Very Smart Brothas
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An Exclusive (Totally Real) Interview With Shanda (Willie's Wife) From LHH Hollywood About Getting Back On The Pole
One thing we have here at VSB is amazing connections. After last night’s airing of Love & Hip Hop Hollywood’s Episode 9 (we’ll get to a full episode recap later), we we were able to reach out to Willie’s wife, Shanda, to see if we could talk to her about her decision to get back on…
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Ask Agatha: Being The Only Black Person At Work, And Busting Windows Out Of Cars
Ashley from Harlem, NY asks: I’ve recently been added to the strategic planning committee at my company. I’m the most junior member and I’m a woman and I’m black. I suspect adding me to the committee was for diversity purposes and not because they expect me to make any real contributions. I admit I feel…
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On Being Mary Jane And Making The Leap Towards Greatness
I remember when Being Mary Jane first hit the BET lineup. I didn’t love the show, but I also didn’t dislike it. I largely watched the show because of Black Twitter and the tremendous shade tossed the way of Pauletta Patterson aka Mary Jane Paul. Mary Jane was one of those women who never saw a bad…
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On The Importance Of Getting More Black Kids "In The Right Place At The Right Time"
On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of attending the annual gala for the Harlem Educational Activities Fund (HEAF), an inner-city organization that I have been involved with since middle school. It was a fantastic event all around. I even had the honor of having an extended conversation with Neil Degrasse Tyson, who serves on the…
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Dear Netflix, You Are A Liar.
Dear Netflix, I’m an ardent supporter and user of your services. I was hittin’ a Netflix and chill before it was even a thing. Of course, I was doing that by myself usually where I’d fire up Netflix and chill on my couch and watch whatever movie I or the mysterious people who have stolen…
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The Second Dumbest Reason People Give For Hating NBA Basketball
At the moment, the New England Patriots, partially fueled by a gaggle of sociopathic self-righteousness after being “vindicated” by Deflategate, are undefeated and would seem to be the early favorites to win the Super Bowl. This information should come to no surprise to anyone who’s even a casual fan of the NFL. Because that exact…
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I Went To A Screening Of 'Underground' In Memphis And Here Is What I Ate
Last week, I hopped in a time machine and moseyed on down to Memphis to partake in a screening of WGN’s upcoming series, Underground, on behalf of Terry Hines & Associates (who organized the screening) and Very Smart Brothas (who asked if I wanted to attend). The series stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell as “Rosalee” and the…
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It's Great And All That Deputy Ben Fields Got Fired. But Fuck, That's No Consolation
After watching the video of Deputy Ben Fields assaulting a teen girl in her classroom, and following the national coverage of the fallout from this incident, I had no doubt Fields would eventually be publicly reprimanded, suspended, and eventually fired. Which he was, today. His superiors had no choice but to do so; the footage was…
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Love & Hip Hop Hollywood Season 2: Episode 8 Recap
Hey…y’all notice its like the Miles and Milan storyline…then the rest of the storylines? Like their storylines never intersect with other castfolks? No? Just me? No biggie. Anyway, so last week, Amber found out that the love of her life has another life to live of his own. She lost her shit. She rolled around…
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Halloween Is the Worst Fucking Day of the Year
From whichever day happened to be the day after Halloween in 1996 to whichever day happened to be the day before Halloween in 1997, my then six-year-old nephew obsessed — daily! — about who and what he was going to be for Halloween. He’d wake me up at 3:17am (we shared a bedroom) to say he…