black community
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Disagreement Is Fine. But Unpopular Opinions Do Come With Consequences
There’s this odd confusion that exists among people with “unpopular opinions.” They believe that people aren’t allowing them the freedom of their thoughts and that if others disagree with them, vehemently, then they are being persecuted for exercising their right to free speech. This is, of course, not true. For one, being provocative, while possibly…
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Bill Cosby’s Legacy Is Now Shit. Throw That Baby Out With the Bathwater
You know what conversation is confusing? This one: Bill Cosby has now been convicted of doing exactly what he said he did—please go read the deposition again—and there is a legion of people who want to make sure that we still acknowledge that Cosby has done a lot for the black community. I don’t know…
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Oh, Nooow Y’all Want to Boycott Starbucks? I Been Trying to Get Y’all to Do That for 15 Years!
Have you ever been right for the wrong reason? I’m sure you have. We all have. Well, when it comes to Starbucks, I’ve been right for both the right and wrong reasons. Starbucks has always represented gentrification to me (yep) and has been representative of the Man stepping on the necks of black folks near…
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If You Could Be in a Black Stage Play, What Would You Call It?
If you are related to black people, there’s a better-than-100 percent chance that somebody in your family has gone to at least one chitlin circuit play (but more likely several). My parents have been to multiple Tyler Perry plays, something I’m sad to say that I’ve never had the pleasure (?) of doing myself. The…
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There’s a Time and Place for Professional Pseudonyms, and It’s When I’m Securing the Bag
My name is not Panama Jackson. I mean, it’s my name, but it’s not my name, ya know. It’s a pseudonym—a nickname created through some happenstance while I was trying to write and stay gainfully employed. Because of what I do for a living, Panama Jackson has significantly overtaken my real name in terms of…
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Common Has Secured the Bag and Now He Just Makes Dad Rap
Common is killing the game; or, in today’s parlance, Common has secured the bag. I’m almost 40 years old, which means that I grew up in the ’80s and ’90s listening to Common (née Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr.) when he was rapping about watermelons and communism and asking to borrow a dollar. I still own…
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Am I the Only Person Under 60 Who Still Carries Around a Crown Royal Bag for My Valuables?
In the black American community, there are a few cultural items revered historically and across regions of blackness without question: the Afro pick with the black fist on it, plastic coverings on furniture, pictures in Grandma’s house of white Jesus, and the Crown Royal bag. Yes, the Crown Royal bag. When you buy a fifth…
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Pre-K Teacher Leigh Bishop Matching Her Student’s Hairstyle Has Me All Up in My Dad Feels
The story of Leigh Bishop (recent #WCW at The Glow Up), the pre-K teacher at Lakeview Elementary School in Sugar Land, Texas, who told her student August that she loved her hairstyle and then showed up the next day wearing it, actually brought a tear to my eye. But just one. OK, both. Maybe I…
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Sooo I Don’t Know Shit About Black Panther. I Can’t Wait to See It With Y’all, Though
I think it’s time that I come clean about something that’s been eating at my soul food for the past, I don’t know, six months. Dear Black Community, I do not know jack shit about Black Panther, Wakanda, Makes Me Wanna T’Challa or pretty much anything related to the entire story being turned into a…