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How Janet Jackson’s janet. Made a Man Out of Me
Janet Jackson’s janet. could not have come out at a more critical time in my life. It was the summer of 1993 (the album was released 25 years ago today, May 18), and I was 11 years old going on 12, and puberty was having the time of its life in my body. Since this…
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Ugly-Sweater Christmas Parties Are Trash and We Need to Stop Having Them
One thing I appreciate about VSB is how it provides a safe space to hate on things that other people enjoy. Take, for example, Damon Young’s total disdain for small talk or my screed on why spades at game nights should be banned. There was also the time I proclaimed that DJs should stop playing…
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Howard University: This Is Family
What can you say about Howard University that you cannot say about other HBCUs? There are the facts—facts that make the mecca historically unique. I mean, who else can say they have the same alma mater as Thurgood Marshall and Diddy? Only Howard alum can say that. Who else can say they attend a school…
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More Naps! Everyone Needs to Take More Naps!
If this past week has taught me anything, it is that we all need to find more time in our day to take a nap. On Monday we woke up to one of the most horrific mass shootings in American history. On Tuesday we saw the guy some call the president of the United States…
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How the NFL Turned Colin Kaepernick’s Protest Into #AllLivesMatter
There’s a lot of things that need to change. One specifically is police brutality. There’s people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable. Cops are getting paid leave for killing people. That’s not right by anyone’s standards. That was Colin Kaepernick’s response in 2016 when asked what specifically would need to change in order…
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Issa Rae’s ‘I’m Rooting for Everybody Black’ Was FUBU
Today’s post was not intended to be about Issa Rae. After writing about the season finale of Insecure last week, I wanted to move on to other topics for discussion. But then, at last night’s Emmys, Rae, in a moment of candor, found a way to make all her fans proud to be a part…
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The Near-Perfect Insecure Season Finale and Issa’s, Molly’s and Lawrence’s Baby Steps to Adulthood
When I was 24 years old, a co-worker of mine felt like giving me her opinion of people my age. “I never date 24-year-olds,” she said. “They think they know everything.” At the time, the observation offended me because I almost certainly thought she was throwing shade my way. As a matter of fact, I…
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Why the Messy and Uncomfortably Real Insecure Is Getting Harder and Harder to Watch
“Ho.” The word has been used frequently throughout season 2, most of the time by Issa, who has used it in reference to the kind of single life she wants to have. In past episodes, she’s asked Molly to teach her how to ho and has complained about the lack of consistency with her “hotation.” If…
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Insecure Takes Us Back to 1997 With a Convo About Oral Sex I Thought We Weren’t Having Anymore
One of the best things about Insecure is the credit it gives the audience. Considering how, in this day and age, just existing as a black person is treated as a controversy in the mainstream media, Insecure is one of the few shows on television in which the point of it all is not to…
