culture
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I Can Live Without All This ‘Hashtag Activism’
I’ve enjoyed stand-up comedy since well before I was old enough to be listening to anyone who wasn’t Sinbad. But only recently did a routine actually give me goose bumps for the first time. It was from the coda of Anthony Jeselnik’s Thoughts and Prayers, currently on Netflix: This is who I make fun of…
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Dr. Frances Cress Welsing Saved My Life
I feel like I’ve lost my best friend of 10 years. A friend who knew everything about me, didn’t judge or indict me, just assisted me and helped me absolve my guilt. Dr. Frances Cress Welsing was a statuesque, beautiful, striking woman, always so composed. Dignified. And ready to listen to whatever problems I presented…
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Literary Women Pay Homage to Zora Neale Hurston on Her 125th Birthday
She was born in Notasulga, Ala., but she didn’t like the way her story started, so she rewrote it and claimed Eatonville, Fla., as her birthplace instead. She wasn’t too partial to 1891, the year her mother delivered her, so she remixed it, and for the rest of her life, she took liberties with the…
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Black Women Should Be Like Ayesha Curry? How Many Black Men Are Willing to Be Like Steph?
It’s been roughly a month since Ayesha Curry—wife of NBA superstar Stephen Curry and mother of NBA post-game press conference superstar Riley Curry—published the tweet that would launch a million more tweets, a thousand more think pieces and a hundred more “clever” memes incorporating “thoughts” and “thots.” The dust and debris left by this dustup…
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In Praise of Jaleesa Vinson, the Unsung Hero of A Different World
In an effort to distract myself from the bad news of recent days—the fate of New York-area sports teams, the latest Kanye track, my most recent bank statement—I’ve kicked off some binge-watching of A Different World. A cursory Google search of the series will generate hundreds of thousands of words written about A Different World…
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No, Tyler Perry, People Don’t Dislike Your Work Because Your Characters Are Fat
I feel about Tyler Perry the way Spike Lee did before they both called a truce on bashing each other in the media, which is to say, with rare exception, I’m no fan of Perry’s work. I respect that many good people are Perry fans. Case in point: Perry has four shows on OWN, including…
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5 Common Facebook Villains and How to Defeat Them
The holidays are finally over! You’ve had to endure nearly two months of interacting with “family” that fondly remember changing your diapers when you were 22 months old, while simultaneously fondly forgetting that $500 you lent them when you were 22 years old. Oh, and there are also those longtime hometown “friends” that you duck…
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Don’t Blame Your Hysterectomy if He’s Not Happy
I am a 44-year-old married mother of three. A year ago, my doctor advised me to have a hysterectomy. My research and a second opinion proved him correct. I had the surgery but kept my cervix and ovaries. Since then, my husband complains that sex is not the same. He hints that I am not…
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How #YallQaeda Is Nothing but a Big Bucket of Highly Armed White Tears, Explained
Who is this #YallQaeda you’re talking about? On Saturday, a group of anti-government militiamen—armed to the teeth and ready to fight to the death—took over the federal Malheur Wildlife Refuge after a protest in Harney County, Ore. They were apparently upset because two ranchers—Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son, Steven—had been convicted of arson. The…
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Your Confusing Relationship With Cliff Huxtable Doesn’t Justify Victim-Blaming
When I was 11 years old, I sat on a witness stand and was interrogated for the crimes of my father. I had reported his sexual abuse to my mom when I was an innocent 10-year-old, woefully unaware of how the turn of events would play out. I understood nothing when his guilty sentence was…