Very Smart Brothas
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Why the Sister Act 2 Soundtrack Was a Major Milestone of My Black-Ass Childhood
This week at VSB, we’re running a series called Albums That Changed My Life in which different writers let you in on the music that helped shape and mold them into the people they are now. Today we hear from Alex Hardy as he explains how Whoopi ’nem affected his life with the Sister Act…
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Jodeci’s Forever My Lady Was Revolutionary for Me, a Church Boy From Okla.
This week at VSB, we’re running a series called Albums That Changed My Life in which different writers let you in on the music that helped shape and mold them into the people they are today. We’re kicking things off with Lawrence Ware, for whom Jodeci’s Forever My Lady album changed the game. Let my…
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The White Woman Who Got Fired for Giving Trump the Finger Is the Blackest Thing That Ever Happened This Week
To be clear, I am not interested in any honorary blackening or distributing any sort of cookout invitations to Juli Briskman, the white woman fired from her marketing-company job after a photo of her flipping the bird at a Trump motorcade went viral. Because while Juli might very well be swell, I don’t know her…
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10 of the Most Rewatchable Movies of All Time
There is one movie I have to watch whenever I see it. I don’t care if I’m flipping through channels or I come across it on Netflix, and that’s My Cousin Vinny, if only so I can watch the judge ask Joe Pesci, “What’s a yute?” Vincent LaGuardia Gambini (Pesci) has had me enunciating “youTH-ES”…
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Perhaps He’s ‘Corny,’ but Russell Wilson Would Definitely Whoop Your Ass (and Future’s Too, if It Ever Came to That)
I’ve stayed away from the recent round of Crunchy Sock Twitter’s discontentment with Russell Wilson’s very public display of affection for his wife, Ciara. Because I’ve written about it before. A few times, actually. And what more can really be said about people so invested in Ciara’s unhappiness—and the perpetual unhappiness of other black women…
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Trump Found a White Dude Named ‘Jerome’ to Be in Charge of Our Money Because Nothing Makes Sense Anymore
I’ve been in airports and on airplanes all day, dealing with shitty cellphone signals and shittier airport Wi-Fi for the last few hours, so when I finally was able to get online just now after landing in Pittsburgh, I checked Twitter to see if anything particularly newsworthy had happened while I was offline. First I…
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The Blue Grass Airport TSA Pulled Me Aside to Inspect and Massage My Hair and Now I Have Questions!
I’m writing this from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Ky., waiting on a flight to Philadelphia that will take me back home to Pittsburgh. I came to Kentucky to visit the bell hooks Institute at Berea College for an event with bell hooks yesterday that I’m totally, definitely going to tell you all about soon.…
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Did Bobby Brown Make Don’t Be Cruel, or Did Don’t Be Cruel Make Bobby Brown?
I’m a Bobby Brown fan. I’m not sure I’m at stan levels, but I did shell out the money to buy the hardback copy of his autobiography (written with the assistance of Nick Chiles—it’s painfully obvious where Bobby either had help or didn’t write at all) and read it immediately in one sitting. While the…
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When Should Rappers Hang Up the Microphone?
When I was perusing the list of new-release albums from this past Oct. 13, it dawned on me after some time that three of the artists—Wu-Tang, Camp Lo and Krayzie Bone (with his group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony)—all released albums that I absolutely loved exactly 20 years ago. In 1997 I turned 16, obtained my driver’s license…
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How I Lost My 13-Year War Against Starbucks
Really, this is all Dunkin’ Donuts’ fault. All I wanted was the oddly priced large vanilla chai latte—for some reason the large is priced at $2.09, a full 10 cents less than the small and $1.60 less than the medium; that’s all I wanted. But their machine was down. I still wanted my drink. And…