Very Smart Brothas
-
So … Um … I Think Politico Just Published an Argument for Slavery. In 2018 (Yes, That Slavery)
On Tuesday, Politico published “Sponsor an Immigrant Yourself”—a thought exercise from people allegedly named “Eric Posner” and “Glen Weyl” that attempts to solve our immigration debate by thinking so far out of the box that the box now can only be seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. They’re so out of the box, in fact,…
-
A List of Things I’m Qualified to Critique, Since Apparently You’re Only Allowed to Critique Something if You’re an Expert Now
On Monday morning, the National Portrait Gallery unveiled its official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama. I thought they were nice and cool and sleek and shit, but some others did not. But, then, some people were mad at the people who did not, like, “You can’t critique art if you’re not an expert on…
-
Are You Black Enough to Watch Black Panther? A Quiz
Black Panther premieres to the general public this week. And as we all already know, it will be the blackity, black, black, black, black, black, blackest thing that will ever happen in the history of black people, blackness and people. So black that instead of ticket stubs, the box office will give you a reparations…
-
Perfect Music Moments in Black History: Groove Theory’s ‘Tell Me’
Music from the 1990s is largely regarded with rose-colored nostalgia. Hip-hop made the leap, R&B was blessed with several noteworthy groups that provided classic albums, and neo-soul showed up and made superstars out of folks like Erykah Badu and D’Angelo. New jack swing took a step out of the arena but gave way to artists…
-
The 10 Whitest Things About the Woman Who Flushed Her Emotional-Support Hamster Down the Toilet at the Airport
Like sandwich cake, video games, Mary Kay distributing and trapping, there are levels to this whiteness shit. In Pittsburgh alone, there are at least 26 different grades of whiteness, including garden-variety Yinzer whiteness, Appalachian-adjacent whiteness, well-meaning Patagonia whiteness, Lululemon whiteness and Ben Roethlisberger. And sometimes, as in the story about Belen Aldecosea—the Florida woman who,…
-
With Black Panther We Have a Black Movie and a Black Movie Soundtrack. It’s Like 1994 All Over Again
The soundtrack for Black Panther, the Top Dawg Entertainment-helmed Black Panther: The Album, dropped today. While Black Panther is a Marvel Cinematic Universe product, it’s still a black movie. From Ryan Coogler to Wakanda to kente cloth in videos to the two capital letters and the apostrophe in the lead character T’Challa’s name, there’s no…
-
10 Questions We Really Wish Quincy Jones Had Answered
Quincy Jones’ recent viral interviews have proved that he’s thoroughly fuck-deprived. And also, to quote the homie Sai Grundy, “the antithesis of Sway”—because while Sway AIN’T GOT THE ANSWERS, Quincy Jones definitely does. He has so many answers, in fact, that we’d like him to put his Negrodamus powers to good use and solve some…