How we use the term ‘hater’ to avoid reflection and self-improvement
One of the greatest R&B lines ever delivered is “don’t need no hateration, holleration, in this dancerie.” The Queen of R&B, Mary J. Blige gave us that one in...
Love and Relationships / Reflections
by Jenn M. Jackson · Published July 12, 2017 · Last modified July 28, 2017
One of the greatest R&B lines ever delivered is “don’t need no hateration, holleration, in this dancerie.” The Queen of R&B, Mary J. Blige gave us that one in...
Culture / Love and Relationships
by Jenn M. Jackson · Published July 10, 2017 · Last modified July 13, 2017
Recently, rapper Jay-Z released his thirteenth solo album 4:44. The album details his infidelity to his wife, mother of his three children, and perhaps the biggest superstar in the world, Beyoncé....
Entertainment / Gender & Sexuality
by Jenn M. Jackson · Published June 9, 2017 · Last modified June 12, 2017
“I love you. Mommy loves you, Charlotte.” I watched a character named “Ofwarren” speak those words to a rosey-cheeked baby before jumping from a bridge. She was attempting to end...
Saturday Night Live is what happens when white people enjoy something that’s anti-Black, systematically bigoted, and generally exclusionary to non-whites. SNL producers thought that throwing in a few Black people who we...
Sometimes we, meaning the collective we of Black folx, are confronted with the fact that every single Black person is not committed to our mutual uplift and liberation. People like...
“It’s not my fault you’re pregnant,” a male coworker said to me when I raised an issue with how infrequently people would give up their seats on our company...
I’m so salty that I missed the Nicki Minaj tuition and loan payment party on Twitter last week. At the same time though, I am hoping it becomes a thing. More...
Jordan Edwards, 15, was killed on Saturday night while riding in a car with friends. The teenager was unarmed and was not suspected of any crime. Yet, police authorities in...
There’s not enough fine or success in the world to save hoteps from the sunken place. And Idris Elba, John Ridley, and Tyrese Gibson are evidence of that fact.
I rarely pay attention to celebrity Twitter. Not because I have some type of moralistic claim to do so. It takes too much work to know what is going on...
by Jenn M. Jackson · Published April 14, 2017 · Last modified January 15, 2018
I give myself away all the time. To my children. To my partner. To mom. To my friends. To my job. My boss. My peers. My couch. My studies. My...
It’s not easy being the only or one of the few Black people in a predominantly white space. Press correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks and new CNN commentator April...
What do you get when you mix a thin, pretty, young, celebrity model (from the Kardashian brood no less) with a corporatized imaginary protest? If you guessed trash, congratulations. That’s what...
We all watched last year as it became clear that an inexperienced, failure of a man would be following President Obama into the White House. As we struggled with that...
Culture / Entertainment / Race
by Jenn M. Jackson · Published March 23, 2017 · Last modified March 26, 2017
Professional athletics have long been riddled with controversy and scandal. But, there are some particularities facing Black professional athletes in the NFL and the NBA today that must be called...
I was born in 1984. While I wasn’t really allowed to watch popular television shows for almost a decade, I vividly remember seeing TLC’s “What About Your Friends” video on...
One of the most irritating byproducts of this new era of being “woke” is the increased numbers of people who read one Martin Luther King, Jr speech or saw one...
Parenting / Pop Culture / Reflections
by Jenn M. Jackson · Published March 1, 2017 · Last modified April 12, 2017
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a conflicted piece about NBC’s “This Is Us.” Befuddled by the dissonance I experienced between the show’s resounding praise and my own thoughts...
Culture / Entertainment / Race
by Jenn M. Jackson · Published February 27, 2017 · Last modified March 4, 2017
I have long been critical of national awards shows. I have also long been critical of the white gaze. I learned in my twenties that neither of them were for...
One of the most common refrains I hear from white readers of my work is, “I really liked this piece because it didn’t make me feel bad about being white.”...