Very Smart Brothas
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The Wire, the Best Show in History, Ended 10 Years Ago and Changed TV Forever
HBO’s The Wire signed off a decade ago this coming March. Eclipsed in popularity by mainstream shows Sex and the City and The Sopranos on the same network, the Baltimore-set crime drama never received any major television awards, and the showrunners struggled at times to actually complete its five seasons. (Note: if you haven’t yet…
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Once Upon a Time, I Was the Guy in the Chuck E. Cheese Costume
When I had enough of asking Mom and Dad for money to buy Taco Bell combos, CDs from Sam Goode and extra night-and-weekend minutes, I knew it was time to get a damn job. Sure, they’d have to accompany me, unlicensed and autonomy-seeking, to make these purchases. But upon arrival, who’d be pulling hard-earned-dollar dollar…
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Drake Apparently Has Kevin Durant and Steph Curry Tattoos, Which Might Be the Most Lightskinneded Thing Anyone Has Ever Done
Of course, there will be people who will read the title of this piece and immediately be compelled to ask three questions that are only tangentially related to Drake, the subject of said piece: Wait, there’s such a thing as a “lightskinneded thing”? What does “lightskinneded” even mean in this context? Isn’t that offensive? (There…
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10 Reasons I’m Glad I Was Raised in a Black Household
How you were raised largely dictates how you will turn out as an adult. I have zero science to back this up; nor do I have a link to a white paper from the Atlanta Conference of Negro Problems’ (that was a real thing, by the way) early writings that proves this axiom dating back…
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Things We Should Probably Stop Letting White Guys Do
White men are taught to believe that they can do everything, it’s just how our society is set up. But should they do everything? I’ve compiled a short list of things that, while white guys feel totally comfortable doing, maybe they should let someone else try or just stop doing altogether. Needlessly abbreviate words. Not…
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I Just Celebrated Christmas for the 1st Time in My Whole Entire Life, and I Lived to Tell the Tale
Just a few weeks ago, I celebrated Christmas for the first time. Ever. All my life, there were no stockings hung by the chimney with care. (And I grew up in a house with a real, live working chimney!) No carefully wrapped gifts. No smell of pine needles and gingerbread houses. No carefully decorated Christmas…
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8 Things Companies Should Keep in Mind When Marketing to Black People
As much as I love seeing white people apologize for their white ways and lose wealth we’ve helped them amass, being the racism police grows wearying. And quite frankly, I’m tired of laying my favorite brands down because the dumb folks in corporate communications elected to take a college course on the importance of Star…
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What The Chi Gets Right (and Wrong) About Chicago
Chicagoans are protective of their city, and for good reason. Over the past few years, the City of the Big Shoulders has been the go-to dog whistle for Republicans and what-about-black-on-black-crime enthusiasts alike. The city’s spot on America’s Wheel of Sensationalism has dominated the larger national media gaze as the premier symbol of the black…
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Now, That Was a National Championship Game! Roll Tide!
I’m pretty sure most folks couldn’t have cared less about last night’s football contest between the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide and the University of Georgia’s Bulldogs to determine the 2018 collegiate National Championship. For one, both teams are in the Southeastern Conference, and if you think the SEC is overrated, this title game only…
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Get Used to ‘President Oprah’ ( … and President Zuckerberg, President the Rock, President Bezos, President Beyoncé, President Kardashian, Etc.)
Every so often, I’ll be in a public and predominantly white space—the Pittsburgh airport, maybe, walking through the Ross Park Mall, perhaps, or at a high school basketball game in the Pittsburgh suburbs—doing whatever it is I’m doing there. Not thinking about anything, really, other than going through security, browsing Kyrie Colorways at Foot Locker…