Very Smart Brothas
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Dr. Umar Johnson And The Hotep Civil War, Explained
Ok, so I’ve seen you reference “Hoteps” before — with quizzes, video content, and even the way you conjugate certain verbs — but I don’t think I’ve ever quite seen a clear definition or explanation on what makes a hotep a hotep. Would you mind providing one? No problem! In this context, Hotep refers to…
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Black Man Who Wants To Be Dominican Dates Puerto Rican Who Wants To Be Black
I was away from my computer for much of the day on a journey that took me to quite a few places, including The Container Store. Which although I’d never actually been there until today, has always fascinated me. I first heard about it in a Bill Burr stand-up routine over a decade ago, in…
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You Were Probably Going To See Hidden Figures Anyway, But Go See Hidden Figures.
I feel like I’m in a pretty enviable position in life. Since I was 18-years-old, I’ve been surrounded by Black people who are actively involved in STEM fields. I have several friends with STEM PhDs, including one who writes for VSB on occasion. Two of my closest friends in life are PhDs in biomedical engineering/biology…
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Donald Glover's Atlanta Was A Love Letter To Black People, And The Year's Best And Most Important Show
Three moments from Atlanta keep coming back to me when attempting to gather and articulate my thoughts about this show. 1. Black Justin Bieber pitted against Paper Boi in the celebrity basketball game, calling for the ball and unsuccessfully trying to get his teammate’s attention with “Nigga! Nigga!” And then, fed up that he’s being ignored, breaking…
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Is Mike Tomlin A Great Coach? A (Very, Very, Very, Very) Quick Survey
Last week, concussion-ridden jack-o-lantern with curious sentience Terry Bradshaw stated that Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was a “nice” coach and “great cheerleader” but not a great coach. This, of course, is the same Tomlin who’s amassed a 102–57 record in his 10 years with the Steelers, is the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl,…
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Kwanzaa Really Should Be The Best Holiday, And Here's How We Can Make That Happen
It’s become a tradition at my house to host a Christmas Eve party. This way we get to exchange gifts with family but we don’t have to leave the house on Christmas Day. This year, The Misses expanded it into an ugly sweater party with a ‘white elephant’ gift exchange. We had a signature drink,…
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Tiger Woods As Mac Daddy Santa Is The Gift America Deserves, But Not The One It Needs Right Now
For the past 30 or so years, I’ve been in possession of and possessed with an amorphous and unwieldy void lurking within me — a bottomless abyss of “eh, I guess” — and I’ve taken great pains to fulfill it. Sometimes with plans and people. Sometimes with Pittsburgh and really nice pants. Sometimes with pancakes and…
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My TI-83 Graphing Calculator Is The Real MVP and My STEM Folks Know What I'm Talking About
In the summer of 1997, right after graduating from high school, I was offered the opportunity to participate in a pre-freshman summer program at Morehouse College (my eventual alma mater) directed at those of us entering the school as science, math, or engineering majors. It was called Center of Excellence in Science, Math, and Engineering…
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Are Politics More Divisive Than Race? Survey Says…GTFOH.
Yesterday morning I read an article in the Washington Post’s “Express” mini-paper called “Political shopping lists” about how the most recent political campaign has increased divisiveness to the point of affecting people’s shopping choices as folks try to bubble inward with only similar beliefed and minded people. This article made mention of “Hamilton” (you all remember…