Some Thoughts
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Is There a Support Group for People Who Hurt Themselves Trying to Do the Shoot Dance? (Asking for a Friend)
There’s this guy I know. His name is Famen Hung. We hoop together a few times a week. And despite being 39—and despite the fact that, the last time he went to LA Fitness, one of the young dudes on the court greeted him with “What’s good, O.G.?” (AND IT WAS MEANT TO BE A…
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10 Ways To Defeat Hate And Terror With Love
Even for a 2018 filled with tragedy and terror, last week was particularly brutal. There were the assassination attempts on prominent Democrats and critics of the president. A white man shot and killed two black people at a grocery store in Kentucky. That man tried to enter a black church first, but the doors, fortunately,…
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Now’s The Time to Tell the Truth About Pittsburgh, and This Hagiographical Bullshit Ain’t It
Although Squirrel Hill, the Pittsburgh community where the white nationalist terrorist attack on the Tree of Life synagogue occurred, has been described in the media over the past few days as a Jewish enclave, it is not just that. It is also Pittsburgh’s largest and most ethnically diverse neighborhood. Combined, over 26,000 people live in…
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I Just Found the Most Racist Photo (and Caption) on iStock. Here's My 10 Favorite Things About It
Yesterday afternoon, while searching “black man calls police” and “calling police black person” on iStock—to find a suitable picture for “My Self-Care Sunday Story: I Called The Cops On A White Guy”—I found the above pic. There are tens of thousands of images on iStock, and I won’t pretend to have seen them all. But…
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No, Van Jones, I Do Not Have to Give the Racist in Chief ‘His Due’
As someone who was born, raised, and currently lives in the South, I have grown accustomed to hearing colorful phrases infused with racist overtones, such as betraying someone by “selling them down the river” or hearing an unsolicited comment from the “peanut gallery.” In fact, a few days ago, I engaged my Yankee coworkers in…
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A Couple Photographed Themselves Having Sex at the Great Pyramid and I Have Questions
A couple who took selfies while engaged in what appears to be a sexual act atop one of the Eight Wonders of the World (my aunt Phyllis’ fried chicken was recently approved by the World Wonder sanctioning body) has sparked international outrage and prompted a necessary question: Why, though? According to the Guardian, Danish photographer…
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Here's 10 Black-Ass Predictions to Consider Since No One Really Knows What the Hell is Going to Happen in 2019
When it comes to predicting the future, I tend to listen to the wisdom of the black women in my family. Grandmamas, mothers, aunts, play aunts, doesn’t matter, their dreams are damn near unassailable when it comes to predicting your impending future death. (“Baby, I saw you on a train headed straight towards a mountain.…
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Dispatches From The Kwanzaa Kid: Stories About the Turkey Bacon of Holidays
I like turkey bacon. I realize that turkey bacon is essentially a ribbon of bologna meat, but as someone who grew up in a super-religious household and was raised by an uber-religious mother, I never had bacon (or any of the popular pork-related meats) until I was an adult. Don’t get me wrong, I knew…