theory & essay
-
Yes, Black People Can Be Privileged. Because Blackness Is Fucking Awesome.
Earlier this week, our conversation about Light Girls segued to a conversation about colorism, which then segued to a conversation about the concept of privilege. Specifically, how certain members of the Black community are privileged more than others. Predictably, some scoffed at the notion that a Black person living in America in 2015 could be privileged…
-
Florida Evans: Hero Or The Biggest Hater Ever? A Good Times Treatise
Despite originally airing before I was alive, Good Times was a cable TV staple of my childhood. I tuned in regularly to ponder: Will James Evans Sr. get the job? Will the Evans’ get thrown out? Did shape ups just not exist in the ‘70s? I still watch, and Facebook lets me know that my…
-
I Just Turned 30, And, Well…How Does 30 Work?
Forty-one days ago, I turned thirty. I didn’t make a big deal of it. ‘Twas a lovely day, though. I had a quiet, masterfully seasoned dinner with Mister Man. Got me some birthday sex. Bought myself a serious person’s winter coat (that I hardly wear). The sky didn’t crash on my head. I’m still not…
-
A Dark Girl On Light Girls
“When did you learn to be okay with being a brown skinned woman?” This question appeared in my Ask.fm mailbox and kind of took me aback, mostly because it’s premised on the idea that at some point I wasn’t okay with it. Or that perhaps hating your skintone is part of what you go through…
-
Acknowledging Dark Skinned Black Male Privilege
The word “privilege” is so often used as a catch-all to describe preferential racial treatment that it loses its meaning. When something is used to describe everything, it tends not to describe anything. That said, although darker-skinned Black males don’t possess the type of privilege most commonly associated with certain social, political, and economic advantages…
-
Why I Don't Talk About Race With My White Family
I came across this very interesting piece on Gawker the other day about a Black man (he’s mixed, but ya know, he’s Black) talking about a discussion he got into about race with his white cousin who was pretty much of the mindset that racism was more or less a figment of Black imagination and…
-
Was The HBCU Experience Necessary For My Success? Maybe. Maybe Not.
I have a friend who I consider to be uber-successful. I have very successful friends. Every one of my immediate closest friends from college has at least one advanced degree. A few have Ph.D.s. Some own their own businesses. Some of us are married. Some of us are parents. Point is, everybody, on paper and…
-
Sorority Sisters Was Canceled Because It's A Shitty, Stupid, And Boring-Ass Show…And That's It
The “trainwreck” metaphor is used so often when discussing the appeal of certain reality television shows that it’s become cliche. But, being cliche doesn’t make it untrue. There aren’t many other ways to encapsulate how something so seemingly unwatchable can become watchable. At their best, The Real Basketball Wives of Hip-Hop manages to pull this off. They…
-
Kevin Garnett Does Not Want To Actually Fight. Because No One Wants To Actually Fight.
During the Rockets/Nets game last night, professional octogenarian Kevin Garnett and Dwight Howard got into an altercation. Both men pushed each other, Garnett headbutted and threw the ball at Howard, and Howard hit Garnett with a forearm. Now, what happened next depends on your interpretation of what happened next. And your interpretation of what happened next…
-
This Time, Let's Not Stop Talking About Boko Haram
One of my duties for EBONY is to decide which of the day’s news stories will be published on the site. There’s only space for 10, so after sifting through the dozens of articles that populate my Facebook and Twitter feeds every morning and searching a dozen or so different news sites (The Washington Post,…