Very Smart Brothas
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Is Rick Ross A Good Rapper?
There are two ways to answer the question asked in the title. 1. He is a professional rapper, having been one for over a decade, and his professional rappings are quite proficient and popular. Compared to the average person — or, even better, compared to me when I attempt to rap (which often occurs when…
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I Binged Watched ‘This Is Us’ And My Feelings Are In Shambles. I May Never Recover. ZOMG!
(There are very, very light spoilers in this piece. None of them tell you much of about the plot of the show.) On February 23, 2017, I wrote the following status update on Facebook: Well, I guess I need to watch “This Is Us.” I’ve not intentionally avoided it but have yet to see a…
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Tyrese Very Obviously Needs A Hobby, So Let's Find Tyrese A Hobby!
Empty Stacey Adams shoebox lined with Baby Boy DVDs and back-ordered bigen with sentience Tyrese Gibson is very obviously bored. Because there’s no other reason for a recently married man to hop on Instagram and offer his unsolicited hotepian insights on how the women he’s not married to or even dating or sleeping with (because, again, this…
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Our Unreasonable And Arbitrarily Critical Standards For Women Making An Effort To Enhance Their Beauty
There’s a lot of huff made these days about social media and an alleged rise in vanity and narcissism (despite neither being all that quantifiable). People bemoan Snapchat filters, Facetune, and the heavily glammed up ladies that employ their visual enhancing features. Not surprisingly, this huff is usually directed at women; most of whom are…
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Underground Season 2 Episode 2 Recap
I’m 1:30 into episode two of WGN’s Underground and I’m already crying. Sure, Venus is in Retrograde, my car is stuck in the ice and I’m craving salty snacks but I’m mostly crying because Bokeem Woodbine’s Daniel has been teaching himself how to read and write. This is courageous AF for any slave to do…
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Get Out Was Scary but TIME: The Kalief Browder Story Is The Real Horror Story You Should Be Watching
I need a late pass; I only recently saw Get Out. Like last night. Almost a month after its release I finally managed to make it to see the movie that everybody is talking about. The hype is justified and any Black males dating white women will probably be donning a perennial side-eye whether they…
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I’m a Duke Fan. Fight Me. Here’s How It Happened.
It’s March Madness time again, America. Office’s across America are bracing for Thursday and Friday’s lack of productivity as we all spend the vast majority of our work days refreshing whatever sports apps or sites we use to keep up with scores if we’re not altogether saying “fuck work” and watching the tourney on our…
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Black, 30, And Finally In Therapy
Do you remember those Cathy comic strips your mom used to have tacked to her cubicle wall or office board? The one’s her and her co-workers would share and cackle and point at while nodding their heads in agreement and uttering ‘Yup, so true’? You’d look at those comics as a little girl with a…
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Yup, I Have My Own Kid Now. And Yup, I Still Believe Spanking Is A Terrible And Cruel Form Of Discipline
I’m going to keep this short. Because I’ve already written on this topic. And because Stacey Patton’s brilliant and searing New York Times piece (“Stop Beating Black Children“) makes the case better than I ever could, tracing the cruel and dangerous and useless practice of beating our own kids into suitable behavior back to slavery, arguing that we’re…