My wife is not black.

Politics, man.

As part of my day job, I travel a lot for work. I’m one of those semi-road-warrior types who collects miles and points on my weekly trips in and around the United States to sit in meetings where I add marginal value, eat boxed lunches and internally critique PowerPoint font choices. I’m TSA Precheck. I have airline…

White men are taught to believe that they can do everything, it’s just how our society is set up. But should they do everything? I’ve compiled a short list of things that, while white guys feel totally comfortable doing, maybe they should let someone else try or just stop doing altogether.

Blackness. It’s a dynamic state of interwoven race, ethnicity and culture that’s both unifying as well as mystifying. While being a member of the black community comes with an immeasurable number of intrinsic benefits and inherent perks (see: people assuming you’re cool/people assuming you can hoop/people always…

Please forgive me, for I have sinned.

You know the feeling. You’ve just walked into a fine retail establishment, determined to drive yourself further into debt by collecting more shit you don’t need, when you get that strange sensation: Somebody’s watching you. Really, it’s fucked up for two reasons: the first being that it feeds into the idea that…

If there’s one way I know that the show was a pure work of fiction, it’s that in all the seasons of A Different World, we never saw anyone having to go to the financial aid office and act a straight donkey. There are a few experiences that truly bind those of us who graduated from HBCUs, no matter if we went to…

Before there was bottle service, there was the Bull.

I’ve recently come across some articles and heard the latest theories about the phenomenon of white anxiety as a precursor to the rise of the era of Trump and Trumpism. Essentially, there’s an overwhelming sense of dread that, based on impending demographic trends, has old white people especially worried about their…

Threat level: Minor

You’ve finally decided that it’s time to make a black person your actual friend. Congrats!

Is it a cop? Is it a cab? Is it just some bamas from Suitland, Md.? We don’t know. We just know they’re in the rearview and we’re just gonna do the speed limit and obey all the traffic laws until they pass us.

Full disclosure: My wife is neither black nor American. The current Mrs. Richardson is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born and raised just outside of Vancouver in British Columbia. It’s a beautiful place, really. The Fraser Valley is the type of landscape that evenly swaps out steep hills and crested peaks…

Last week, in a moment of both clumsy acknowledgment of reality and dispatching his charges of office like a dolt, “President” Donald Trump declared a state of emergency for the current opioid crisis in America. And in the typical Trumpian form of a man whose lips probably move when he reads menus, the president…

On November 4, 2008, we witnessed a collective moment of hope and inspiration in the Black community with the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States.  As a moment of pride and patriotism, I don’t think there has ever been a time in the African American experience where we’ve felt as though we’d…

White People Shit.

It is the unfair and uneasy burden of the minority; to explain the bad behavior of some members of our communities, to the majority and apologize for their actions. You see it when there’s a terrorist attack and Muslims have to condemn other Muslims or when there’s a police shooting and Black folks are forced to…

As my wife and I careen into the last few weeks of her pregnancy and prepare for life with our new little girl, it’s beginning to dawn on me just how bad a job I’ve been doing as a parent for our first daughter.  Four, almost five, years into the game and I’m finally coming to grips with the fact that, as a dad, I’m…

There’s a huge difference between having a President that’s Black and having a Black President.  With Barack, we thought we hit the jackpot and were finally gonna get both, but boy were we wrong.