As a person who preordered the first iPad mini solely for reading, I used to get mad that most Americans don’t actively or even care to read. That’s changed now. When studies showed that almost half of Americans can’t read well enough to understand their own health information to save on health care costs and that the national reading grade level is dropping every year I stopped getting mad, because I realized that it’s not that most Americans don’t read, it’s that they can’t read, period. But Americans who can’t read are nothing new. In the past, in the age of slavery, African-American slaves couldn’t read, it was a crime…

Really tired of people saying that they only say the things they do because they want to get an honest reaction out of people, and only that. No, you’re just assholes dying for some attention. Shut up, please. I’ve pretty much made a science of doing things just to see how people honestly react. Years back, I proudly told people I’d read and enjoyed books they demeaned like “Twilight” just to see how much they’d laugh at me. In the past couple of years I’ve realized that my dating habits are eccentric enough to warrant laughs of derision from a lot of people, and so now I openly speak about…

So much of the entertainment industry is reminiscent of us boys fighting during recess when we were kids, isn’t it? Rap beefs, top of the charts beefs, mixed martial arts beefs, yada yada beefs, all played out so somebody can be “The Man” of the hour for at least an hour. But Mr. Miyagi was always right. In a fight, so much of “Being a Man” is childish. And yet, in a fight, so much of being mature looks cowardice. Maturity then, growing up into a real man, is about learning to live with the boys and girls who goad you all of your life with “Be a Man” forever…

“This revolution, this war, is different,” said a revolutionary. And then another. And then another. Am I a revolutionary? Am I different? Yes. No. No… I don’t know. But being someone who’s well-read seems to be a symptom of being different. At least, of being different enough. And no, I’m not talking about the act of reading well, but the process by which someone becomes someone who’s well-read. Looking back, I fell down the well and in love with reading when I was a kid in Texas after I picked up “The Yearling” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Redwall” by Brian Jacques, and “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card. By the…

Thanks to Amanda Tendler, I’ve learnt this week that instead of telling people that I’m happily somewhere on the spectrum, or that I just have SPD, I can now officially call myself an Aspie. I’m part of the club! Even though I’m very social and I don’t actually exhibit any negative traits like having a meltdown despite the fact that they’re still present. I can’t speak for anyone else but myself or on what having Asperger’s is like (how do you properly speak on what a state of being is like when you’re perpetually in it?) so I’ll just write ten points on what now looking back are all the signs of…

Hahaha, the narcissism of this post. Personally, it’s much easier to write this as someone whose level of attraction varies greatly depending on the exact group of people they’re with. Let me explain. I’m black (African/Rwandan/Canadian), short for a guy (5′6″), and I’m a lot more pretty than I am handsome. Life has dealt me a weird set of cards appearance-wise. If someone doesn’t like or doesn’t see themselves in a relationship with a black guy then I’m not attractive to them, if they don’t like or see themselves in a relationship with a short guy then I’m not attractive to them, and if they like their guys testosterone-filled then,…

If you’re reading this then chances are that you know someone who’s bought a self-help book, or someone who’s bought a business book written by someone who’s made it, or a book written by a spiritual leader of some sort, or any of the kind disguised as a biography. Chances are you know someone who goes to a house of worship with a book in their hand, and someone who’s recently liked a post, song, or video talking about just what’s wrong with the… something, anything. If you’re reading this then chances are you’re human. Ayeee, congrats! And welcome to us, we love preaching! The only thing here we love…

Paradoxically, a lot of what makes someone talented gets in the way of real hard work. By that I mean that most times the opposite of talent looks like hard work. And most times the more talent you have the harder it is for you to get any real work done. For the path between talent and hard work is that much longer the more talented you are and running from one end of the scale to the other is that much more time consuming, that much more difficult. Basically, talent and hard work aren’t friends, and if they are they live on opposite ends of the world. Making great…

Beauty makes us a promise it can’t ever deliver. A promise of complete salvation. If/when attained completely, it promises to save us from not just the world’s but our own negative views about ourselves. But it’s not just beauty that does this. The notions of wisdom, goodness, strength, and abundance also make us promises of unshackling that they can’t ever deliver on. Even our dreams promise us that they’ll absolutely save us from the world and ourselves. This is one of the things that’s always confused me about being human. That, although the truth will set us free, at our core, we very much like our impossible promises of total…

I never really got why there aren’t more straight black men fighting for feminist or LGBTQ+ issues. And vice versa, I never got why anyone part of the LGBTQ+ or feminist movements would choose not to fight against racism. I mean, almost globally, a woman going to her job’s HR department to speak out about the sexual harassment she’s facing looks very similar to a dark-skinned man going to their local government to speak out about police harassment. I mean, even if the person they’ll both be talking to looks exactly like them, both walk forward realizing that the overall system has a vested interested in keeping things quiet, and…