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Cosby Commentary Doesn’t Reflect the Complexity of the Human Experience
It’s probably just the crowds that I run with but I don’t know too many people that don’t have an opinion on the criminal allegations of sexual assault against Bill Cosby. I can fit nearly all of these people into two crowds. The first crowd are folks that lean...
Boys Never Outgrow Their Gender Disses
When I was in elementary school, the most powerful diss that you could throw at a boy was to call him a girl. When I got to middle school, this evolved somewhat as the worse thing that you could call a boy was gay. I don’t think that too much has changed now that...
Straight Outta Compton Review
Some of my friends were surprised to hear me say this but I have to admit that I enjoyed N.W.A.’s biopic “Straight Outta Compton.” I went into it somewhat conflicted about a movie about a group so intimately linked to commercializing the degradation of women but...
Straight Outta Compton Thoughts
Many of my peers are getting amped up for Straight Outta Compton, the upcoming biopic about N.W.A, but I am rather conflicted. The height of N.W.A.'s popularity was admittedly a little before I got into hip hop but I distinctly remember them taking a lot of criticism...
When Is It OK To Condemn Men For Violence
“The fight of the century” between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. has now come and gone so this is a good time to reflect on the fights that I had leading up to it. Like many men, I spent a good deal of time conversing with my boys about who I wanted to...
Finding An Ally Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
And another reason that I’m happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we’re going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn’t force them to do it. Survival...
There Is At Least One Liar In The Ongoing Cosby Scandal
It’s funny how the same facts can inspire such wildly different conclusions. The fact that more than a dozen women have accused Bill Cosby of various forms of sexual misconduct has divided my peers into two groups – those that believe that Cosby is a sexual predator...
I Expect Boys to Learn More Than To Avoid Being Convicted
When the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens first began exploring a response to Ray Rice’s assault of his then-fiancée, I encountered many people who thought that Rice’s employers were overreaching in stepping into the fray prior to criminal adjudication. Once the criminal...
Wale Sends A Rally Call
Rapper Wale recently responded to a twitter attack thrown his way by label-mate Meek Mill with a rather lengthy Instagram post (see here). The gist of his response was that he was his own man who marched to his own drum and he rattled off a few examples of his...
Positive Manhood Is Not a Static Goal
Being someone who fancies himself as an observer of cultural notions of manhood, I have strongly connected to the national reaction to the tragic murder of six individuals that recently occurred near the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara. The...
Kevin Durant’s MVP Acceptance Speech Was A Breath of Fresh Air
Last week, I watched NBA superstar Kevin Durant meander through a MVP acceptance speech in which he tediously thanked every member of his team and cried so frequently that his speech dragged for nearly a half hour. It was…..absolutely amazing! As somebody who...
Talking Intersectionality With Huffington Post
It has been some time since I’ve posted on here but I promise you all that I have been working. In fact, I had the opportunity to take part in series hosted by Huffington Post for Sexual Assault Awareness Month and discuss intersectionality with them. This was...
Men Don’t Read
Several weeks ago, I wrote about the abundance of male pundits that have built careers on giving advice to women while there has been no reciprocal movement of women speaking to men. A couple of my friends followed up with me and stated that this was partially...
The Measure of a Man Should Include How He Protects Children
If you’re a college basketball fan, then you have undoubtedly heard about the recent meltdown by Jim Boeheim, the legendary coach of the Syracuse men’s basketball program. Because my beloved Virginia Cavaliers are in the midst of a promising season, I have been...
Violent Sexual Wordplay In Hip Hop Doesn’t Bode Well for Young Consumers
There was an all-female peer education program on my college campus that challenged students to consider the terminology that we use for sex. They would ask audiences to identify common vernacular for sex and audiences would inevitably come up with words such as...
Club Etiquette
I first started speaking on sexual violence prevention as a peer educator in college. At that time, it was not uncommon for my friends to note my presence at parties with some surprise that I would be in attendance. I’m sure much of this has to do with the fact that...
Women Need to Get Their Acts Together
My title is meant to be satirical but I fully believe that my writing would gain more traction with folks if I did adopt messaging along the lines of the title. It seems to me that there is a decent-sized market for men who position themselves as experts on dating...
I’m Standing with Nelly – Sort Of
In 2004, students at Spelman College famously derailed a bone marrow drive that rapper Nelly planned to hold on their campus. Their beef was the music video for a song called “Tip Drill” in which Nelly swipes a credit card down a woman’s backside and which the...