How I Met Whitney Houston
As a teenager growing up in the 1980s in the projects of Watts, California, the author was practically orphaned by her mother's drug addiction, and made it her mission to meet Whitney Houston.
View ArticleHarvard PhD + Black Male = Suspicious Person
One day, I was stopped on Harvard Yard, mid-day, by a police officer on bike who said that I fit the description of a 6-foot-tall black man who 'was looking for someone at a girl's dorm.'
View ArticleThe Lessons of Fatherhood
After being adamant, for all my adult life that I would never have children—the world was too crazy and all that—all of my protestations did not matter a lick. My wife was pregnant.
View ArticleThe Wall Between My Father and Me
My dad grew up in Ghana and says that in West Africa men must be a step away from their children.
View ArticleThe Odds of Marriage: Trials & Lots of Errors
Unmarried female friends often tease me, asking questions about how I met and married the kind of man we all assumed in college we were entitled to marry. Here's the unglamorous truth.
View ArticleThe First Time I Encountered a Subway Grinder
A court has ruled that sexually grinding against an un-consenting person on a packed subway car is not a felony. Here's why it should be.
View ArticleIn Sea of White & Asian Students, A Lone Black One
The teacher made it obvious that he didn’t think I belonged in the honors class.
View ArticleAfter Hurricane Sandy, A 7-Mile Walk Home
Stranded on the Lower East Side for a few days, I had very few other choices.
View ArticleThe Neuroses of a Privileged White Educator
A Bronx educator asks himself, 'Am I part of the White Savior Industrial Complex?'
View ArticleThe Thanksgiving After Mama Died
From the time I left home for college at 18 until the year of her death, I’d always gone back to her home in Detroit for Thanksgiving. Now what would I do?
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