pop culture
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I’m Team Issa Over Team Lawrence, Because Issa Reminds Me Of Me
In the first scene of the first episode of Insecure, Issa Rae makes the mission statement of her show clear when she responds to a student who says her dad told her nobody is checking for bitter Black women. “Tell your dad Black women aren’t bitter, they’re just tired of being expected to settle for…
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On Insecure's Revolutionary (And Real) Depictions Of Young Black People Having Sex
Last night’s Insecure finale ended with both a bang (Lawrence finally deciding to take Tasha the bank teller up on her, um, offer) and a whimper (Issa’s couch cry in Molly’s arms); culminating a season unlike any other I’d seen on network or cable TV. Of course, we’ve seen shows where friendships between Black women served…
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Introducing #AcrossTheFence: A National Conversation Between Family (Based On August Wilson's Fences)
The screen adaptation of August Wilson’s iconic Fences — starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis — comes to movie theaters on Christmas Day, 2016. This is a historic moment, the first major August production on the big screen. The play (and the movie) of course, centers on a father, a mother, a son, and their extended…
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As A Dad, Queen Sugar Hit Me Right In The Feels
I love Queen Sugar. Let’s start there. I’d take Queen Sugar on a $200 date, juju on the beat with it, and cook greens, beans, tomatoes and potatoes just so it would have something to take home in case it got hungry. For those who aren’t familiar, the Ava DuVernay-helmed show is the story of a Louisiana agricultural family—the Bordelons—dealing with…
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Def Comedy Jam Returns With All Def Comedy
As a kid growing up in the 80s and 90s, my parents had a random but effective rubric for what I was and wasn’t allowed to watch with them. Ultra-violent and ultra-adult movies about the mafia and other crime sagas were cool. Movies with explicit sexual content or language that would frequently refer to explicit…
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This Election Failed My Daughter
My daughter was born in January of 2009, a week after Barack Obama was sworn into the office of the Presidency. I couldn’t have been happier. Her original due date was January 18, but I wanted SO badly for her to be born after he was inaugurated so that she would be born into a…
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Male Birth Control Trials Halted Because Of Side Effects. Good.
So it looks like we’re getting closer to a marketplace available effective male-specific birth control method. The latest trials of a male contraceptive have proven to be 96 percent effective in trials. This could be revolutionary as, right now, women bare the lion’s share of the birth control responsibility from costs to having to take…