My son is a sophomore varsity track athlete. His achievements are strong enough to place him on D2 teams. His desires — academically and athletically — are to be recruited by D1 teams. He keeps trying to close the gaps in grades and seconds to get there. …

Black People Can Be Deplorable, Too Mary Cosby, a star of Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City, treats her cast and congregants horribly. We witness her be a gold digger, fat-shamer, elitist asshole and pathological liar. She uses her toxic tongue to make her enemies on the show feel tiny. She believes that she is a…

Some of my friends are the definition of Millionaire Next Store prototypes.They send their kids to public schools and drive conservative vehicles. Occasionally, they splurge on a vacation or a remodel. Others are comfortable displaying their wealth a bit more. They welcome respectful and engaging conversations about how they got…

You Get A Staycation Anyone who doesn’t want to get a vaccine, and wear a mask when they are in public, ought to be placed on home arrest. We put ankle bracelets on humans for distributing nonlethal drugs. Let’s reverse it. …

The man in front of me mostly spoke Spanish. The man behind me mostly spoke Mandarin. This is a day in a LA overflow line. It was my second time trying to win the vaccine lotto. …

Remember when 2020 sounded cute. The energy of a sonogram where the parents get wide-eyed as they learn they’re having twins. The double 20 invited wordplay and light aliteratiration. This year should have been as magical as Prince’s 1999. No magic here. Just a shit show on women, checks and…

OMG, When Did You Get So Fat?! Bosses and members from when I was in the gym industry: “Shauna is pretty and professional. It’s so sad that she doesn’t take care of herself.” “She must be a food hoarder, right?” Mentors: “I am really alarmed. About your body! …

Black Power Mom I rarely speak about my mom anymore because there is nothing left to say. The woman who defined Black Power is powerless. We lived in Oakland but traveled to LA frequently to see family and her musician friends. I was about 6 when paranoid schizophrenia came for her brilliant brain…

4:00 PM — A (Caucasian) friend nudges me to go to a protest in Thousand Oaks. It’s mostly young, white people. She is proactively trying to figure out to be a better ally in her space as an educator. I was planning on cleaning, crying, and cleaning all day. This…