How Medium burned down the home of its most talented writers
P.S. I Love You, the Medium publication affectionately known as “PSILY,” is gone. After the 30th day of June 2021, they will no longer be accepting new work since Medium has pulled funding from the publication. In pandemic language, this means they have been deemed “non-essential.”
When I first started writing on Medium last year, writers openly dreamed about being published in P.S. I Love You. They still did, until the sad news came. On social media, anxious writers asked how they could get into the publication that focused on matters of the heart. How long do they normally take…
Sexual harassment, toxic masculinity, and misogyny
Six months ago New York governor Andrew Cuomo was being called “America’s governor” by people all over the country for his leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. And then sexual harassment allegations against the New York Democrat came to light. Governor Cuomo became the poster child of toxic masculinity. Americans all over the country had wondered if the allegations were true or not, as Governor Cuomo repeatedly denied the claims by women who have accused him of unwanted kissing and soliciting a former aid to play “strip poker” with him.
And then Charlotte Bennett, a former aide to Governor Cuomo, came…
Does America even care about hate crimes against Asian-Americans
Coronavirus inspired, anti Asian-American hate crimes have spiked all over the country. Though the issue has received some coverage on the major news networks, no one is screaming about the need to do something about these attacks against Asian-Americans. Perhaps it is because traditionally when we have spoken about hate crimes and racist attacks in America, we have not envisioned Asian victims. We have not seen the bodies of young Asian-Americans hanging from southern trees.
We have not had an Asian-American Rodney King or Breonna Taylor or James Bird Jr, YET. But most of the victims of hate crimes in…
Our mothers and fathers are the punchlines of your jokes
Readers please note: this story includes descriptions of addiction, suicide, and child exploitation. If you need help, contact the National Helpline.
My mother was a crack cocaine addict for more than twenty years. Being her son was a lonely thing. It was not easy. Everyone thought it was a dirty thing. Filthy. Inhuman. Crackhead jokes sound differently when it is your own mother who walks among the ghosts that haunt street corners and lonely parking lots. You laugh at the jokes like everyone else, hoping the laughter will provide you with cover from the shame of it all.
Even as…
I didn’t want to simply have a nice house in a bad neighborhood
I bought a little house a couple of years ago. It sits on a mostly quiet street in a mostly Black subdivision, with a good amount of Latinos. The larger area of Houston, of which my subdivision is a part, is called Sunnyside, and it has a reputation for being a tough neighborhood.
I was born and raised not far away, in an area called South Park. …
Meghan Markle marrying Prince Harry is no more important than any other marriage, even if it does involve the Royals
When Meghan Markle married England’s Prince Harry it was not a career accomplishment. Meghan Markle saying “I do,” to Prince Harry did not create some great moment in black history. Two people met, they fell in love, they got married. Black people in general or black women specifically were not made better by the fact of Prince Harry sliding a wedding band onto Meghan Markle’s ring finger. No glass ceiling was shattered.
Little black girls will not have more opportunities…
Regular Texans died as energy company executives and the politicians they bought, counted their money
I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. The winter storm of 2021 was abnormal for us. We are more used to hundred degree summer days and crazy humidity than winter freezes, busted pipes and power outages. Apart from the four years I lived in the U.S. Virgin Islands, I have spent my whole life in Texas. Like most Texans, until the winter storm of 2021 I had not known that Texas was the only state in America that had chosen to have its own separate power grid.
My father once worked for the old energy company, Houston Light &…
We must make sure the end of the pandemic won’t mean the return of mass shootings
During the coronavirus pandemic, the great American tradition of mass shootings has seemed to disappear, like a blood stain that is eventually sucked into the thirsty pavement of a gas station parking lot. The precautions taken by school districts all over America to limit the spread of covid-19, from restricting visitors, to completely closing many school campuses all together, have likely had the unintended effect of thwarting the plans of the vicious. Yet the evil thing that is within them cannot be killed with a vaccine. …
Tessica Brown using Gorilla Glue to keep her hair straightened and European looking was an act of desperation
When the story of Tessica Brown using Gorilla Glue to keep her chemically straightened hair in place went viral the whole nation laughed. Who would be stupid enough to think you could use Gorilla Glue as a substitute for hair styling gel? We all laughed. But then we saw the video of Tessica Brown.
We saw the black woman with blue contact lenses that seemed almost alien in their alarmed gaze. We saw her chemically straightened hair looking as if it were painted to her scalp — not simply because she had made the foolish mistake of using Gorilla Glue…
From black savior to black step brotha
With the recent release of former President Barack Obama’s memoir, A Promised Land, Americans are called upon once again to evaluate the success or failure of his presidency. Black Americans, specifically, will often judge him based on his ability to force the rest of America to finally treat us as equals. In much of black America, he is evaluated not on his success as a president, but as a messiah. But no one seems to give thought to the other burden he bared, of protecting the very idea that a black person could actually be president.
Much like with the…
Carl L Lane
Lover of literature, wine and dogs. Bachelor' degree in English with creative writing minor. 2012 winner of The Fabian Worsham Creative Writing Prize.
