What the Movies Used to Show Us Movies like Norma Rae and 9 to 5 once showed ordinary workers pushing back against unfair treatment. They were entertaining, but they also gave people a language for frustration, dignity, and resistance. They reminded workers that being angry about mistreatment did not make them difficult. Sometimes speaking up
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The Industry Can Make You Famous Without Making You Free The music industry can make someone famous without giving that person full control over the business behind the fame. An artist may sell millions of records while important rights belong to a label, publisher, manager, or other company. Fans see the performer, but contracts may
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What We Choose to Protect Something troubles me about how easily we can criticize people who sacrificed for us while defending people who simply became successful among us. I am not saying all Black people think the same way, but I have heard people criticize Martin Luther King Jr. without hesitation while becoming defensive when
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The First Ten Thousand Changes Something I heard someone say that saving and investing your first $10,000 can be one of the most important financial milestones. Ten thousand dollars may not make you rich, but reaching it proves something important. You have learned how to keep part of what you earn instead of spending everything
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Do Not Go Grocery Shopping Starving I once heard dating compared to grocery shopping while starving, and it made perfect sense. When you are hungry, everything looks good, and you may grab things you would never choose if you felt settled. Dating can work the same way. When we are emotionally starving, attention can feel
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Why Would Anybody Bring a Child Into This? I heard someone say that having a child in today’s world is selfish, and I understood the concern. There is war, violence, hatred, loneliness, and suffering everywhere we look. News and social media can make the world seem especially dark. If someone has already lived through hardship,
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Stop Calling Survival Culture I heard somebody say that poverty is not Black culture, and the words stayed with me. Violence is not Black culture. Prison is not Black culture. Living in fear is not Black culture. These things may exist in some Black communities, but that does not make them cultural values. Poverty is
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Growth Has a Price Growth sounds beautiful until it begins asking us to give something up. Real growth can mean leaving behind old habits, familiar places, and versions of ourselves that once felt comfortable. That is where fear enters. Staying the same can feel easier than stepping into something uncertain. But growth requires movement. Sometimes
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The Theory That Named a Feeling In January 2021, a user called IlluminatiPirate posted what became known as the “dead internet theory.” The claim was that the internet had largely stopped being human around 2016 or 2017 and was being filled by bots, artificial intelligence, corporations, and governments. There was no solid evidence for that
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The Life She Presented Angel Victoria Murdock became the center of controversy after presenting herself online as a Duke physician assistant student. For nearly two years, she posted about classes, clinical rotations, and PA school, and she was identified that way when she appeared on Netflix’s Temptation Island. Later, Duke graduates questioned the story, and
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