The racist mob has tried to make the narrative be about everything but Sarah Jane Comrieās behavior in the video ā even though itās her behavior that everyone is upset about.
There is a reason for this.
Accountability is like kryptonite to whiteness. Whiteness does not like being held accountable. Whiteness doesnāt like seeing white people being held accountable.
Accountability is like kryptonite to whiteness
theGrio
Pieces I’ve written for theGrio, where I am a featured op-ed columnist.
The āreceiptsā donāt matter. The bike doesnāt matter. Sarah Jane Comrieās actions matter
LinkHer lawyerās statements in the media are meant to obfuscate the actual issue at hand. He is making it about whether or not she tried to steal a bike and whether or not she actually paid for said bike, but even he has to know on some level thatās not the real issue.
Judging byĀ his statements in defense of her, the employment lawyer representing Sarah Jane Comrie understands that her very loud and public outburst where sheĀ weaponizes her tearsĀ and begins screaming for help even when she was in no imminent danger is the issue.Ā
People who saw that video understood exactly what Sarah Jane Comrie was doing. It was evident in the smug look you see on her face right before she began screaming for help.
Attorney Justin Marino knows that even Sarah Jane Comrieās employer, NYC Health + Hospitals called her behavior in the video ādisturbing.ā
The āreceiptsā donāt matter. The bike doesnāt matter. Sarah Jane Comrieās actions matter
Let’s talk about the 50 Cent Cinematic Universe
LinkIf āRaising Kananā accomplishes anything, it makes teenage Kanan (Mekai Curtis) something of a sympathetic character. You can see how the things that happened to him in his youth, especially when it comes to dealing with his mother Raq (Patina Miller). The main men in his life, his uncles Lou (Malcolm Mays) and Marvin (London Brown) are drug dealers and major players in Raqās drug empire, and they are his main influences. Then he gets the added rub of finding out his real father is a cop (Omar Epps). Life is hard for young Kanan Stark.
That said, Iām not sure how all of that leads to him being the homicidal maniac he is in the original series, but Iām sure weāll find out. The show has already completed two seasons, and a third should be released this summer.
The 50 Cent Cinematic Universe has me in a chokehold
My favorite piece of chicken is the thigh
LinkYou heard me. The chicken thigh is the best piece of chicken in the entire bunch. Whenever I go somewhere and get chicken ā whether itās Popeyes, Churchās or Roscoeās ā I always ask for all thighs. Donāt bother giving me any other pieces, because I am definitely going to complain and send them back.
The definitive ranking of chicken pieces in order from best to worst
Happy 4/20
If you are me, it’s 4/20 every day at 4:20 p.m.
Continue readingNo matter how you look at it, David Choe is a disgusting human being
Rape is never an appropriate punchline to your fucked up joke.
Continue readingThe Tennessee State House just did the most racist thing
I believe Elie Mystal said it best when he told MSNBC, “Tennessee has now given the entire country an object lesson in critical race theory better than any AP history course ever could have. Everybody sees it now. Everybody knows it now. Everybody gets exactly what is going on.”
Continue readingMLK is not your Black Jesus, white people
Today, on the 55th anniversary of his murder, I wrote about how white people weaponize Dr. Martin Luther King, his work, and his message against Black people.
“One of the biggest lies ever told about King is that he believed in a colorblind society. This is false.
It is an idea derived from a 40-word passage from his 1963 āI Have a Dreamā speech in which he said, ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.’
And if we are being honest, that 40-word passage has been whittled down to nine simple words ānot be judged by the color of their skin.ā
What King meant when he said that and what white people have twisted it to mean are two different things.”
Dear white people: Martin Luther King Jr. is not Black Jesus. He did not die for our āsins.ā
Bye, legacy Twitter verification
Ever since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, he seems to be on a mission to destroy everything good about the app one bad decision at a time, and his latest stunt proves that he is a nincompoop who deserves to lose the $44 billion he spent on the worldās most expensive online game of idiocy ā which is what he has turned Twitter into since becoming the CEO.
Elon has been promoting Twitter Blue for a while now. Twitter describes it as, āour premium subscription service that elevates quality conversations on Twitter.ā
How exactly it āelevates quality conversationsā is unclear, especially given that one of the perks for joining is receiving a blue checkmark on your account. Receiving the blue checkmark is a highly promoted perk of the Twitter Blue service, and is likely the biggest draw for those who have already elected to join it.
Elon Musk can have this blue checkmark back because I refuse to pay for Twitter
‘Fo shizzle, my nizzle…’
Iām sure Barbie was a beloved part of peopleās daily news routine down there, and thatās fine, but thereās this thing that happens when white people get too comfortable around Black people: They start thinking they can say and do things they normally wouldnāt if they didnāt have that familiarity.
To be clear, ānizzleā is a euphemism for the n-word. Most of us know that, and Iām sure Barbie Bassett was well aware of that before she let it come out of her mouth. Using the euphemism instead of the real word when you are a white person is still egregious no matter how you try to defend it or spin it. You shouldnāt be trying to use that word in any way, shape or form, even if you try to say she was just emulating or paying homage to Snoop Dogg, itās still wrong.
Itās just like the digital blackface conversation ā there are no passes for this.
Bassett has not appeared on air since the incident happened, and according to multiple news reports, no reason has been given for her absence. While station vice president and general manager Ted Fortenberry said on social media, āWLBT is unable to comment on personnel matters,ā there is no official word on whether she has actually been fired. Her bio is no longer on the stationās website, and she has reportedly removed any mention of WLBT from her Facebook page.
A white lady news anchor said āfo shizzle my nizzleā on air and got benched for her trouble
Let’s talk about digital blackface
To be clear, Black people were not always equally represented in the GIF game. In fact, aside from some really creative people making their own, there was a decided dearth of Black reaction gifs for us to share. That changed in 2016 when Jasmyn Lawson became the culture editor at GIPHY and made it her mission to make ātheir library of GIFs an inclusive reflection of the world.ā
She accomplished her goal. She added some of the funniest and most iconic moments with our favorite Black celebrities, athletes, and social media personalities to the mix and suddenly we had a way to express ourselves with each other on social media. It was like having a graphics version of AAVE to speak in.
Black folks speaking in memes and GIFs with each other on social media is a type of shorthand we all know and recognize. Itās a way we signify with and relate to each other.
Our use of these memes and GIFs comes with an inherent cultural understanding of where they came from and what they represent when we use them with each other.
That type of understanding and nuance is not present when non-Black people try to use them in the same way.
There are levels to this ādigital blackfaceā discussion
There are only 4 episodes of ‘Snowfall’ left
Before I started writing this, I had no idea the actress who plays Franklin Saint’s mother is British-American.
Continue readingY’all started it
LinkBefore I get started, let me be clear about one thing: All white people have white privilege.
Whenever white privilege comes up as a topic, there are always white people who want to claim they donāt have it because they are poor or uneducated or whatever excuse they come up with to try and distance themselves from the very thing that gives them a leg up no matter their class or circumstance.
White privilege is an inherent gift that all white people benefit from just by virtue of being white. You can put a poor white person in the same space as a poor Black person, and the white person is going to be viewed as somehow better no matter their station.
White privilege is about opportunity.
Being the smartest, most educated and experienced person applying doesnāt guarantee a Black person will get a job, but a mediocre white person can get a job over them because of white privilege.
White people made everything about race
My latest for theGrio discusses the social construct of race, whiteness, white privilege and white supremacy.
Stop expecting Black women to perform “grace”
The Oscars played in Angela Bassett’s face again, and in the wake of that disappointing moment, all white media can talk about is how she didn’t smile and clap for Jamie Lee Curtis, a Hollywood nepo baby, who won for what essentially amounted to a cameo in this year’s biggest winning movie.
Continue readingByron Allen knows how to throw a party
Elgin Charles low key clowned my braids last night, and I ain’t even mad at him for it.
Continue readingBen Stein, Stella Parton and Scott Adams walk into a bar
Ben Stein is racist.
Stella Parton is racist.
Scott Adams is racist.
Continue readingRacism is a part of daily life in America, whether it is as overt as people marching around in Klan uniforms or as subtle as someone making passive-aggressive negative comments about Black people in our presence.
As much as we want to give most white people the benefit of the doubt, there usually comes a time when even our faves (or their siblings) disappoint us by saying something so outlandishly racist itās hard to ignore.
I had a recent experience on Facebook with a former co-worker who I always thought was just a nice older white lady. She showed up in the comments of one of my posts and completely showed her ass, and she doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on her ignorance even when she was called out by her fellow white people.
Here is a list of white people I was extremely disappointed to find out were (undercover) racists
Stop giving Chris Brown a platform, Black women!
LinkSince the 2009 incident in which he assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna ā an incident to which he pleaded guilty and received a felony conviction ā Brown has remained an unapologetic jerk on all fronts. Last month, People magazine published a timeline of all his legal troubles since the 2009 conviction, and the list is long and full of examples of Brown being unable to control his temper and keep his hands to himself.
The 33-year-old is obviously very troubled and would likely benefit from long-term professional help, but what is not helping is all the people enabling him ā most especially Black women.
Chris Brown is problematic, and itās time for Black women to stop uplifting him
Professionalism standards and dress code policies
How is Pearson wearing a dashiki disrespecting anyone? Is it not disrespectful for Hawk to be offended by it? Would he have the same attitude if an East Indian woman wore a sari or a Japanese woman wore a kimono? Would he be offended by a Sikh wearing his turban?
Just where do we draw the line? Why is it acceptable for people of other cultures to acknowledge said cultures by wearing their traditional dress, but when a Black person does it, itās suddenly āunprofessionalā?
How professionalism standards and dress code policies support white supremacy
For theGrio, I wrote about how professionalism standards and dress codes help to uphold white supremacy. Both are almost always targeted specifically at Black people.
Happy birthday to Megan Thee Stallion
Today is Megan Thee Stallion’s 28th birthday.
She should be out celebrating and driving the boat, doing hoodrat shit with her ratchet friends, but instead she has been on a self-imposed hiatus, disappearing from the public eye immediately after Tory Lanez was convicted in December for the July 2020 incident in which he shot her in her feet.
Megan deserves so much better.
For theGrio, I wrote an open letter to her.
I hope wherever she is right now, she is surrounded by love, finding peace, feeling protected, and healing herself mentally and emotionally so she can come back stronger than ever. We miss her.
Erykah Badu and her daughter Puma broke the internet
For theGrio, I wrote about y’all being entirely too goofy over the pictures of Erykah Badu and her oldest daughter, Puma.
I noticed two very specific types of reactions to these photos. First there were the “Oh my god! I would never” people, and to them I say, “Well, don’t then, bitch.”
Then I noticed all the grown men making nasty comments and posting rapey memes with captions expressing what they would like to do to an 18-year-old. Y’all need to be on a registry somewhere.
It’s OK for us to celebrate Erykah and Puma being empowered to show off their bodies. I want all Black women to feel this free.
What’s NOT OK is making sexual comments about an 18-year-old just because “she’s legal.” Go sit your overgrown ass in a corner somewhere and figure out why you are sexualizing someone that young.
Because to be clear, neither Erykah nor her daughter sexualized themselves in those pictures. Y’ALL sexualized them with your responses to them.
Anyway, read “Age of consent doesnāt give you permission to be a creep.”
I love when Black Twitter watches a show as a family
My favorite nights on Twitter are the nights when some movie or program is on television and Black Twitter watches it as a family, providing commentary all the way through.
We have done this with Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, and a lot of other television shows and made-for-tv movies.
We did it again this Tuesday when the Golden Globe Awards aired on NBC for the first time in two years.
Continue readingI don’t like Skip Bayless
I have made no secret of how much I detest Skip Bayless, Stephen A. Smith, and Jeff Van Gundy.
When Jeff Van Gundy is one of the announcers during a basketball game, I remind everyone of how much I don’t like him.
Goals are better than resolutions, in my opinion
In a former iteration of my life, I was one of those people who made new year’s resolutions that never made it past January.
The problem, I discovered, was that while the resolutions may have been worthwhile, without specifically defining them and giving them deadlines, they simply became things I wished I could do or dreamed of doing. I needed a better plan.
Read “Why I started setting goals instead of making resolutions every new year.”
The treatment of Megan Thee Stallion since the night of her shooting is disgusting
Megan Thee Stallion has been treated like the villain ever since news broke that she was shot by Canadian rapper Tory Lanez. She has been the victim of targeted harassment, weaponized misinformation and general misogyny and misognynoir.
I discuss this in my latest for theGrio, “Before, during and after the trial of Tory Lanez, Megan Thee Stallion was treated as more of a villain than he was. Letās talk about it.”
Pete was subjected to a targeted campaign of weaponized misinformation and had her name dragged through the mud day after day. In her testimony during the trial, she tearfully related how this entire situation has impacted her life and made things harder for her, saying at one point, āBecause I was shot, Iāve been turned into some kind of villain, and heās the victim. This has messed up my whole life.
āI wish he would have just shot and killed me (rather than) have to go through this torture,ā she said.
Black women are unprotected, and in the hip-hop community, many will rush to defend a man for his actions before they will protect the woman his abusive actions harm. It’s sickening.
Read the article, and let me know what you think.
Our children are not safe
Why don’t Black children get the same benefit of the doubt that white children receive? Why are Black children adultified while white children are infantilized? Why are people so quick to take action when the offender is a Black child, but less likely to move to action when the harm is being caused by a white child?
These are just some of the questions I am looking for answers to in my latest piece for theGrio, Black children are not safe in a world ruled by white supremacy.
In this piece, I discuss the examples of Bobbi Wilson, the 9-year-old girl who had the police called on her by a neighbor who knew her because she was spraying a homemade concoction on trees to stop the infestation of an insect that is harmful to the trees.
Continue readingTwitter is dying a slow death under Elon Musk
To be clear, Twitter was already on life support, but Captain Apartheid swooped in and started unplugging all the machinery, and now the site is wheezing for help and pushing the nurse call button, but no one is responding.Ā
What we lost in the fire: Elon Musk is slowly killing the things that made Twitter a force for good
Stephen A Smith, Jerry Jones, and defending racism
āIām pretty pissed off,ā Smith said. āIām pissed off but not for reasons people think. I am very, very fond of Jerry Jones, and Iām not hiding that from anybody. Is his record perfect? No, but Iām pissed off because he doesnāt deserve what just happened. He doesnāt deserve it. One report, our report, said he was 14 years old. Another report said he was 15 years old. At minimum thatās 65 years ago.ā
Stephen A. Smith defending Jerry Jones is egregious, and hereās why
The Washington Post published an article about Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones last week. The article included a photo taken in September 1957 when six Black teens attempted to integrate the racially-segregated North Little Rock High School. They were met by an angry white mob at the front door of the school.
Jerry Jones, who was 14 at the time, is pictured in the photo standing in the crowd. When the photo came out, he rightfully received public backlash
ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith put on his Jason Whitlock costume and rushed to the defense of Jones, who he says is the victim of an attempt at “cancel culture” for something he did when he was a kid.
If only Stephen A understood that it’s a lot more nuanced than that.
My latest for theGrio.
Karen Bass is the new mayor of Los Angeles
The job ahead of her is not an easy one, but I am fully confident that she will be able to handle it because letās face it, if you want something done, you really just have to get a Black woman to do it.Ā
Congratulations, Karen Bass. You Deserve.Ā
Rick Caruso thought he was going to be able to buy his way into becoming the Mayor of Los Angeles, but it did not work out the way he thought. After spending more than $100 million of his own money and outspending Karen bass 11 to 1, he lost, and Los Angeles has it’s first woman, first Black woman, and only the second Black person in history to be mayor.
She deserves. My latest at theGrio.
Drake is a sassy bitch
StandardListen, I get it. You are a white woman of color who was born and raised in Canada. You are an actor who got your start on the Canadian show āDegrassi,ā and you are now in the midst of playing your biggest role, that of a rapper named Drake.
Dear Drake, please leave Megan Thee Stallion and every other Black woman out of your mouth
For theGrio, I addressed Drake and his messy bitch behavior. In case you are unaware, on his recent release with 21 Savage, he decided to go after Megan Thee Stallion unprovoked, and I don’t like that.
On Kyrie Irving, Jeff Bezos, Amazon and antisemitism
Kyrie Irving definitely should have apologized for posting the link, but it should have ended there. If you are not going to hold the hosts of the material accountable, how are you going to find multiple ways to punish the consumer for taking it in?Ā
Kyrie Irving has gotten all the smoke, but why arenāt Jeff Bezos and Amazon being held accountable?
For theGrio, I share my thoughts on the sanctions the Nets have put on Kyrie Irving and question why Jeff Bezos isn’t receiving the same amount of scrutiny for hosting the infamous antisemitic video that Irving has received for posting it to his Twitter account.