0 2K14: A Critical Fuck U2 Homelessness

 By Tabias Wilson   "A chair is still a chair Even when there's no one sittin' there But a chair is not a house And a house is not a home When there's no one there to hold you tight And no one there you can kiss goodnight" -Luther Vandross/Dionne Warwick  A House is Not A Home It's necessary to begin this manifesto with the recognition that I have spent little time sleeping on the physical streets of America. I'm not well-versed in the act of survival without a physical covering, nor would I feel comfortable identifying as homeless in the public policy notion of the word. This is no means an attempt to belittle the...

0 Reflection on 2013: Being a Walking Contradiction

For most of us 2013 was the year we graduated college and entered the “real world”. For me, this pales in comparison to the larger change in my life this year: becoming a walking contradiction. At our core we are all partial hypocrites. It is a flaw that most people do not acknowledge and can go about their daily lives without problem. We tell ourselves that it is okay to lie, but criticize our neighbor for the same action. We blame our own mistakes on situational problems, but see others’ as flaws of their character. If I am late to a meeting I know it was because of traffic, but if someone else gave the same excuse I would roll my eyes....

0 What We're Reading Today (12-18-13)

Big, big, big ups to Jay for crushing it on his piece about Beyonce.  It's the piece before this one if you, foolishly, have not yet read it. Demanding 'no excuses' of schools and 'grit' of poor children while ignoring the real problem - Atlanta Journal Constitution Maureen Downey Kanye West: The Higher Learning of the College Dropout - Joseph Boston Joseph Two Years Ago, I Saw a Sad Black Boy Named Donald Glover - Gawker Kyla Marshell On Defending Beyonce: Black Feminists, White Feminists, and the Line in the Sand - Black Girl Dangerous Mia McKenzie An Education Anything but Standard - Wright and Left Greg Wright Rinku Sen: What Mandela...

9 To Wake Up Flawless | Beyoncé as Black and Feminist

Before Beyoncé, I don’t think I would ever be a feminist (read: womanist, but let’s stay in conversation). Raised by a queen, I long appreciated women’s strength, their multitudes. I learned their intersections seeing my mother navigate both male and white spaces, seeing her sisterhood from Los Angeles to Boston and beyond, survive. My appreciation though never charged me to jump in and stand with them. I could support from my various places of masculine performing privileges but Beyoncé is the reason I can call myself a feminist now. In reading the growing and mixed discourse since the release of her self-titled fifth album, I realize it...

0 What We're Reading Today (12-4-13)

The Rise of the New Left - The Daily Beast Peter Beinart Yeezus Taught Me - Medium Kasai In Defense of Kanye's Vanity: The Politics Of Black Self-Love - Buzzfeed Heben Nigatu Harry Belafonte was Right About Jay-Z - Our Legaci Jessica Ann Mitchell Kanye's Frantz Fanon Complex - Our Legaci Jessica Ann Mitchell Your Brain on Poverty: Why Poor People Seem to Make Bad Decisions - The Atlantic Derek Thompson Second Class Citizens - Tufts Observer Ben Kurland Substantiating Fears of Grade Inflation, Dean Says Median Grade at Harvard College is A-, Most Common Grade Is A - Harvard Crimson Matthew Q. Clarida and Nicholas P. Fandos Teaching While...