The vice president’s cold handling of a migration crisis conveniently disregards the mess the U.S. has historically made in Central America
Vice President Kamala Harris has never looked more like an American politician than she did last week. That is not a compliment.
America’s migration volume is the highest its been in more than 20 years. The most recent spike began after Biden was elected. And thus far, his administration’s handling of the situation has been a capital-F failure.
In March, Biden told Americans that Trump eliminated the $700 million he raised as Obama’s vice president to directly aid the Northern Triangle of Central America (Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala). But that’s irrelevant now. The current migration issue is now completely…
The controversy surrounding ‘Kim’s Convenience’ highlights a sad truth about diversity
When the Canadian television series Kim’s Convenience arrived on Netflix in the summer of 2018, I was instantly smitten. It wasn’t the funniest show I’d ever seen, or slickly produced in any way, but it had loads of charm. The largely self-inflicted pratfalls of the titular Kim family marked the first time I could recall seeing a Korean family starring in a sitcom, which also went a long way for me.
The whole affair seemed progressive, even though some of the humor did not. What can I say, I grew up in the 1970s with Fred Sanford and Archie Bunker…
Level Q
Fresh off ‘Verzuz’, the R&B legend discusses everything from prison concerts to his pandemic beard to a disgraced collaborator
Don’t be fooled by the saccharine lyrics and melodies that ooze from Isley Brothers classics. The songs’ authors are gladiator competitive. Their iconic lead, Ronald Isley, is nothing short of loquacious when addressing this fact.
The man formerly known as Mr. Biggs admits that since the 1950s, he and his brothers studied the best with the clear intention of besting them. When Marvin Gaye made “Sexual Healing,” the Isleys birthed “Between the Sheets.” When Teddy Pendergrass released “Close the Door,” they followed with “Don’t Say Goodnight.”
Ronald wouldn’t even oblige Michael Jackson’s request to be produced by him — he…
The Ultimate Guide to Black Men’s Hair
Don’t stress your hair’s natural process — roll out the silver carpet for it
Salt and pepper have always been an iconic duo — a seasoning starter kit for struggle chefs everywhere. But when it comes to scalps and scruff, the color combo suggests an air of mastery. Bad Boys for Life got it all wrong: Today’s virility means skipping the Midnight Cocoa Bean hair dye and letting those grays come out to play.
Gone are the days when gray hair signaled that a man has begun his descent, becoming a relic of yesteryear. Now, the black and whites that pepper a man’s strands indicate mountains climbed and lessons learned. Not everyone makes it…
The new Netflix series ‘High On The Hog’ gives soul food its proper praise and exploration
Several years ago, my mother crafted handmade family cookbooks for each of her sons as Christmas presents. The base of the gift was a red Campbell’s recipe book built like a photo album. She gutted its stock recipes and replaced them with typed and clean pages of her own gastronomic roadmaps.
More importantly (at least to the son who writes more than he cooks), the book leads with a compendium of photos, family history notes, and recollections from family dinners of the past. The origins of key traditions that had been taken for granted for years were explained, and anecdotes…
I just hope he knew I accepted him. Unconditionally.
I will call my friend “C.”
He grew up in Washington, D.C., with me and our crew of Black boys.
He was gay, but we did not know it. We suspected, but he didn’t say it, so that was that. People would say he was in the closet, but he and some other gay friends who grew up in the neighborhood had been pushed out.
C floated in both worlds. Still, there was no doubt in his mind that he couldn’t ever come out on his own accord. It wasn’t safe on so many levels. Yet C was our friend…
Just Rankin’ Sh!t
Bring on the bubble guts!
6. (Real) Singles
We don’t know much, but we know one thing: There are foods that only a Kraft product can complete. What, you’re gonna make a grilled cheese or breakfast sandwich with Swiss like a damn savage? The thing is, not all American cheese is created equal. If the package says “cheese food” or “American slices” or anything besides just “cheese,” keep that shopping cart pushing. In other words, Deli Deluxe all day!
5. Cotija
The original salty sprinkle. Wow, sorry, we didn’t think about how that sentence sounded until we saw it sitting there. …
It’s time to stop pretending that the West Virginia senator will stand up for voting rights
I’m not convinced that Joe Manchin is actually concerned about the fate of American democracy. But I genuinely admire the level of faith exhibited by folks like Raphael Warnock when broaching the subject.
Speaking with Politico, the Georgia senator and senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta said that after talking with Manchin on Sunday, he was “hopeful” he would eventually win him over in supporting voting rights legislation to help thwart the state-by-state assault currently being led by GOP elected officials. “We’ve got to find a way to pass voting rights,” Warnock said of the Democrat senator. “I…
Just Rankin’ Sh!t
If you were a gas pipeline, you’d already be out millions!
5. “123456”
No lie, this is the most common password used. (And “123456789” is right behind it.) If you’re lazy enough to rock with this, we’d hate to see the back of your fridge. Or your personal grooming situation. Or really anything else in your life.
4. “Password”
Another perennial top five on security audits, this either means you never bothered changing the default when it was given to you — in the early 2000s, we’re guessing — or you have trouble remembering how to count in order. …
The Emmy-winning drama reminded us that gay White men aren’t the center of the LGBTQ universe
“Live. Werk. Pose.”
From the day it debuted on our television screens in 2018, announcing itself with those three words, Pose simultaneously told LGBTQ+ history and made it. The FX drama celebrated the same 1980s New York City underground ball and drag culture that the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning explored nearly three decades earlier to ecstatic reviews.
Paris Is Burning is a groundbreaking piece of cinema that gave LGBTQ+ people of color the unprecedented screen time that made the mainstreaming of RuPaul and his Drag Race possible. Similarly, Pose — which recently completed its three-season run — was a…
LEVEL
Higher Learning. A publication from Medium for the interested man.
