Last night, I had a dream that pretty much encapsulated my true feelings about the eurocentric brand of Christianity. It began like most of my family road trip dreams do. My parents, brothers and I are going along a country road. Dad is driving, and Mom is smiling, and my younger brothers and I are…
Some time ago, Cuz (the Catholic taxi driver turned accountant) offered to give me an apartment in an attempt to get back in. I declined because though I could see being the mistress of a discreetly but honestly polygamous man, I’m not going to be the life support system of a failing monogamy. I’m also not…
Step right up, folks! Welcome to a world where disagreement in a discussion means harassment, following a link means cyberstalking, and posting a photo, even by mistake, in your blog without wasting the author’s bandwidth is a copyright violation warranting shutting down your site. This is the world of Bene Viera, a writer on Essence.com. As you…
Updated July 28, 2014 A few years ago, I started a discussion at the Essence.com community forum entitled Should a Black Man Be Allowed to Disagree? What set it off was Bene Viera and some others deciding that Obsidian didn’t have the right to speak his mind about the state of relationships in the African American community.…
A sad fact of human nature that I came to understand in elementary school is that there are two kinds of people: thinkers and non thinkers. Thinkers may run the range as far as levels of social dependence. Some may understand a situation, but lack the courage to actively shape it. They will conform to…
Obesity moral panic, step by step 1. Promote an androgynous ideal for women. (first wave 1920’s, second wave during WWII, third wave started in the late 1960’s) Social enforcement factor: You must look more like a man to compete with men. Promote androgynous models as more beautiful than the busty, thick thighed pin-up girls of the…