Very Smart Brothas
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White People Are Boring
Soggy toilet paper sheet repurposed as a mesh romper for bougie chipmunks David Brooks emerged from his seltzer waterbed today to warn us that the Democrats will definitely lose the Presidential election if we don’t remember to be as damp as he is. He is maybe not wrong—perhaps a can of La Croix might have…
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Fatherhood 101 With Very Smart Brothas and the Dads of The Root!
Father’s Day is right around the corner and the one thing the men of VSB and The Root know how to do is procreate. It’s a talent really. Since we all love our children and love being parents, we decided to come together, talk about what fatherhood looks like and offer some tips for those…
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They Don’t Want to Preserve Life. They Just Want to Punish Women and Enact Pain
Last weekend, I was invited to a brunch hosted by Ebele Okobi, who is Facebook’s Head of Public Policy, Africa, and was my de facto tour guide and event planner during my week abroad. There were nine of us there—an African diasporic reunion of black people scattered throughout the globe but settled in London. Among…
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Ayesha Curry Said What Many Moms Feel
For most of my adult life, I’ve been the kind of slim that inspired a stranger to tell me “If you could just eat a pork chop sandwich, you’d be alright!” In the fall of 2017, when my husband and I learned I was pregnant, I figured this baby would be that sandwich—but not anything…
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Video: What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker, Explained
Today is What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker’s birthday, and to celebrate it, here’s me talking about the book. And also parenthood, the value of humor, Darius Lovehall, and existing while black in white America. And by “talking about the book” I mean “talking about the book and also reading one of my terrible,…
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I Used to Reject Therapy. Now I Embrace It Wholeheartedly
My relationship with therapy is, to say the least, old and complicated. When I was a young child, my public-school teachers sent me to therapy. According to my mama, I was acting like a “damn fool” and they thought I was adversely impacted by my parents’ divorce. I don’t remember much about it except the…
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An Investigation: Does Jerrod Carmichael Say the N-Word ‘With the Hard R’ in This Clip About His Family Asking Him for Money?
In a now viral clip from an upcoming episode of LeBron James’ The Shop, the topic of financial obligations to family members is brought up, and a few of the men present—Meek Mill, 2 Chainz, and Jerrod Carmichael specifically—weigh in. Although it’s impossible to possess an accurate judgment of their true feelings about assisting family…
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If You’re Black and in the Polar Vortex Today, You Have God’s Permission to Be Ashy (For a Day)
There’s a bit in The Broke Diaries—Angela Nissel’s iconic and hilarious memoir about her time at the University of Pennsylvania—where the perpetually hungry Angie is probing her kitchen for something to eat, cheers when she finds a box of grits but discovers (sadly) that the box contains just one solitary grit. I have never been…
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10 Awkward AF Things That Soliciting Blurbs for Your Book Also Feels Like
The writing of blurbs—the succinct quotes of praise from an author’s peers that exist on a book’s front and back covers—has become a “nuclear arms race” that can drain blurb writers of their most valuable asset (time), writes Marie Myung-Ok Lee yesterday in an extensive feature on this quirk of the publishing industry. (A piece…
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Video: Kool-Aid, Lotion, Washcloths, Rihanna, and More Things We're Thankful For
While in town for The Root 100 several days ago, Panama and I were compelled to shoot a video articulating the many things we have to be thankful for. That it also happens to be Thanksgiving soon has absolutely no relevance whatsoever. We’re just two naturally thankful ass niggas. (In fact, “Thankful Ass Niggas” was…