Uncategorized
-
Book Excerpt: 'Palace Council'
Palace Council (Knopf, 2008) Prologue: “The Council” The lawyer was nervous, and that was odd. His hands trembled on the steering wheel, and that was odder still. He had learned in the war that there was no sin in being afraid as long as the others never knew. He understood that courage was a discipline.…
-
America's Chitlin' Era
This weekend I finally opened the quarterly statements for my retirement accounts. After a few minutes of weeping and a few more spent calculating how many additional years I would now be forced to labor in the vineyard, I had a thought that cheered me. Sure, the economy is staggering. Sure, we are five years…
-
Cracks and Assets
Summer is officially in high gear, making it a perfect time for an open memo to all those women addicted to showing off their cracks and assets in public. Do the rest of us a favor—don’t! It’s OK to show a little décolletage, as long as you keep your headlights a little dim. I’m not…
-
Obama Gets Cranky About Alpha Kappa Alpha
It’s not a good week for Alpha Kappa Alpha. For starters, the group’s national president, Barbara McKinzie, may be forced out following allegations that, among other “financial misdeeds,” she “used the organization’s money to commission a $900,000 ‘living legacy wax figure’ of herself,” as reported in the Washington Business Journal. And then there was the…
-
Black Like Mommy, White Like Me
Simone snuggled up beside me and pointed to my face. “Mommy,” she said, “is a black girl.” How observant, I thought, for a 3-year-old to make such a distinction. “Yes,” I said, “Mommy is a black girl.” “Simone,” she continued, “is a white girl.” In all the time I had dreamed about being a mother…
-
The Audacity of Taupe
“Yo, I start to flinch as I try not to say it;But my lips is like the ooh-wop as I start to spray it…” – Q-Tip If a white woman can have a crush on Obama, then I hope a biracial man can have a crush on The View’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck, because she’s doing a…
-
Black Skin, Blue Passport: Is It Me?
As is often the case in the United States, sometimes I have trouble telling when people are racist or just plain rude. When I checked into my Mexico City bed and breakfast—which had received rave reviews on from Trip Advisor—I sensed a disconnect between the pleasant tone the owner adopted over e-mail (he even complimented…
-
Keeping Him Healthy
Health news is almost always depressing when it comes to people of color, especially our black men. Our husbands, fathers, brothers, sons and friends are at least 50 percent more likely to die of a heart attack, stroke, complications from diabetes and cancer than their white counterparts. These numbers represent real men, and it just…
-
Twenty-Five Minutes of Hell
Too tired, too old, too fat, too busy. If these are the excuses you use to bail on your workout then eventually you’ll be too sick and too dead for it to even matter. The most common reason people give for not exercising is the time factor and, yes, I understand that you are over-scheduled…
-
Over the Rainbow: Angie and Jo
Okay, so there’s Maddox from Cambodia, Pax from Vietnam, Zahara from Ethiopia, Shiloh from Namibia (well, born there, anyway), and now, new additions, twins Vivienne and Knox, born in France. In less time than it takes to get an undergraduate degree, Angelina Jolie, with some help from partner Brad Pitt, has earned a way more…