Steve Hightower (of Steve Hightower and the High Tops fame): Music is my one true love. Or, at the very least, my first love. I used to steal tapes. I remember my first CD purchase. I’ve had full-fledged arguments with friends that nearly turned into brawls over…
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Thanks, Obama
While perusing Facebook a few days ago, I came across this ad for President Barack Hussein Obama’s last State of the Union address this coming Tuesday: This is it—President Obama's final #SOTU. Say you'll be watching: https://t.co/W8niWpEVnX pic.twitter.com/NmLWydsePO — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) January 4, 2016 Typically, I couldn’t care less about these speeches; it’s an…
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This Dad Has Seen How Brutal the Internet Battles Over Motherhood Can Get
As of this writing, I have two children and a third baking in the proverbial oven. My children are the most beautiful, brilliant, exciting and excitable people on the planet. I love to hug and kiss them, and they seem to love it as well. My son? Making him laugh is often a reason I’m…
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To Tattoo or Not to Tattoo
I don’t have any tattoos. It’s not for lack of want, either. For the longest, I’ve wanted to get a sleeve. I feel like I would look cool with my entire left arm tatted up. I have ideas of tats that I want and where I’d place them. I’m a tat dreamer. There’s the “inshallah”…
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Why I’m Not Letting My Son Play Football
The movie Concussion, starring Will Smith and his odd African accent, opens on Christmas Day this year. It’s a movie about a forensic pathologist, Dr. Bennet Omalu, who became at odds with the NFL over his research and study into chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which can be the end result of one too many hits…
