race & politics
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Nigga Neurosis, Explained
A month or so ago, the homie Rebecca Carroll reached out to me about contributing to a podcast essay series she created for WNYC. Titled Dear President: What You Need to Know About Race, the series also features Robert Jones (Son of Baldwin), Kirsten West Savali (TheRoot.com), Theo Shaw (Jena 6) and Samaria Rice (Mother of…
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Why 13% Of Black Men Voted For Donald Trump, Explained
According to exit poll numbers, 13% of the Black men who voted in the Presidential election voted for Donald Trump. Yeah, I know. This even surpasses the number of Black male voters who went for both McCain and Romney. I know that too. Can you explain how that happened? Why would 13% of Black men…
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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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Once Again, Black Women Did The Work White Women Refused To
There will be plenty of time in the coming days, weeks and months to do a full post-mortem on what just happened last night — exactly how and why every projection was wildly wrong, what could have been done differently, whether or not Mike Pence is a sentient Death Eater, et cetera. There are a…
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I Will Never Underestimate White People's Need To Preserve Whiteness Again
There is an understandable inclination to believe that by voting for and ultimately electing Donald Trump, White people (particularly working class White people) voted against their own self-interests. After all, this is a man who became a billionaire by swindling and defrauding and sometimes just outright not paying people exactly like them, and there’s no…
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Yeah, I Voted For Hillary Clinton Today, But #ImWithHer Forever
In the 11 months since my daughter, The Feminist Octopus, decided to arrive on Earth, she’s served as my ultimate trump card. Any difficult decision I’ve wrestled with — career-based or socially; economically or spiritually — comes back to her and her future. How will it impact her life today, tomorrow, and (most importantly) 10 years…
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Election Day 2016 Open Thread
We’ve reached the end of the line. It’s D-Day. Spit your game, talk your shit.