Very Smart Brothas
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Why 'Cancel Culture' Doesn't Exist
What do the Loch Ness Monster, Santa Claus, hot Travis Scott verses, and “cancel culture” have in common? They don’t exist! (Or perhaps they only exist on tracks also featuring Drake.) Watch for some raw and uncut fallacy debunking, and stay for a useful list on who we should actually cancel.
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10 Thoughts on What the Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich Craze Says About Black People and Our Misplaced Priorities
1. Zip 2. Zilch 3. Zippo 4. Zero 5. Nada 6. Nathan 7. Nothing 8. Naw 9. Naught 10. Nigga?
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If Everything Is a Lynching, Nothing Is a Lynching
I’m reminded, today, a day after Donald Trump called his impeachment inquiry a lynching—and an hour after reading that good ole’ Uncle Joe Biden once made the same analogy about Bill Clinton’s impeachment—of last week’s round of “So, Who Doesn’t Want to Be a Nigger But Wants to Say Nigga?” Specifically, my thoughts are centered…
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I Just Thought of the Perfect Comeback to Something Said About Me 30 Years Ago, and I Couldn't Be Happier
I am being generous (to myself) when thinking that half the people reading this will have at least one of the following responses to this title: 1. Wait, what? 2. Why do you even still know what was said to you 30 years ago? 3. Or care enough to still think about a comeback that,…
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The Emperor Has No Jokes: How Come None of Y'all Told Me That Joker Was So Damn Boring?
Mostly, Joker was what I expected it to be. I’d read and heard enough about it in the past several weeks that I knew what to anticipate. I knew it’d be a goulash of loud and important-sounding themes— “mental health!” “economic anxiety!” “capitalism!”—without actually saying much about any of them. Ellipses on a neon billboard.…
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There Are No Good Apples
It was somewhat disconcerting for my cousin, a cop in Washington, D.C., to attend my book event at Politics and Prose in March. Not really for me, since I knew he was coming. But when he walked in towards the end of my talk—in full vested, booted and armed cop gear—the atmosphere shifted, and I…
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Uber Driver, The Equalizer, a Home Depot Manager and More Things Joe Biden Should Be Instead of President
Joe Biden has settled into the BarcaLounger and Burn Notice phase of his life. Which is fine! My dad is there too, and in a slightly less-imperfect world, they’d be going on adventures to the mall and linen-soaked jazz cruises together. Instead, Joe Biden is running for president of the United States. And, well, here’s…
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I'm Sorry Y'all, But I Just Can't Find a Shit to Give About Donald Trump's Impeachment
So before I write this thing, I have to admit that, right now, I’m about to do a version of a thing that deeply annoys me. Someone will write a thing. (Let’s say about libertarian marsupials.) And the people who care deeply about libertarian marsupials will respond to that thing. Maybe they’ll leave comments on…
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Facebook, Why the Fuck Do You Keep Putting These Spammy Fake News Sites at the Top of My Feed?
I don’t pretend to know the mechanics of how most things work. I don’t know why nutmeg matters so much when making french toast, how rainbows are always perfect arcs, or even how Travis Scott has become a megastar when the best parts of his rap albums are when Travis Scott is not rapping. But…
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I Just Binged Season 1 of Succession and It Feels Like I Was on a White People Safari
I don’t remember exactly what Kotaku staff editor Natalie Degraffinried said a month ago when attempting to convince me to watch Succession. But knowing Natalie, I’m certain it involved some combination of “these white people” and “wild.” What I do remember was that she was the fourth or fifth black person in the last two…