CEDTalks

"You’re just a f*ck n*gga who THINKS he’s a good guy..." -Actress Dominique Perry as "Tasha", on HBO's 'Insecure' Yikes.  I vividly remember the chills that traveled through my arms upon reading this quote. Do I consider myself a...what she said? No, but in reviewing my bad habits, people could easily make certain determinations. Oddly enough, I didn't even see it live, but Tasha's words painted a clear and colorful portrait of how far off we can be from how people actually perceive us. While that episode may have been missed, the reason for the success of the hit show Insecure and producer Issa Rae is quite obvious to me. Insecure (and its predecessor " The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl ") captures the hearts of African American Millenials with oddly realistic storylines and characters submerged in relatability. Issa, Molly, Lawrence, Tasha, and the others are just like most of us; each is seeking some form of a...

President Obama, I understand your stance. No, not your B-Boy stance that cemented you as the coolest president in U.S. History, but your eye-opening, head-turning, twitter-trending stance on same-sex marriages. It allowed many to reflect on their perspective on this topic and homosexuality overall, stopping to do some soul-searching. As a young Black heterosexual male, I grew up in a culture that (to this day) is fearful, judgemental, and demeaning towards gays and lesbians. In this culture, conversations with friends and associates result in the use of phrases such as "No Homo" and "Pause", a charge to excuse the previous statement because of its homosexual connotation. This excludes the "gay " metaphor, comparing something or someone bad to being gay (e.g. "You didn't get the job? That's so GAY.") While NBA players Grant Hill and Jared Dudley do their part to curb this behavior, it is still an ongoing issue. In my opinion Gay Ri...