Very Smart Brothas
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Nike LeBron XVs Are My Favorite Shoes Right Now, but I Was Skeptical About Them. Apparently I’m Not Alone
Hands down, my favorite pair of shoes to wear right now for both style and grace comfort are my Nike LeBron XVs. I love them so much that I have two pairs: the wine-and-navy-blue “New Heights” colorway and the black “Metallic Gold” colorway. They go with everything, and the fit is comfortable enough (and they’re…
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Beyoncé and Jay-Z Are Going to Every Damn Mid-Atlantic and Rust Belt City Except Pittsburgh, and My Feelings Aren’t Hurt at All!
The (almost) billionaire parents of Blue Ivy will be on tour again this summer. Which I guess is good news for the people who live in the cities that this tour will stop in. Good for you for living in those cities, people who live in those cities! I am happy for you, and the…
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The Best Thing About Atlanta, the Best Show on Television
During “Sportin’ Waves,” the episode of Atlanta that aired Thursday night, Earn received a generous and unexpected payout from Darius’ puppy-related investments in season 1. Armed with this unanticipated cash, the still-homeless and aggressively underemployed Earn invests it in a gift card scheme suggested by Tracy, a recently paroled houseguest of Paperboi’s, who claims that…
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Even 21 Years Later, the Notorious B.I.G. Is Still the MC Who Impresses Me Most
“The greatest rapper of all time died on March 9th.” —Canibus, “Second Round K.O.” Every year, March 9 rolls around, and we celebrate through music and reflection the life of Christopher Wallace, aka the Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, aka Biggie, aka the only Christopher we acknowledge, who was gunned down in Los Angeles on…
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There’s a Time and Place for Professional Pseudonyms, and It’s When I’m Securing the Bag
My name is not Panama Jackson. I mean, it’s my name, but it’s not my name, ya know. It’s a pseudonym—a nickname created through some happenstance while I was trying to write and stay gainfully employed. Because of what I do for a living, Panama Jackson has significantly overtaken my real name in terms of…
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You Have to Be Perfect or Lucky (or Perfect and Lucky) to Buy a House If You’re Black
I’ve learned through age, maturity, meditation and Lisinopril to not allow myself to be bothered with certain things that might have irked me 10 or even five years ago. Basically I’m learning to give less fucks because fucklessness is a form of self-care for me. But there is (at least) one strain of conversation that…
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Experiment Proves That Conservatives Are Little Baby Snowflakes Who Act the Way They Do Because Everything Terrifies Them
The most obvious answer when attempting to find the root cause for certain Americans being so obsessed with guns is fear. These people are scared of something—irrelevance, anarchy, immigrants, black people, aliens, Black Panther Build-a-Bears—and this fear drives them to amass arsenals and fight against even the idea of any sort of restriction. They attempt…
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‘I Gotta Go. And I Can’t Take Her With Me’: A Mother’s Love on This Is Us
Somehow, I didn’t realize that This Is Us had returned to my Tuesday nights. The last episode I saw was THE episode where Jack [CENSORED]. You know what? “[CENSORED]” means died. Bought the farm. Kicked the bucket. And any other euphemism for dying you can think of. Anyway, on Facebook, I saw somebody mention this past…
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20 Things You Probably Do if You Were Raised Right
Some of you all are savages. I ain’t talking about your parents (or your mama, since that’s the stinger), but some of you weren’t raised right. I discover this fact almost daily. This morning, I watched somebody who clearly wasn’t raised right put the lives of myself and at least 10 other people at risk…
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Alexandria, Va., Ranks as Top Place to Travel in 2018; Next-Door Neighbor Washington, DC, Says, ‘Huh?’
Washington, D.C., suburb Alexandria, Va., is the top place to visit in 2018. According to the Washington Post, in an article titled, “Alexandria, Va., Outranks Home of Disneyland as Top Place to Go in 2018, Survey Says”: [Money] magazine said in a description of its rankings called “The 20 Best Places to Go in 2018”…