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I Didn’t Go Home for Christmas Because I Was Ashamed About Being Suicidal
I just spent Christmas away from my family in Virginia for the first time. I had recently returned from teaching a Mental Health First Aid class for staff at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital and escaping New York’s oppressively cold weather for a few days. I was still exhausted when Christmas Eve—when I’d typically go…
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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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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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Please Stop Inviting Everybody to the Damn Cookout
Look, I know blackness is the gift that keeps on giving. I know how awesome we are, and can understand why sweet potato pie tops pumpkin pie, that we effortlessly create and inform pop culture, and why folks set aside their good sense and pride to get next to us or be like us. And…
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How to Respond to White Folks Who Ask How They Can ‘Help’
It could all be so simple. Though eradicating racial hateration should be an intraracial undertaking, undoing centuries of Olympic-level oppression and curing chronic multigenerational Caucasian terribleness is frequently placed on our to-do lists, along with setting trends and keeping the Electric Slide alive and sacred. A shame. Your co-worker’s favorite decadently mediocre second-rate diva Lady…
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"Hot Peas & Butter" And More Slavery Merriment In Virginia
Unlike many youngins I know today who’d implode from boredom and cluelessness without access to a tablet, television, or other nonsense-powered technology, my childhood homies and I were pretty active, outdoorsy kids. Though we were introduced to computers early and were known to overdo it on the Nintendo, we were just as happy out the…
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So I Just Became a Mental Health First Aid Instructor And Here Is What I Learned
I can breathe now. After spending the past 13 months trying to get accepted and five days powering through a dense curriculum and teaching simulations, I finally received my certification as a Mental Health First Aid Instructor. Therapy and chicken wings for everyone. I first heard of the Mental Health First Aid course as a…
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That Time I Went to a Panamanian Restaurant and Almost Left Brokenhearted
In this age of foot-faced presidential swampdonkeys, culture vulturing ho-ass racial stowaways, and mediocrity-masking alternative facts, a number of things are inarguable: Shawn is the LaTavia of the Wayans clan. The rent is too damn high. While Magnolia Bakery’s cupcakes are wretched, gorgeous bite-sized tragedies, their banana pudding might could fix Ben Carson. Withholding gravy…
