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  • The 10 Best, Blackest, Messiest and Ugliest Moments From Aretha Franklin's Epic Marathon Homegoing

    1. At 3:30 p.m. Friday afternoon—a time which was already 30 minutes past the very optimistic target ending time on the agenda for Aretha Franklin’s homegoing—my wife and I left the house during Rev. Jesse Jackson’s speech to buy a mattress for a bed delivered to us the day before. When we returned two whole-ass…

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    Damon Young

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  • Yeah, This Might Be Jason Whitlock’s Worst and Saddest Take Ever

    Sentient pile of repurposed lamp-heated rotisserie pork rinds Jason Whitlock has descended so far into the abyss of oafish takes and porkpie hats that my feelings about him have shifted from annoyance to contempt to where they exist now, which is pity. The things he says about race and culture—on Twitter and on his show—aren’t…

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    Damon Young

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  • Donald Trump Does Not Want That Smoke From Andrew Gillum

    Admittedly, I do not know much about Andrew Gillum. I know he won the Democratic nomination in Florida’s primary race for governor, beating heavy favorite Gwen Graham. I know he’s the mayor of Tallahassee. I know he graduated from Florida A&M—which is why every FAMU grad I’m Facebook friends with had 22,000 word-long status messages…

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    Damon Young

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  • John McCain Was a White American Hero

    John McCain was a white American man, whose whiteness and Americanness and maleness were his most prominent and predictable characteristics. He was also considered to be a hero. Barack Obama spoke on McCain’s “courage to put the greater good above our own.” Joe Biden remarked that McCain’s life was “proof that some truths are timeless.”…

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    Damon Young

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  • Why You Just Can’t Trust a Man With Weak Dap, Explained

    My answer depends on who asks. If a white person asks, I’d perhaps say something like “It’s a catchall to describe what often happens when black males greet each other with myriad intimate (and sometimes complex) variations of the standard handshake. Also, some members of the Latino community are familiar with and partake in this…

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    Damon Young

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  • 10 Probably Not All That Interesting Reasons Why I Got the Title of My Book Tattooed on My Arm

    Hello. My name is Damon Young. My debut memoir, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker, is available for preorder. If you haven’t already, go ahead and preorder a few. I am, as you can imagine, excited about this. (Terrified too, for reasons I might share here at some point between now and March, but…

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    Damon Young

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  • Why Do Black Republicans Usually Have Such Bad Haircuts? An Important ExposĂ©

    Before we begin today, I believe it’s important to make something clear. Bad haircuts/hairdos isn’t the same thing as bad hair, because bad hair doesn’t really exist. Of course, there is black-people hair. And this comes in myriad grades and textures. Certain types of this hair has been (wrongly) referred to as “good.” Naturally, if…

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    Damon Young

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  • Yeah, Telling Black Women ‘To Carry Pepper Spray’ to Fight Street Harassment Is Missing the Point

    While at lunch with a friend a few years ago, she couldn’t locate her lip gloss, so she emptied her purse out on the table to find it. She didn’t have much in there—an iPhone, a wallet, her keys and a small make-up kit. And also, a can of pepper spray. She noticed me noticing…

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    Damon Young

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  • Racist White Man Allegedly Stabs Black Man to Death, Then Asks Police for a Ride Home

    On Sunday, 24-year-old Joden Rocco was charged in the stabbing death of 24-year-old Dulane Cameron Jr. outside of a bar in Pittsburgh. But as details from the incident emerge, a story that initially seemed like just an unusually tragic outcome to a bar fight has been discovered to have serious racial implications. Rocco (who is…

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    Damon Young

    Published

  • A List of Ways to Tell If a White Person Has Personally Benefitted From America's History of Racism

    I witnessed some very nice white peoples on the internet this week who were adamant that they haven’t personally benefitted from America’s history of racism and also felt that the distinctions between those who have and those who haven’t should be acknowledged. So, full disclosure: I’ve been on a high-fiber kick recently, which has 1)…

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    Damon Young

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Damon Young