Very Smart Brothas
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Melissa Harris-Perry Just Showed What It Means To Give No Fucks About What White People Think
Before we get into what it means to give no fucks about what White People™ think, we must first establish what it doesn’t mean. Because existing in this fuck-less space is complicated, and it’s easy to conflate and confuse existing there with other things that exist independent of its existence. Basically, it doesn’t mean you…
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An Ode To Ben Carson: Our Favorite Gifted-Handed Clusterfuck
Super Tuesday 2016 has come and gone. Barring a miraculous influx of cash from an itchy pocketed donor with literally no one else to give money to (in which case, I would like to point them toward my IRS bill because the Feds are absolutely not playing with me this year), we are more than likely…
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Zoe Saldana As Nina Simone Is What Happens When Diversity Doesn't
When news first broke a few years ago that Zoe Saldana would be cast in Nina — the yet-to-be-released biopic about the iconic artist and activist — I wasn’t as put off about the aesthetic dissimilarity between Saldana and Simone as many of us seemed to be. Mainly because I generally don’t believe an actor needs to…
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Louis Farrakhan Admires…Donald Trump (And Yes, This Is A Real Thing That Really, Actually Happened)
When I first saw the news about Minister Louis Farrakhan praising and complimenting Donald Trump circulating my newsfeeds and timelines, I assumed it was a story from The Onion. “Haha!” I initially thought, “Those jokers at The Onion really tickle my knickers!” Okay, that’s a lie. I knew it wasn’t from The Onion. It would…
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How Lil Wayne Became Hip-Hop's Most Underappreciated Legend
17 years ago, Juvenile released “Back That Azz Up.” (“Back That Thang Up” if you were a baby trying to make babies on the dance floor of a high school gymnasium.) The descending chords in the intro cause an immediate pavlovian response. Men crane their necks like a gazelle hearing a rustle in the tall…
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Chris Rock Was Really Bad Last Night, And The #OscarsSoWhite Skits Were Even Worse
I’ve started and stopped writing this three times already; scribbling a few sentences out and deleting them as soon as I was finished typing them. Because, as the title suggests, I am going to talk about how bad Chris Rock was at the Oscars last night, and how bad the #OscarsSoWhite skits were — skits…
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Why You Need To Care About What's Happening To Melissa Harris-Perry
The cover photo from my Facebook profile is a screenshot of my appearance on Melissa Harris-Perry last August. I don’t get anxious much when meeting new people; at least not anymore. But I was anxious then. Partially because it was my first time on national television, and I hoped my dad and my aunts in…
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How To Be Unapologetically Black
On Tuesday, I was at Google’s New York City office for a panel titled “Breaking Through The Noise: Making Our Voices Visible, Scalable And Impactful.” For roughly 90 minutes, David Wilson (founder of The Grio), Tiffany Warren (Senior VP, Chief Diversity Officer at Omnicom Group/Founder & President, ADCOLOR®), Lilly Workneh (Black Voices Editor at Huffington Post)…
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Underrated Moment In Black History: Redman Goes Peak Black On MTV Cribs
Over the past few weeks, we have examined underrated Blackness in multiple mediums — all unique, all bold, all transformative. That said, of all the instances discussed, none of them — not even Bobby’s Doodie Bubbles — hold a candle to the unapologetic hood fabulousness that was Redman’s episode of MTV Cribs. Let me set…