I’ve been a bookworm for as long as I can remember, but working in a bookstore didn’t sound fun to me as a child. I thought it would be boring and too similar to my third-grade “Library” class that I got a “D” in one quarter for failing a card catalog test. As much as I love books, library jobs had too much math for me to stay interested.

Still, I was constantly shopping in Black bookstores throughout elementary school, high school and when I’d return home to Chicago during my college years. Around the time I went to grad school, Black bookstores started going out of business, primarily because Amazon and eBay’s Half.com were becoming more popular.

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However, when a seasonal job opportunity popped up at one of the few bookstore chains I still visited, I changed my mind and applied. Working in a bookstore (Borders Books and Music & Cafe, to be exact) taught me five things that had nothing to do with books.

1. Do not microwave instant noodles for longer than the instructions recommend because you can absolutely burn skin off of your finger. (I haven’t heated tea or coffee in a microwave in more than 20 years because of that experience. Tea kettle or nothing!)

2. Laurie Metcalf is ridiculously silly as Jackie on “Roseanne” but surprisingly quiet and a little intense in person. (I didn’t verbally admit I knew who she was, but my facial expression gave it away. A co-worker complimented her work, and she immediately looked like she was ready to flee outside with whoever the little boy was that came with her. I don’t know how many Black folks are Laurie Metcalf fans, but I loved the original “Roseanne” show before it became MAGA TV.)

3. Never assume well-read people can’t be as prejudiced as the “uneducated” folks Trump loves. I lost count of the number of times one of the Black plainclothes security guards was called to certain parts of the bookstore to spy on Black bookstore customers. One Black woman security guard was so fed up with an intercom-happy bookseller (blonde, white woman, 20s) constantly using the security guard’s code name to go to certain parts of the store that she just started ignoring her. (I tried to give this cashier the benefit of the doubt until she started “putting books away” near the same shelf as any shopper with melanin-rich skin.)

4. I don’t care how pretty you think your Christmas packages are wrapped. I can smoke you in wrapping any kind of book, box, tchotchke or music package of any kind. In addition to holiday gift presentation, I can also make shapes out of gift wrapping paper and show you a zillion ways to recycle the paper.

5. As much as I insist that Black coworkers don’t have to date and white colleagues should stop trying to be cupid whenever they see you two together, I have also discredited my own point by sneaking and dating a coworker. I had a blast at the time. We did not get along in later years post-college (in separate states) and he ended up being a hotep, but he was astoundingly gorgeous and funny at that time. No regrets!

When I think back on all those times that I had zero desire to leave my workplace for breaks and just wanted to get lost in a magazine, random book or lounge in the cafe with a hot chocolate, I can honestly say that was one of my top-five favorite jobs.

Excluding quarterly work at a credit union since my preteen days until my mid-30s, which will forever be close to my heart, that one retail job was almost as enjoyable as working in traditional newsrooms and freelancing for one news outlet. (Yes, I realize the hypocrisy in me working for a credit union for decades but being turned off by library jobs having “too much math.”) Putting a bookworm in a bookstore is like putting a candy lover in a chocolate shop. Temptation everywhere. (And Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop was next door!)

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Bookstores have been on my mind lately for a number of reasons. As much as I cannot stand the primary host of “The Joe Budden Podcast,” I keep watching it to hear what news correspondent and podcaster Marc Lamont Hill has to say. (Ish, Ice and Parks are cool, too, even when I don’t agree with the three.) But I’m delighted anytime Marc Lamont Hill brings up owning his own bookstore, and it makes me miss my own Black bookstore shopping days along with all of the events I attended at Borders.

To this day, I still think some of those Black bookstores and Borders would’ve survived if they watched how Barnes & Noble rode the wave of Amazon.com. While selling books, organizing book signings and meet-and-greets are common ways for bookstores to make a few extra bucks, there are other ways that I think are often overlooked. In addition to four other ideas, one of the main business tips I recommend is a decision that Irish pub owners agreed to in Chicago.

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This post is part of a series entitled “BlackTechLogy.” Click here for the archived posts.

Life insurance is for older people. At least that was the mindset I had for almost two decades of working in Corporate America. Then, I became “older people” and realized I really should’ve gotten life insurance a lot sooner, especially once I heard a number of nightmare stories about family members not being able to afford funerals and debt from their deceased family members.

And I'm not talking about parents and grandparents. Unfortunately, I observed a number of childhood friends die before I graduated from college. Their guardians were completely unprepared to handle coffins, urns and even a repast. So, adding another bill (i.e., life insurance) in the mix was nowhere near on their radar.

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Why Black people should not overlook life insurance

According to the 2025 Insurance Barometer Study from LIMRA and Life Happens, 57% of Black Americans reported having life insurance. However, the same study found that 47% of Black Americans fell into a “need-gap,” meaning they either had no coverage despite needing it or believe they needed additional coverage.

For Black people in their 20s and 30s, researching coverage early can be especially worthwhile. Age and health can affect premiums, and qualifying for coverage while you’re younger and potentially healthier may help lock in a lower rate for a term policy.

While it can feel like a waste of money that you could be using to pay other bills, take a moment to think of people in your own age range or younger. Are they all healthy, thriving and waiting for their AARP membership materials to arrive? “Twilight” was a fun movie to watch, but in real life, we’re not Laurent. We are not immortal.

In addition to not risking your family being stuck paying for your funeral costs, you can also use life insurance to plan for your future, including paying off your mortgage, supporting your children or pets, or taking care of aging parents.

Black Millennials and Gen Z have the added advantage of being able to shop smarter, investigate pricing easier and do so from the comfort of our own homes. And although we already have a zillion other things on our minds, this is arguably what should be one of our top priorities.

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11 precautions that’ll make life insurance shopping easier

If you don’t know where to start when it comes to life insurance, you’re not alone. There will be some terms you’re unfamiliar with and some processes that’ll be foreign to you. These 11 tips should make understanding life insurance and shopping for this product a little easier and safer.

1. Avoid spammers and hackers posing as life insurance brokers

If you’re an independent contractor who can’t rely on Human Resources or the benefits department of your corporate job to decide who to buy life insurance from, you’re going to have to be more assertive in the process and introduce yourself to life insurance companies.

Unfortunately, hackers and spammers know we’re in a gig economy and may take advantage of this. Be careful who you talk to and share personal information with. Do not release your phone number, email address or other personal information on any non-secure site. As popular as Gmail and other email sites are, if you run into a broker who only uses personal email addresses, ask for the work email address anyway — and then check to make sure it’s a valid email address.

Even on valid life websites, be particular about who you share your info with. If you share your contact info with every life insurance company or sales site you see, you could end up on a never-ending list of texts, emails, calls and postal mail. (Use KnownCalls to avoid nonstop marketing. I absolutely love this app and have been using it for over a year. It’s much more efficient than DoNotCall.gov.)

2. Compare quotes from multiple insurers online

Don’t assume the first quote you receive is competitive. Start with online quote tools from several insurance companies, or use an independent comparison platform that allows you to review multiple insurers.

Enter the same information each time, including your age, state, desired death benefit (money paid to your beneficiaries after your death, which they can use for funeral costs, outstanding debts or other expenses), policy type and coverage term.

Scroll past the advertised starting price. Check whether the quote is an estimate, whether it assumes excellent health, and whether a medical exam or additional underwriting could change the final premium.

3. Research the insurer and the underwriting company before applying

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For “One Black Woman’s Vote” (OBWV) posts from 2021-2024, click here. For 2025 OBWV posts, click here. As of 2026, new OBWV posts will be published on the second Saturday of each month.

When I saw the email announcement about “Window Shopping starts today,” I wondered who messed up my Substack column under the same name. I was wrong. It was a reminder from Get Covered Illinois to start perusing prices for health insurance. Open enrollment runs from November 1, 2026 through January 15, 2027.

And as relieved as I am that I can continue to have a health insurance option with my preferred health insurance company and not have to deal with the astronomically expensive Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) rates, I'm still left wondering what the 760,000 other people whom Donald Trump has stopped from enrolling in federal Affordable Care Act plans will do.

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According to the Associated Press, the Trump administration is defending the removal of more than 760,000 people from the ACA by blaming enrollment fraud. This will have significant implications for non-corporate workers and independent contractors who rely on ACA marketplace coverage.

These enrollment changes also make it even more important for Get Covered Illinois applicants to pay close attention to health insurance marketplaces. Luckily, Illinois consumers can still enroll through Get Covered Illinois. However, Illinois residents remain subject to federal eligibility requirements and changes to federal subsidies.

The health care cancellation affecting thousands of applicants

In September 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced approximately 315,000 unauthorized enrollments covering more than 760,000 individuals, which supposedly will result in a return of roughly $2.2 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies. CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz stated the company is using “data, enforcement authorities, and stronger safeguards to identify fraud and abuse, stop it, and recover taxpayer dollars. We are making sure Americans — not bad actors — remain in control of their health coverage.”

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To absolutely no one’s surprise, the health insurance fraud stats are minimal and not who one may suspect. The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association states that the majority of health care fraud is reportedly committed by a “small number of dishonest health care providers, and in some particularly distressing cases, by individuals only posing as legitimate health care providers.”

Is a state-based marketplace the happy medium?

In a July report from KFF Health News, of the 21 states that run their own enrollment platform, the enrollment drops were smaller than the national average.

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After all the criticism the sequel series of “A Different World” received before the show released on Netflix, it turned out to be a pretty solid first season. As an ‘80s baby, I was far more interested in the legends returning and Senator Byron Douglas (played by Joe “Papa Pope” Morton) with his “baby please” get back, but the new cast did a great job in their own right. As an HBCU graduate of a school in Missouri, I chuckle whenever Shaquille Johnson (played by Cornell Young IV) says any words with “r.” I can hear the St. Louis gushing out of him.

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And while I was entertained by the sequel series, what I did not expect was Dwayne Wayne (played by Kadeem Hardison) and Ron Johnson (played by Darryl M. Bell) to reunite and do the rewatch podcast “A Different World View.” These two actor friends are going to go through all 144 episodes from 1987 to 1993. Shake me, wake me! This is an even better idea than “Reliving Single.”

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Die-hard “A Different World” fans already know what’s coming

As much as I’m looking forward to rewatching “A Different World” episodes with Kadeem Hardison and Darryl M. Bell while they release their podcast “A Different World View,” I really don’t have to watch the ‘80s show to follow along. I can visualize pretty much every episode and recite some of the scripts. I still know all the choreography to the “Gilbert Hall Step Show” routine. Why? I practiced it over and over again when that episode aired. That’s how much of a die-hard fan I am.

I’m also counting down the weeks until these two hosts discuss "Getaway: Part 1" and "Getaway: Part 2" in season 3 with the drug dealers who ruined a spring vacation trip. If Cree Summer or Sinbad cannot make it to this episode, I’d be very interested to see Steven Daniells Silva (aka Suga Pop) show up. I was Today Years Old when I realized Suga Pop — the long-haired, gorgeous criminal that Freddie Brooks was falling all over — was also a background dancer in one of my other ‘80s go-tos: “Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.”

Although I’m partial to that broom scene in “Breakin,’” I think I paid too much attention to Turbo (played by Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers) walking up the ceiling in the sequel to notice anybody else. Suga Pop’s hair is much shorter and picked out, but the millisecond I heard him talk in interviews, smooth Paul saying, “Do I make you nervous?” to Freddie Brooks popped into my mind.

I’m looking forward to more degrees of separation and TV trivia like this while I watch the show that made me desperately want to attend an HBCU (and later became an HBCU graduate).

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For Gen Zers, this may be their first introduction to the show. But for Gen Xers and Millennials (specifically Geriatric Millennials), rewatching “A Different World” and “A Different World View” gives us a chance to enjoy then-unknown actors who became living legends (if they weren’t already, ahem, Patti LaBelle) decades later.

Let’s support their podcast!

Did you enjoy this post? You’re also welcome to check out my Substack columns “AAC-PACK,” “Black Girl In a Doggone World,” “BlackTechLogy,” “Homegrown Tales,” “I Do See Color,” “One Black Woman’s Vote” and “Window Shopping” too. Subscribe to this newsletter for the weekly posts every Wednesday. Thanks for reading!

When my co-worker saw me the day after Halloween, he chuckled at the sight of me sans the gray-and-black wig to my butt, the wedding gown, the black flowers and the grayish face makeup. I was no longer running through the parking lot yelling, “Where's my husband?” and cracking up laughing with my equally ridiculously dressed college friends.

While we were running through the parking lot before we headed to a Halloween party on another college campus, I spied him strolling in the opposite direction on campus, looking his usual cool self — diamond earrings in both ears, jeans that look like they came off a mannequin, doorag-fresh waves and a name-brand shirt. The shoes? Of course they had no creases. Whether we were on campus or in the break room at our off-campus jobs, he always looked like he’d fallen out of a fashion ad on social media. The idea of him taking a vacation from being the coolest man in the room was unlikely.

So I chuckled when I saw him the next day at work and told him that was me in the dead bride costume who ran past him. He squinted, skeptically looked at me to see if I was lying and chuckled.

When I asked if he did anything special for Halloween or go to any parties, his response was, “I'm too old for Halloween. I don’t dress up. Well, you did it, so maybe I'm too …”

I waited to see what kind of shade he was about to throw at me. Instead, he sized me up, flashed his perfect teeth and told me I looked cute in whatever I was wearing before I put my smock on.

Well played, my friend, well played.

Throughout my entire childhood and adult life, I've always decorated my home for Halloween. And if there was some kind of work function or social gathering with friends or family, there was a 100% chance that I would dress up. Same goes for my equally enthusiastic mother and brother. We do Halloween heavy.

I get why some people outgrow it, but Black folks have enough stress and nonsense to deal with on a daily basis. I use any excuse I can to have a fun, silly day.

So if you're with me this year and already seeing the Halloween decor pop up, let's brainstorm about the upcoming holiday and enjoying the creativity of it.

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6 enjoyable ways for Black people to celebrate Halloween

Here are six ideas for enjoying October 31 and letting out your inner child (or audibly screaming at whatever happens).

1. Haunted house: See if a location lives up to its reputation

As soon as I was old enough to go to those creepy haunted houses in Illinois suburbs and agree to sign the “anything could happen” waiver, I was counting down the minutes while waiting in line. Like waiting to get on a roller coaster and going into panic mode when the safety lock was in place, I was both terrified and excited. Even better, they all lived up to their reputation. I buried my head in strangers’ shirts, ran, screamed, lost a pair of house keys and shivered.

I know how counterproductive it sounds for Black folks to go looking for something to be scared of, but the thrill of knowing we can escape unharmed is invigorating. Go alone if you’re really about that life, but I strongly recommend going with friends or family so you can unwind at the nearest Black-owned restaurant or cafe after you leave. (If they’re not open that late in the evenings, switch the order and support their business before heading out. Give yourself enough time to digest the food before you scare the bejesus out of yourself, though.)

If you’re really committed to a Halloween celebration, a trip to the nearest party supply store can provide all the inventory you need to make your dorm, your off-campus apartment or your house into a haunted house for your friends to visit. This one can get complicated because you’ll either have to let strangers enjoy your creation or confuse your friends when they wonder why your home suddenly looks like a murder scene. (Reminder: Always renew your renters insurance or homeowners insurance and make sure the Wi-Fi is working on your indoor cameras. Don’t let houseguests become a liability issue. If your landlord won’t approve your haunted house, find a spooky place elsewhere. Protect your security deposit.)

2. Movie night: At least three main Black characters must live until the end

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For “One Black Woman’s Vote” (OBWV) posts from 2021-2024, click here. For 2025 OBWV posts, click here. As of 2026, new OBWV posts will be published on the second Saturday of each month.

When I saw this email notification, it felt like seeing Lucy van Pelt hold the football for Charlie Brown: “The Chicago Board of Elections has shipped your ballot to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for delivery to the address that you provided to us on your application.”

I've been voting by mail for so many years that I don't know when I started. I even voted by mail or went to an early voting location even when I was an Election Judge on Election Day. I wanted to make sure my votes were received in plenty of time and didn't want to stop working long enough to vote the day of.

Plus, there had been only one time when my ballot got lost in the mail, so I was fairly confident in the system. (I called, emailed and visited polling places to figure out what I should do next after the ballot was lost.)

But after the constant rotation of lawsuits and Donald Trump ranting to journalists about his anti-mail-in-voting stance, while the politician still unapologetically voting by mail, I was slightly less enthused about the idea. To make matters worse, U.S. Postal Service leadership was even enthusiastic about stopping mail ballots before the Supreme Court decided not to block voting by mail.

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I voted by mail anyway. I had strong opinions about all of the choices on ballot one of two, but I got a little lost (per usual) when it came to the judges. While there are two judges I do not like and absolutely wanted to vote “no” for them, those judges’ names were nowhere on the ballot so I was winging it with the rest. After dropping my ballot off at a mailbox outside of the post office, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

A few days later, I breathed a sigh of relief when I got a second email: “The Chicago Board of Elections has received your ballot envelope, and it is pending within our intake process for the 2026 General Election. We will inform you when your ballot has been processed. Thank you for Voting By Mail!”

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Good to know my ballot was not lost again. But was it worth it to vote by mail? Should voters skip the mailbox and go straight to a drop-off center? Should we be more likely to vote on Election Day?

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I was ecstatic when a family member with a house full of ceramics was willing to let me add a few of her pieces on Etsy. I was constantly painting ceramics and then immediately selling them, so I knew there was money to be made. People gushed about her work all the time and constantly asked how much she’d sell it for. Instead of providing a price, she’d tell them she’d go back to the same ceramic shop to try to paint the same mold for them.

I shook my head every single time this conversation came up, especially considering the reaction to my own ceramics was to put the painted piece in one of my hands and wait for cash to be placed in the other hand. I’m not even slightly attached to anything I have painted — minus a dog that looks a lot like Junee (see image above).

The average customer isn’t going to wait for a painter to sand and clean, fire or glaze, choose the paints, possibly paint several layers (and fire the piece again if it’s not a stain), and then buy the item. That could take anywhere from a few days to a month, and they’ve forgotten all about it. Or, they’ve purchased a similar piece online or from a vendor at an outdoor festival. Rarely, if ever, will a customer wait until a ceramics shop has more molds in stock so someone can paint them.

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I insisted that she needed to start selling items while they were fresh on people’s minds. She sighed, shrugged and pointed out a few pieces from a jazz band collection on one of her dining room shelves. If memory serves me correctly, someone purchased the saxophone player first. Then a drummer. Then the pianist and her grandson. By the time an order came in for the singer holding the microphone, I could hear an audible gasp. The majority of her jazz set was sold, and I’d sold off her church choir set too. When another customer ordered multiple pieces, she started arguing with me about how I “made” her sell her pieces.

My jaw dropped. For years, she’d kept saying she was going to find the same ceramic piece and repaint it. It wasn’t like she lost the talent to do so. What I realized was she didn’t want to paint new pieces. She wanted to solely paint for herself and not make her hobby into a hustle. I’d accidentally pushed her into what I thought could’ve been a great way to make money that could turn into a full-time career, but all she saw was an empty shelf.

I quietly removed the rest of her items and closed the account. Bickering while she was making money (and I never asked for a dime in marketing) wasn’t worth it. It was a lesson learned, though. Some side hustles don’t always need to be full-time jobs. Some may be more enjoyable as hobbies only.

On the opposite end of this theory, though, sometimes people are too timid to even humor the idea of trying to pursue a side hustle that could become an enjoyable full-time or part-time job. And as someone who has never completely depended on one job for everything (being an at-will employee absolutely means a company could lay you off or terminate your employment at any time), especially in this economy, I think side gig intimidation should be washed right into the nearest sewer.

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Side hustles are everywhere

When I was in my 20s, my idea of side hustles was selling my college textbooks on Half.com the millisecond I finished or dropped a class. There was no point in keeping a book I’d never read again. And when I found out people were interested in my childhood books like “Fear Street” and “Babysitters Club,” I posted more than 100 books online and just let the side money roll in.

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But the Internet was still fairly new, and Geriatric Millennials were still blocking incoming calls while typing away on AOL dial-up. Years later, the World Wide Web opened up the hustle industry in a massive way, with people doing a little of everything — fast food and grocery delivery on apps, starting ghost kitchens, graphic design freelancing, setting up a schedule for walking and boarding dogs, online tutoring, video content creation, renting out homes electronically, becoming virtual tour guides and a zillion other ways to make money outside of 9-to-5 jobs.

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This post is part of a series entitled “BlackTechLogy.” Click here for the archived posts.

Ridiculous injuries follow people in their 40s around like stalkers. I don’t know what it is, but I never used to have these mysterious injuries until the millisecond a family member handed me sunglasses with a “4” to cover one eye and a “0” to cover the other eye.

My latest injury, which has lasted for two weeks, has been discomfort from my middle finger. It would be funny if it wasn’t so tender. I vaguely recall underestimating how close a closet door was and hitting my hand, but I never expected this soft tissue injury to last this long. (The last time this happened was from landing too hard while doing burpees. I had to go to the doctor to find out what happened to my finger, and I switched to mountain climbers.) When my dog pulls or when I pour water into a tumbler, I can immediately feel the pain in my right, middle finger.

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But the most annoying part of this middle-finger injury is that my handwriting is now sloppy. For Gen Zers, this is probably a dumb complaint. Who even writes in cursive anymore? Me, that’s who. I might be one of few people who agrees with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s P.L. 2025, c.284, requiring its public schools to provide instruction in cursive handwriting for students in grades three through five. When I heard about this, I looked up Chicago public schools to see whether we’re participating in the Cursive Handwriting Act.

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It turns out my home state also took up this topic. Illinois lawmakers faced a fight in 2017, when then-Governor Bruce Rauner (from 2015 to 2019) vetoed legislation requiring public elementary schools to offer cursive instruction. Lawmakers overrode his veto, and the requirement took effect in 2018.

So why do I think cursive handwriting is important? I have a few reasons.

First, combined with financial literacy, anyone who works in an industry that requires a legitimate signature should actually know how to sign their name, rather than relying on an “/s/” or letting artificial intelligence create a signature for them.

Second, the millisecond these same people do something like vote, the last thing you’ll want is an Election Judge looking skeptically at a signature that doesn’t resemble the one on your voter registration record. (I’m speaking from experience and working twice with an Election Judge who acted like a forensic document examiner the entire day. Once you learn cursive handwriting, you’re not testing the waters with different signatures like it’s graphic font styles.)

My third reason isn’t one that Illinois and New Jersey are leaning on. While these two states aren't bringing cursive back because students need to live like it's 1981, they're recognizing that handwriting remains a useful literacy skill in 2026. In my opinion, specifically for Black students, there's an additional reason to keep that skill alive: Some of the history they may want to read is handwritten. And I’m stubbornly holding onto the idea that Black youth should be effective at reading and writing cursive for the same reason other minority groups are adamant about preserving languages, traditions and cultural practices that might otherwise fade. Once a skill fades, the people who come after us can lose access to something that was once theirs.

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I walked into the courthouse relieved that I would get to present my case and finally put a stop to overthinking it at least 12 of 24 hours each day of the past month. I was also annoyed that I had to take three buses to get here, even longer than the one train I was used to for non-criminal jury duty (and one Metra train and a bus for a criminal jury duty date). The travel time and short walk did briefly distract me from trying to remember when to say “true and accurate” versus “fairly and accurately” and when to use a video script versus a photo script.

Scripts were running through my head even when several cases started being called. I heard this lawyer’s name, that petitioner’s name and that respondent's name with a few announcements of “case dismissed.”

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And then the bailiff walked behind the divider, and I heard the light sound of a chain. A Black man in a jumpsuit came walking out very slowly, handcuffed, with my skin complexion, his head down, an unkempt baby afro, average height and a lean build. The room got quiet. I quietly gasped.

Somebody mumbled, “Case dismissed,” and the handcuffed man was taken back behind a wall leading to a hidden doorway. I started to reevaluate my entire complaint just from seeing this man. I don't know what he did or did not do, or what other case was dismissed. But I looked at him and thought he sorta looked like a few men I would stroll by and wave to on my way to school. Some were outside and headed to various jobs. Others were clearly the epitome of Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman.” And a couple were fathers picking their kids up from school.

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While some people in that courtroom saw a criminal, I saw a man who looked so absolutely ashamed that he refused to look anywhere but the floor. If I knew why he was there, I may have agreed with why he was there. But at that moment, I winced and wished to see what he was like before he got there and before life started lifing. My reaction to him was exactly why I would never want to be a juror for a criminal trial and was ecstatic when I was dismissed the one time I received the postal notice.

Can jurors be fair and unbiased when the people at trial look like them, especially knowing certain groups are more likely to be imprisoned than others? Yes. But I do understand those who lean heavier on community service, educational and vocational programs, providing mental health and substance abuse treatment. It's going to take me a long time to forget the look of shame (or embarrassment?) on that man’s face. I may never forget it.

Are jurors really unbiased?

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What kinda friend is she? ← That was my first thought after hanging with a (former) co-worker. We’d hung out one night to celebrate a birthday, and I told her to text me when she got home. Her response? A look of confusion and a wave. She didn’t text me to let me know she returned home safely. In fact, she did nothing at all. I waited until the next day to say, “Hey, girl,” and she responded with a wave and started talking about something completely different. I shrugged. I never asked her to send the “I’m home” text again.

But it left me wondering whether the ‘80s baby in me made a big deal out of nothing even though she was a Black Gen Xer. How did I somehow feel older as a member of Gen Y? Was letting people know you got home safely old school in this century? Was this something most Black folks still did — or just the ones in my social circle?

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As a Millennial who grew up before smartphones and AOL dial-up, the idea of sharing my location is ridiculous. I don’t even like it when someone asks me, “Where are you?” How is that any of your business if I’m not with you? But, when I’m out with that person, then it’s 100% my business. Especially as women, if one of us leaves alone after going to a club or party, I think that “I’m home” call (in my teens and 20s) or text (remember the “free nights and weekends” days?) is Girl Code.

And any man who has never asked me to send the “I'm home” text never got past the first date. Like walking on the curbside, that's something a high school friend and my grandfather taught me early on. With smartphone culture nowadays, there’s no excuse not to text someone those two words. While smartphones may have become the nemesis of the “I’m home” call, they’ve also made checking in easier than ever.

Sharing locations versus “I’m home” confirmation messages

About the only time I’ve ever requested someone’s daily whereabouts was when a family member had a stroke, and I asked her to share her Google calendar. I needed to keep track of her doctor’s appointments after I returned to work and was no longer her caregiver. However, even then, I wasn’t asking her to notify me when she was coming and going to appointments. I just checked her daily schedule the same way I checked my own. Occasionally, I would ask how a doctor’s visit went.

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But the “let me know when you get home” comment before I walked away from someone was about as normal to me as the “I’m home from school” call to my mother as a latchkey kid, the “I’m here” text in my late teens and early 20s after driving from one state to another for college, and the “Vacation time!” video in my 30s after landing at the airport before going from one island to the next.

As much as I disagree with Flip from “Joe Budden Podcast” on a lot of topics, I grudgingly have to admit I agree with his stance on “you came with us, you leave with us” when it comes to traveling in groups, too. The goal isn’t to keep tabs on someone like they are my child. It’s just to make sure you’re safe while I’m around you. We have way too many news stories that prove what can happen when groups split up*.

How technology changed communication in Black (and possibly non-Black) social circles

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For “One Black Woman’s Vote” (OBWV) posts from 2021-2024, click here. For 2025 OBWV posts, click here. As of 2026, new OBWV posts will be published on the second Saturday of each month.

For every idea that a Black aspiring entrepreneur has, the Increasing and Developing Entrepreneurship Access Act of 2025 (IDEA Act) could potentially help them. If implemented after the 2026 midterms, the federal government could expand programs designed to help minority-owned businesses get off the ground.

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Introduced in the House in October 2025, the goal of the IDEA Act is to establish a grant program that gives minority business enterprises more access to entrepreneurship opportunities. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services and the Committee on Small Business.

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How does this help Black businesses? No matter how good the idea is, entrepreneurs may still need a loan or an investment large enough to help the business grow. The results of the midterm election could make the IDEA Act launch or get lost in the same project pile as the Tubman Twenty.

But unlike printing money (or in the case of pennies, not making money), starting a business is an obstacle that bypasses needing bank or credit union loans.

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For “One Black Woman’s Vote” (OBWV) posts from 2021-2024, click here. For 2025 OBWV posts, click here. As of 2026, new OBWV posts will be published on the second Saturday of each month. For more tech-related posts, check out the “BlackTechLogy” archive.

Love it or hate it, artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to make decisions affecting everything from employment, financial lending and mortgages to government services. In the midterm elections, Black voters should want to pay special attention to which congressional leaders can weigh in on the bill for Eliminating Bias in Algorithmic Systems Act of 2026 (S. 3680).

Introduced in the Senate in January 2026, the bill would require federal agencies that use, fund or oversee algorithms to implement an office of civil rights that focuses on bias, discrimination and other algorithm-related harms.

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While algorithms start off as neutral, they can learn from existing data. That data can then reflect disparities that already exist. It can be the equivalent of a racist parent teaching a child to become racist even though their kid would have otherwise played in the sandbox with whomever seemed friendly enough. However, if the child gets enough info from the person in charge, that's when the “I don't want to play with you” behavior starts and rejection starts happening to the other kid.

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In 2025, concerns like this were raised about algorithmic discrimination in employment, mortgage lending and healthcare. One congressional hearing document examined how mortgage decisions increasingly rely on algorithms and that biased systems could contribute to unequal outcomes for Black housing applicants.

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One of the most confusing forms of racism is the kind that comes from people who don’t seem racist to everyone else. This group is warm and personable with coworkers. They remember people’s birthdays. They help elderly neighbors carry groceries. They ask to see the new baby pics and (although rare) may win over the occasional dog. They rush to open the door for women (and men).

They’ll organize the neighborhood block party and even recommend having a raffle so more people would get involved. To someone who doesn’t know any better or who hasn’t experienced the uglier side of this person’s personality, this seems like a genuinely delightful person. This is Dr. Henry Jekyll.

Then, when it comes to one particular racial group, the demeanor changes. Here comes Mr. Edward Hyde. This person may suddenly be dismissive, hostile, condescending or unnecessarily suspicious. This person will go out of his way to “warn” everyone about you to make sure the two groups never unite.

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And the peskiest part of the kind-hearted racist’s plan is when someone he likes is also friends with someone he loathes. Now he has to figure out how to keep the Dr. Jekyll persona going but still be Mr. Hyde with the other party as much as possible. But if he does it too often, others will notice. And eventually, they’ll start reaching out to people from the racial group he hates.

You’re not imagining racism

A person’s ability to be kind to people from other racial groups does not disqualify them from behaving in a racist way toward yours. People aren’t required to dislike everyone who belongs to a particular race before their behavior can be racist. (Think of the token Black friend who laughs off the racism to avoid conflict.) Someone can have genuine friendships with people of another race and still hold stereotypes, biases or prejudices about a different group. They can even sincerely believe they aren’t racist because their personal definition of racism involves way more extreme behavior. (Think of white robes, crosses in lawns and asking people to guess the number of marbles before they can vote.)

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This is part of what can make selective racism so difficult to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced it. If you tell an oblivious party, “This person treats me differently because I’m Black,” and the listener responds, “Really? They’re always so nice to me,” that response can leave you feeling defeated at first — until you realize that response makes no sense. It’s the equivalent of telling someone you’re lactose intolerant and the other person saying, “Pizza is my favorite food!”

Yes, it can be your favorite food. However, it doesn’t change how all that dairy affects another person’s stomach.

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I never thought I would be yelling in my living room about Michelle Williams from Destiny's Child, but I was. I was watching the airport episode of “Chad Loves Michelle” when another person waiting in the airport line questioned whether the singer had a first-class ticket. I grit my teeth and shook my head, cosigning one-third of one of the largest girl groups in history while she complained about racism.

Meanwhile, the person I was watching the show with said it was a simple mistake. I pointed out that none of the white passengers were being questioned at the airport on the show, but she refused to budge on her opinion that the “Say Yes!” singer was being melodramatic. Even if I wasn't such a huge fan of Destiny's Child, I believe I still would have been pissed off.

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I refused to take the bait when this same person let out a disgusted “Hmph!” at a Beyoncé interview explaining why she wanted Blue Ivy to celebrate a song like “Brown Skin Girl.” I couldn't even blame this anti-Blackness on one girl group.

This same family member insisted all HBCUs were “party schools” without ever visiting one, that going to a predominantly Black elementary school was not “realistic because the world isn't Black,” that I shouldn't have “brought more attention” to the boy with dreadlocks standing near Sasha Obama, that the white neighbor who shouted “nigger bitch” at me wasn't racist, that I should've stayed at the PWI with a white instructor asking a room full of white students to read Mark Twain books aloud (only one white, male student was happy to do it and kept volunteering to read passages with “nigger” in every paragraph), and she cracked up at a story about me being racially profiled on my way to high school.

If Uncle Ruckus from “The Boondocks” had a sister, she would’ve been perfect at that role. No matter what I said about racism, she brought up her one white boss to explain how great white people have been to her. I’d immediately point out a Black boss she had after her prior boss retired and asked her why the Black guy didn’t get this same glowing review. (To be fair, I liked both of her prior bosses equally and even have a framed photo of the white boss. I have no idea why I never took any photos of or with her Black boss. His pic would be framed as well. Again though, the emphasis on my love for both of them is equality.)

So when Trump first campaigned to be president, I was not even slightly surprised that she wasn't wearing a pink hat or at one of the anti-Trump marches. (In all fairness, I had no desire to wear a pink pussy hat either. My reasons were largely because Sexyy Redd is lying about anatomical colors. You know the song. I won't elaborate.)

What did knock me off my feet was that she voted for the same person I did: then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. I was equally shocked when she voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, even though she kept on brushing off stories of police brutality, hangings, a laundry list of fights against affirmative action and homophobia in the Black community. Asians were always “Orientals,” too.

I was very confused about her nonstop complaints about Trump being racist, sexist, elitist and cruel. After more than a few of her outbursts, I finally couldn’t hold my tongue anymore. I started counting off examples of white people who were not Trump, pulled the same stunts and pointing out how she made excuses for them. She insisted Trump was “different,” and her recalcitrant* refusal to acknowledge the same behavior in other white people finally pushed me onto a soapbox to scream, “TRUMP DIDN’T INVENT RACISM. YOU ARE THAT ONE BLACK FRIEND WHO HAS JUST BEEN LETTING IT SLIDE THIS WHOLE TIME!”

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Blame Trump’s administration and supporters, not just Trump

As annoyed as I am about white people discussing racism as though it appeared like a new iPhone, Black people doing the same thing wears me out more. I take it more personally because I don’t understand it — at all. We know better, and some of us should've been checking our Trump-adjacent friends long before Trump started his birth certificate rivalry with former President Barack H. Obama.

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This post is part of a series entitled “BlackTechLogy.” Click here for the archived posts.

Pink lemonade and sunflower seeds. Salt-and-vinegar chips and Sour Skittles. Every time I drove back and forth to school, this was my menu for the eight-hour drive. I might pick up a hot meal on my way coming and returning, but a combination of these four items was always in my car.

However, as an ‘80s baby who grew up with printouts of Mapquest, the idea of having a GPS system or even owning a smartphone to verify which direction I was going was a foreign thought to me. I got lost more times than I could count and never got upset. I just hung out somewhere interesting wherever I ended up and eventually asked passersby or someone at a gas station to get me back in the right direction.

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It wasn’t until I worked as a Lyft and Uber driver one year (I quit altogether after exactly 100 rides when a trio of friends got into my car with the worst-smelling meat from a butcher shop) that I realized how much my sense of direction had changed. I was supposed to be taking three people to work in downtown Chicago, and I just couldn’t figure out how to navigate Lower Wacker Drive. Once we went under the tunnel and I lost Internet access, I was screaming inside of my head.

Even though I spent several years working for the Chicago Tribune during the night shift, I never got lost. Then again, I was driving downtown from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., with no traffic. It was a straight shot every time to park on Lower North Water St. Although Lower Wacker intersects Michigan Avenue near the Tribune Tower, I always managed to avoid getting lost.

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But there’s far less pressure to drive when you don’t have three strangers in your car, all staring at you because you’re about to make them late for work and your GPS has no connection. The raw meat the final straw for me as a ride-sharing driver, but that one weekday morning almost made me want to hand over my car keys to one of the downtown employees.

Have smartphones made drivers too dependent on GPS?

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As nice as Ish is on the eyes and as enjoyable as I find some of Ice’s and Parks’ takes, no one in this trio could make me watch “The Joe Budden Podcast” the past couple of years. I just couldn’t tolerate Joe Budden’s (often sexist or vulgar) opinions for that long. But Marc Lamont Hill made my podcast selection complicated. I’ve casually followed his career over the years wherever he goes, from CNN to “Black Coffee” and “Black News Tonight.”

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I’m way too curious to hear his takes on national and world news, along with occasional pop culture, to not tune in to “The Joe Budden Podcast.” His presence alone has broadened the topic matter on the board. But it’s his podcast with his wife, “In This Thing Together,” that answers my podcast dreams. It feels like a resolution to me griping about why Sterling K. Brown and Ryan Michelle Bathé didn’t keep “We Don’t Always Agree” going for a second season.

“That Was Us” is entertaining and (mainly because of Chris Sullivan) hilarious, but it’s not even touching “We Don’t Always Agree.” And since the “Black Love” series has come and gone, “In This Thing Together” is a worthy successor.

In one of his latest podcast clips, Marc Lamont Hill talked to his wife Melissa Valle about going out for a spa day. Originally intending to get a facial, she opted for a full massage. What she didn’t expect was to see a brotha wearing a doorag enter the room.

I don’t know why in the world Marc Lamont Hill decided to share this story with the crew on “The Joe Budden Podcast.” From the millisecond Melissa Valle said a Black man was her masseur (the male name for a masseuse), I knew there would be plenty of jokes coming his way. But if he can laugh along, that journalist is quick to tell a story — or zoom right home to make it a podcast topic with his wife.

By the time she finished the story, I shrugged and left this comment:

On one hand, I get why some women prefer women gynecologists and masseuses. It’s a little weird to have a strange man touching all over your body, especially below the waist. And I won’t lie to you and say that I minded my own PCP (the attractive one) doing the clinical breast exam. It had nothing to do with him being fine though. He was just good at his job and as methodical as women gynecologists are during exams. Plus, there is absolutely nothing arousing about a medical professional checking for breast cancer risks. All I thought about were mystery lumps.

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If I was into massages (I’m far too ticklish to get any enjoyment out of them), I’d be indifferent to a masseur. The doorag, on the other hand, I would kinda want him to take off. Like women wearing wrap caps, the goal is to wear the protective head gear to make your hair presentable for the public eye. Now you’re in the public eye. Show ‘em off.

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But the discussion between the married couple about male massage therapists made me ponder a broader idea. Should women, especially women who are persistent about equality in the workplace, be more open-minded when it comes to heterosexual men doing jobs that are still more commonly held by women? While it may be easier to shrug off the LGBTQ+ guy who has zero interest in your lady parts, that doesn’t mean every heterosexual man is into every woman he meets either.

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There's something extra special that I love about Domani, T.I. and King coming to the defense of Tiny. It's not just that three rappers defended a singer, that three men defended a woman, or that the men involved are a father and his sons. It's not even that some listeners are five years late to recognizing how nice on the mic Domani is. I saw his early rapping years on “Family Hustle,” but “Problem” was when I knew he had a “Firebug” in him.

Anyone with eyes and a YouTube page already knows how hilarious the 2026 version of Huey and Riley are, but when Domani and King temporarily paused their “Boondocks” antics, they firmly let 50 Cent know that bullying Tiny was not going to go the same way as it did when 50 Cent chose Vivica Fox, Teairra Marie, Naturi Naughton and Ashanti as his targets.

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Tiny isn't even Domani’s biological mother, but that Harris man still stepped in to stand beside two other Harris men. Still, that's not what impressed me the most. What made me want to applaud them the most was the fact that they would not back down from a bully, who has made an endless group of grown men shake in their boots off some memes. The father and both sons are physically smaller than the antagonizer 50 Cent, but that has not stopped a damn thing.

Although T.I.’s first, second and third battle responses to 50 Cent were released a few months back, around the same time as his final album, the Harris family has been on my mind for a different reason. Why? Because I had a conversation with another Black woman, who jokingly said that the two of us are the only two people who will stand up to a bully-ish man in our neighborhood. And she’s absolutely positively correct. We’ve observed him harass several women to the point of selling their homes and a few men who backed down. Meanwhile, neither one of the two of us is budging.

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The irony is no matter how many stunts he pulls, his go-to when talking about either of us is that we’re “crazy” or “bipolar” or the equivalent of a recognizable character in a Stephen King novel. It’s (not) funny how Black women get called crazy for refusing to cower in defeat. Neither of us is built like that though. We are the “problem” Domani was rapping about — only we’re a “problem” for him because we don’t do what bullies prefer you do: back down.

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I recall songstress Alicia Keys talking about natural deodorant on “Carpool Karaoke,” while the “Ordinary People” crooner John Legend sang about stinky people who use it. I laughed and went about my day. Like Alicia Keys’ husband Swizz Beatz, I was used to antiperspirant deodorant too.

And even though I cringe at Fat Joe interviewing himself on every single episode of “Joe and Jada,” I was tickled when he said your deodorant should have a “little cancer” in it. What woman wants to smell like “Game 7,” as Jadakiss described? John Legend may have been making solid points in his karaoke song.

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But was natural deodorant really that bad? The who’s who in hip-hop and R&B were coming down hard on the natural folks. Then, former NFL champion Ryan Clark complained about people testing out natural deodorant in July instead of January, making summer airport travel miserable. None of these people were on the same podcast or in the same room, but (minus Alicia Keys) they were all coming to a consensus. Natural deodorant was not the move.

Instead of being completely opposed to the idea, curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to know: Is natural deodorant really that bad? Does natural deodorant make you stink? Instead of going for a lesser-known company that sold natural deodorant, I decided to try a popular brand that has proven itself to be especially solid: Dove.

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Trends are optional, so do what you want

There is no better way to make me interested in doing something than someone telling me not to do it. I don’t mean ridiculous things like voting for Trump or touching a hot stove. Actually, I did touch a hot stove to clean up a soybean spill while I was making homemade soy milk. It took a couple of weeks for the darkened skin to go back to my usual complexion.

I also made fun of comedian Josh Johnson for getting hit in the nose by a ceiling fan, only to completely underestimate how close the fan blades were to my face when I was trying to check the light bulb size. I got knocked down like Adonis Creed fighting "Pretty Ricky” Conlan. I wore sunglasses for two weeks to cover the wound until it mostly healed and only left a small scar on the side of my nose.

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Clearly, I’m hard-headed. No one can talk me out of doing something that I already want to do, even when it comes to fashion. Long before Tank made fun of Tyrese wearing turtlenecks during “Verzuz,” I had an assortment of turtleneck and knit poncho sets that were constantly getting compliments. Then, when a co-worker said she looks at anybody funny who wears Skechers, I raised an eyebrow and bought my favorite part of Skechers in black, blue, gray and tan. Peer pressure doesn’t work on me. At all.

It doesn’t mean I don’t wear popular brands — minus a few that I think are problematic (e.g., Gucci or Prada). Name a popular brand, especially in the ‘90s during the Golden Era of Hip-Hop, and there’s a 99% chance I wore it: Karl Kani, Rocawear, FUBU, Nautica, Cross Colours, Baby Phat and so on. However, it’s not uncommon to see me wearing name brands as quickly as I’ll wear unfamiliar names. If I like it, I wear it.

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But there is one category that I don’t usually decide to go rogue on: personal hygiene. I have strong opinions when it comes to bathing legs, using face towels, washing hands and machine-washing jeans. There’s about a 98% chance you’ll see me bare-faced on a typical day (minus clear mascara and lip gloss), but that’s where it ends when it comes to “going natural.”

Still, I really wanted to know why there was such a divide when it comes to the Natural Deodorant Crowd versus the Aluminum Antiperspirant Deodorant Crowd. So, I bought a four-pack of aluminum-free deodorant and used natural deodorant for the first time this past month.

What roll-on deodorant and aluminum-free deodorant have in common

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For “One Black Woman’s Vote” (OBWV) posts from 2021-2024, click here. For 2025 OBWV posts, click here. As of 2026, new OBWV posts will be published on the second Saturday of each month.

Whenever I see an alert for a new “Clock It With Crockett,” I scramble to watch whatever Rep. Jasmine Crockett has to say. I’m never disappointed, always more informed and usually let out a few chuckles even when she’s serious. Besides never holding her tongue when it comes to the topics of racism and sexism, her social media savvy is what I love most about this congresswoman. And it’s one of those branding techniques that I wish would rub off on the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).

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Although I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to news and politics, if somebody asked me who was in the CBC in my state, tumbleweed would blow by. I know more about Texas Rep. Al Green and Crockett (whose terms end on January 3, 2027) individually than I do about them being in the CBC — and I was Today Years Old when I saw them on the membership list.

And I definitely know more about those two than I do all four CBC members from Illinois. My guess is if I, a two-time Election Judge who votes in every single election since I was 19, don’t know much about them, younger voters definitely don’t. And for the midterms (and past and future presidential elections), that’s a problem.

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Crockett is an accomplished attorney who I can’t imagine taking on the role as their social media manager, but somebody needs to do more with CBC. Right now, and with their latest posts dated several months ago on X, YouTube and Facebook, their social media strategy is about as effective as health club visits two months after New Year’s Day. They start out strong and wander away. Again.

The CBC should reevaluate how they communicate with the public to make voters care about the issues they do. Right now, I can run off a laundry list of responses if someone asked me, “What does Rep. Jasmine Crockett think about ________________?” How do I know? Because she not only made it known and published it, but I cared enough to prioritize hearing her side of pretty much any political issue. The only local politician I do that for in Chicago is because he has a similar social media strategy (plus people can see him strolling on the lakefront).

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Even from my home in Chicago, that Texan has made herself a household name (who was viciously cheated out of the senatorial seat). Anyone with a working brain knows if Texas Republicans hadn’t pulled out every single cheating trick in the book, she would’ve made even more history as a senator. I would’ve enjoyed every minute of Senator Jasmine Crockett the same as I do Rep. Jasmine Crockett. But when I watch CBC videos, I’m bored even while I’m struggling to support causes in a group she’s apart of.

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