theory & essay
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Snoop Dogg Is Still Gangbanging So Hopefully We Won't Have To Go Through That. I Guess.
Snoop Dogg/Snoop Doggy Dogg/Snoop Lion fan here. Snoop Dogg recently released an album. It is called Neva Left. There’s no reason that Snoop should release an album in 2017 where the opening lines of the album are “I gangbang to the fullest, a lot of niggas talk about it, but they really don’t do it,…
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Am I A Blerd? Are You A Blerd? What Makes One A Blerd?
Back in the days when I was young – I’m not a kid anymore – I think I lived pretty squarely in nerd territory. And because I’m Black, we’ll refer to it as blerd, though I will mostly use the term nerd. Urkel was my muse. We’re talking early 90s and well into high school.…
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Ok, I'll Admit It: I Kinda Sorta Want A Romper Now
After 18 months of fatherhood, I can pretty much say that it’s been what I expected it to be so far. The Feminist Octobus has been fun, funny, needy, autonomous, precocious, stinky, brilliant, and prone to frequent bouts of baby-ass shit, and the experience of watching her grow has been equal parts thrilling and fulfilling…
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Where Does Dru Hill Fit In The Pantheon of Great Male R&B Groups?
Sometimes, I feel like Dru Hill gets lost in the sauce. When having discussions about great R&B male groups from the 90s (and 2000s), Jodeci is typically the gold-standard, and while Boyz II Men is pretty much a snoozefest in retrospect, their accomplishments cannot be ignored. New Edition is, well, New Edition despite being of…
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The Christian Way To Respond To The Murder Of Terence Crutcher Isn't Forgiveness. It's Fury.
Back in September, Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man, was walking to his car with his hands up when he was shot by Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby. This incident was captured on video by both a police dash cam and an aerial video from a police helicopter wherein Shelby’s husband, a fellow officer who…
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On Mother's Day, And Remembering My Daughter (Who'd Be 12 Years Old Today)
Sometimes it’s easy to forget it ever happened, to go about life and never have it surface in the forefront of my mind. Even when I am reminded by my naked reflection, the now barely-there line of a scar etched below my pelvis, a slight kiss from a scalpel in yesteryears past. The small Bs that were…
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Money Isn't Everything … Unless You Don't Have It, And Then Yeah, It's Everything
In February of 2012, a month after I began working for EBONY.com, they asked if I wanted to go to Milwaukee to witness and write on the unveiling of a Black bikers exhibit at the Harley-Davidson museum. Although I had zero interest in motorcycles, I accepted. It was an all expense paid trip to a…
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The Rent is Too Damn High in Washington, DC. How the Hell are People Affording It?
A few years ago, the Washington Post dropped a story that still makes the rounds on the internets even today about just how much it costs to live comfortably in the District of Columbia. Their suggestion: Roughly $108,000 per year. This was their household “happiness” estimate. According to that same article, DC has the third…
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Whiteness Matters More Than Jesus To White Evangelicals
Two weeks into Donald Trump’s presidency, I had to turn off the news alerts on my phone. Each time I received a news alert, I would get anxious because I did not know what the hell 45 was going to do next. He had already tried to ban folks from coming into the country, and…
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There's No Such Thing As "Good Police"
In the reality-adjacent Baltimore-centered ecosystem of The Wire, “good police” stood as the single highest honor a character could receive. It was reserved for those who possessed the inherent qualities making someone a naturally gifted police officer and also performed those duties with integrity and verve. You had to be born good police, but you also needed…