Jada Pinkett Smith has a new book, called Worthy, out Tuesday, and it is important that we keep that in mind as the internet once again takes in the latest inflammatory statements made by the actress and wife.
In a clip from an NBC interview with Hoda Kotb, Pinkett Smith revealed that she and husband, actor Will Smith, have been separated since 2016, though the couple has no plans to divorce.
“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through whatever,” Pinkett Smith told Kotb. “And I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”
However, she said, “I think by the time we got to 2016, we were both just exhausted with trying. I think we were both kind of still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”
The Smiths have been making headlines for years, and there’s no need to rehash everything that has gone down between them because a) there’s too much of it, and b) there are enough stories out there that simply typing their names into Google will give you all the tea you can sip.
Dear Will and Jada, please take us out of the group chat
andscape
When it comes to Black homeownership, these people are keeping it in the family
LinkIn 2021, the Black homeownership rate in LA was 33.5%, according to the U.S. Census, the 124th lowest among metropolitan areas in America. At the same time, 58% of white households in the LA metro area owned homes. Besides a legacy of discriminatory housing practices and policies that historically prevented Black families from buying homes and building generational wealth, the National Association of Real Estate Brokers said, the ability to come up with the 20% down payment required to buy a home with a conventional mortgage is also an impediment.
In short, Black people often make enough money to pay a house note, but they lack the ability to build enough savings to make a down payment.
The high housing costs aren’t unique to big cities. In the 2023 Snapshot of Race and Home Buying in America, the National Association of Realtors Research Group said “rising mortgage rates and home prices significantly hurt affordability, forcing many buyers out of the market.” The report stated mortgage rates have doubled since the previous year and housing prices have reached an all-time high.
When it comes to Black homeownership, these people are keeping it in the family
On ‘And Just Like That,’ Black and brown characters are little more than props
LinkAs a young writer, I imagined myself as a Black Carrie Bradshaw, and I aspired to live comfortably while only working as a writer and not having to have a day job. I mean, who wouldn’t want a cute apartment in a bustling city, a fabulous wardrobe, an impeccable shoe collection, and a group of amazing and equally successful women who poured into me, listened to me whine about men, and could relate?
The only problem? I didn’t really see a reflection of myself in those characters. Yes, I shared traits with both Carrie, played by Sarah Jessica Parker (writer! clothes lover! shoe collector!), and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), who was sexually liberated and unapologetically herself at all times. But I couldn’t see myself in those women. It wasn’t just that I’m not a prim and proper prude like Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) or an awkward neurotic who is all over the place like Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon). I’m not white.
On ‘And Just Like That,’ Black and brown characters are little more than props
Ricky Williams is advocating for mental health in ‘Soul Training’
LinkIn Black and brown communities, there’s a very good reason not to trust mental health practitioners and professionals in the same way that there’s a good reason not to trust the system, so I think we have to start there and acknowledge that most systems have not been for Black and brown people. So if the help is being offered by the same hand that just bit you, you would be foolish to give them your hand and trust them to heal the wound they created.
You want someone who can journey with you into your inner world and be trustworthy enough not to weaponize it against you or use it against you. You want someone who is cultured enough to understand your experience to never project their ideas of the world onto you and allow you to have your own ideas that are rooted in your culture and who you are and the communities you grew up in.
Being vulnerable is a luxury. I’m reminded when I go into environments where survival is life and death on a daily basis that vulnerability is not necessarily a thing that’s going to help you survive; it’s actually a thing that might get you hurt or might get you killed. So when it comes to Black and brown communities, they have been put in a position in society where they constantly have to survive, and this luxury of vulnerability isn’t available to them.
Ricky Williams is advocating for mental health in ‘Soul Training’
Snowfall is legend
Everyone from the hood or hood adjacent knows a dude who is out there wandering the streets looking crazy and lost. When we see him, we say, “You know who that is?”
For us right now in this moment, that dude is Franklin Saint.
Continue readingJerrod Carmichael was the perfect host for the Golden Globes
Let’s keep it real: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is still under the same microscope it has been under for the last two years as it continues to fight its way out of the negative press it received for not having any Black members.
NBC decided not to air the Golden Globe Awards ceremony in 2022 because of the fact HFPA was embroiled in so much scandal. It was a mess.
As most organizations do when they get called for blatant racism or a lack of diversity, HFPA has been bending over backwards to try and make amends, including adding six new Black members to their ranks and ensuring that more Black actors and projects were nominated for this year’s awards.
They didn’t stop there, though.
Continue readingYou happy now, bitch?
“Wendell Pierce is a Black man who grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, with parents who stressed education — understanding that your first wealth is health, and soon thereafter is education,” the actor, who recently became the first Black man to play the lead in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman on Broadway, told Andscape.
How ‘Death of a Salesman’ helped Wendell Pierce become fearless
Y’all. I had the extreme pleasure of interviewing actor Wendell Pierce to discuss his role playing Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. Pierce is the first Black actor to play the role on Broadway.
Wendell Pierce is one of my favorite actors. I stan. I was so excited to do this interview, and he did not disappoint. (read more after the jump)
Continue readingAmazon’s ‘A League of Their Own’ Tells Black stories loudly and proudly
LinkAlthough the new show is also a fictionalized retelling of the World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), that’s where the similarities to the original ends.
‘A League of Their Own’ is based on the 1992 movie, but has an identity all its own
I got to interview Prentice Penny and Sam Jay!
If the first season was the test, then the second season was the fully actualized product. Jay pulled the curtain back on her own life, focusing an entire episode on her infidelity and its impact on her relationship with her fiancée, Yanise Monet, affectionately called “Ya.”
‘PAUSE with Sam Jay’ is the weekly house party we didn’t know we needed
Today is the 30th anniversary of the Los Angeles Uprising
Link“In April 29, 1992, the city of Los Angeles erupted into a state of civil unrest following the not guilty verdict in the trial of the Los Angeles police officers charged with the brutal beating of Rodney King. For six days, people angry about the trial’s outcome took to the streets, businesses were looted and the city burned. While the verdict was the final straw for many, the fuse for their anger was lit years before.”
30 years after the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, not enough has changed