Category: Essays
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Rasheed Wallace Does the Work
There’s a lasting image I have of Rasheed Wallace. Think back to arguably the most chaotic scene in sports history, the Malice at the Palace in November of 2004, when a drunk idiot threw a beer at Metta Sandiford-Artest (then Ron Artest), hit him in the face and instigated a brawl near the end of…
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Quit Using Flint to Score Social Media Points
A group of local artists in Flint painted a Black Lives Matter mural on Martin Luther King Boulevard over the weekend. That in itself isn’t particularly noteworthy outside of Flint — people around the country have painted similar murals on public streets or other prominent spaces as rallies continue to force the country to finally…
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The Joys of Letting Kids be Inappropriate
Co-parenting under any circumstance has difficult moments, but in one household, even when parenting styles are misaligned, there is usually motivation by each parent to occasionally bend on at least some values in the name of preserving a semblance of a peaceful and united parenting front. When marriages end, a parade of therapists, court system…
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Raising a Justice-Oriented Sports Fan
I was 12-years-old the first time I fought with my dad about sports. He grew up in rural Michigan, rose every day at 4 a.m. to head into his maintenance job for a General Motors parts supplier, and rarely missed a day until he became too physically weak to turn a wrench. He proudly boasted…
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When Laughing is All You Have
“… Are you funny?” I’ve always loved standup comedy. I’ve also always been timid and risk averse, which has led to varying levels of regrets from every period of my life for things I’ve been interested in but talked myself out of trying. I’ve spent the better part of the last three years trying to…
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Kofi Kingston is the Pipebomb
One of my earliest memories as a kid was watching Superstars with my dad, uncle, and cousin, crowded around a 20-inch tube TV with rabbit ears that sat on top of a non-working dryer (that was for some reason in the kitchen) at my uncle’s perennially under construction house. More accurately, wrestling was on in…
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Black Panther And The Power Of Siblings
Writing in Rolling Stone this week, Tre Johnson had the following line about Black Panther: Like anything black in America, Black Panther will be politicized for being black, which is to say for being and for announcing itself as a having a right to be here and to be heard. Johnson is right, of course. There are dozens of Google search results…
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Silence is Privilege
A couple of weeks ago, I took my kids to play and swim at our apartment pool. As we got closer, something fairly … uh … conspicuous caught my eye: a giant swastika tattoo on the chest of a man in the pool. I grew up in and spent a lot of my life in…
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Be a Feminist for Your Sons, Too
President Obama wrote an essay for Glamour, proudly proclaiming why he is a feminist. The entire thing is beautifully written and worth reading, but this particular passage really stood out to me: Michelle and I have raised our daughters to speak up when they see a double standard or feel unfairly judged based on their…
Patrick Hayes 