A White man’s bad day is never victimless. A White man’s bad day is terror. — Last Wednesday, Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee Sheriff’s department in Cherokee County, Georgia, stood in front of reporters to explain why Robert Aaron Long had killed eight people — six of them Asian women. …

365 days ago, a group of actors learned that money and fame didn’t mean as much as they’d thought — A year ago, we were scared. The world had shut down, and nobody really knew how dangerous Covid-19 was going to prove to be. We were wiping down groceries, thinking that being anywhere near anyone else was a death sentence. Jobs were vaporizing; entire industries seemed to be shutting down…

The Gary, Indiana, rapper’s story exemplifies the rise of a time that changed everything — I try not to put too much stock in award shows. Part of that is because of who decides the winners; part is because many of these shows depend on Black artists for ratings but don’t reward them for their work. The last Black woman to win a Grammy for…

The hooks on ‘Scary Hours 2’ are the same old hitmaking algorithm, but the verses show that 6 God might just be maturing — Almost a year ago, I wrote an article about Drake. In it, I talked about how I’d identified so much with his music when I was 22 — but then, as we both grew into our midthirties over the next decade, he basically kept making music for 22-year-olds. The article…

We’ve been told that the worst that happens to the state is just part of America’s natural order. It’s time that changes. — I used to be deathly afraid of tornadoes when I was a kid. And in Mississippi, tornadoes were abundant. I’d spend hours of my summer days glued to the Weather Channel any time gray clouds would form. If a storm was on the horizon, I’d watch the meteorologists explain the…

What’s it going to take for us to see the red flags for what they are? — Everything should have changed for Clifford “T.I.” Harris in November 2019. That’s when the rapper went on the Ladies Like Us podcast and talked about traumatizing his daughter, Deyjah. “Not only have we had The Conversation,” he said when asked about sex education in his household, “[but] we have yearly…

Black voters took control of the state in the recent Senate elections. Now the backlash has arrived. — A couple of months ago, I wrote an article called “Trump’s War on Black Voters Is Far From Over.” Donald Trump had just lost the presidential election largely due to Black folks organizing in Georgia, and we were weeks away from Democrats regaining Senate control, thanks again to those same…

Women like Vanessa Bryant and Lauren London are deserving of respect, regardless of their connections to beloved men — Over the weekend, Vanessa Bryant logged onto Instagram to once again address a grievance on behalf of her family. This time it was about an ill-considered punchline from Meek Mill on a recent song: “If I ever lack, I’m goin’ out with my chopper, it be another Kobe.” Bryant’s response…

The Nike sneaker-buying experience has been brutal for years. When will fans get too fed up to keep supporting the brand? — The demise of Blockbuster Video lives in my head rent-free. It’s the perfect parable about America’s brand of capitalism and what happens when people are given a choice that frees them from greed. Sort of. Blockbuster thrived in the late ’80s and early ’90s because it scaled explosively, opening new…