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Dear Companies That Produce and Sell Shit, Would It Kill You to Add Some People of Color to Your Packaging?
On a recent trip to buy some gifts for my own and other children for Christmas, I decided to venture to the beads-and-bracelets-and-shit aisle of a Toys R Us near my home. This is my go-to aisle when I need a random gift for my daughter or her classmates when we’re on the way to…
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The 10 Blackest Moments of 2017, Ranked
2017 has been a motherfucker of a year. Despite this fact, blackness has flourished. We’ve seen a resurgence of pride and excitement in blackness that is reminiscent of the Black Power movement of the ’60s. From #BlackGirlMagic to #BlackBoyJoy, Dead Mike from mythical rap group CB4 is outchea looking like a damn prophet as so…
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5 Inevitable Ways You Will Get Stuck for Your Paper Once You Have Kids
Being a parent is awesome. It teaches you about yourself. For example, you get to learn your true “patience” threshold and if you need to work on it in order to make it through the next 18 years (short answer: Yes, you do). You get to go see blockbuster movies that some people without kids…
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The Golden Child Is One of the Most Awesome Terrible Movies Ever
Because God or whomever you pray to clearly has a sense of humor, The Golden Child comes on network television and cable way more often than it should. The movie, released in 1986, is the story of Chandler Jarrell, played by a super-bankable ’80s Eddie Murphy, who is dubbed the “Chosen One” to save a…
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Why Black Thought Doesn’t Rank As High on Rap GOAT Lists as He Should
Last week, Tariq Trotter, aka Black Thought, frontman for the Roots, tried to break the rapper-nets with a 10-minute freestyle with Funkmaster Flex over the Mobb Deep “Burn” instrumental that even had people who think Kevin Gates is the best rapper of all time impressed. Even calling his performance impressive undersells it. For my money,…
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10 Reasons Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Buying the Carolina Panthers Needs to Be a Thing
So it turns out that the NFL’s Carolina Panthers franchise is about to be up for sale. The current owner, Jerry Richardson, is going to put the club up for sale after reports of several payouts being made to victims of sexual misconduct came out via Sports Illustrated. 2017 is definitely the year of getting…
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Revisiting Dr. Dre’s The Chronic 25 Years Later
There are a few albums in my life that have held pivotal roles: De La Soul’s De La Soul Is Dead, A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders, N.W.A.’s EFIL4ZAGGIN and Outkast’s Aquemini, to name a few. Another of those pivotal albums, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, was released on Dec. 15, 1992, exactly 25 years ago…
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Why Does the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Keep Snubbing LL Cool J?
Perhaps there are bigger fish to fry. Racism is still alive; they just be concealing it, after all. Or more likely, I’m dazed by the fact that Alabama did the unthinkable, entirely thanks to black people, so I’m feeling greedy. Yo no sé. But the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recently announced its 2018…
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Watch: VSB and The Root Conduct ‘Operation Find Black Santa’
If you’re a parent of color, Christmastime may present a conundrum of sorts. You want to engage with Christmas traditions, such as Santa Claus, but you’d love nothing more than for Santa to look like your family. Esteem Gang Gang Gang. We at VSB feel the same way. We heard a story, passed down from…
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My Significant Other Made Up an Elaborate Backstory to Steal My Shirt
The following words were approved by my household. My life is a fun one. I’ve got awesome children, and my home is full of love and often the smell of the holidays and gingerbread houses because my woman has somehow decided that boiling (and forgetting to turn off the eye until it’s too late—I spend…
