I am sick and tired of the cultural story line that insists only one version (complexion) of black women can be “in style” (beautiful, popular, desirable) at any given time. There seems to […]
Author: rboylorn
Why I’m (Probably) Not Watching “The Game”
Last year I posted on the return of The Game (yes, it has been a year since it (re)debuted on BET) and offered a critique of the ways in which the characters morphed to fit BET programming, which compromised the integrity of the characters that fans had fought and petitioned for. After The Game came […]
5 Reasons To See The Mountaintop
I went to New York City over winter break to see Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop on Broadway. I had been excited about seeing the play since it debuted in October. It stars Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett in a re-imagining of the night before Martin Luther King’s death. I found the play to be provocative […]
Teaching Moments: On Accountability, Love & Patience
I teach and do research on issues centering on identity and diversity. As the fall semester is coming to a close, I had the benefit of watching my students, many who started the semester ambivalent about difference and the need for diversity and acceptance, come full circle. Through presentations and last words, they expressed how […]
Sexy, Self-Conscious, Sanctified, Sassy & Single: Why I Married My Ph.D.
2011 has garnered a lot of conversations centering on the undesirability (hence un-marryability) of (professional) black women. Black women have been fed unsolicited and unnecessary information about how to correct and prepare ourselves for our soulmate without giving us the credit due grown ass women who routinely (and effectively) handle our ish, look good doing […]
20 Things I Want To Say To My Twentysomething Self
I recently re-discovered a journal I kept after I graduated from college in 2000. I was unemployed, seemingly unemployable, broken-hearted, on the brink of adulthood but still so incredibly naïve (something I only recognize now, because I have distance, experience and context). I was twenty-one years old, feeling grown and wise… and like a failure. […]
Disappearing Acts, Unreciprocated Interest(s) & Other Rhythms to My Blues
On the crevices of my thirty-third year if you listen hard enough and look long enough you might hear the rhythm of my blues. This is not a blues to sashay to– but rather one that leaves you listening to your heartbeat, while sitting on the floor legs folded, with crossed arms and neck pushed […]
Confessions of a Reality TV Junkie
What began as morbid curiosity and harmless voyeurism has turned into somewhat of an obsession. Reality Television has become a habitual part of my nightly routine and something that I am not particularly proud of. As I spent the weekend clearing out my DVR, which was full of reality tv shows I missed while being […]
Prelude to an Exhale: My Best Friend Is Getting Married!
My best friend is getting married (in three weeks). In fact, in the last four months, three of my close friends have tied the knot. I can remember having “waiting to exhale” conversations with all three of these friends (one of them male) about the improbability and impossibility that true, enduring, forever-type love was possible […]
Ode to Dark (Skinned) Girls
My melanin proficiency has often led to color complex(ion) issues brought on by my country (rural) upbringing in a community (and country) fascinated (via the hegemonic influences of beauty) with my yellow-skinned sister with looooooooooooooooooooong hair and generally ambivalent with me (and my dark skin and short/er hair). They (the adults and other children in […]