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8 AI Prompts That Could Actually Change Your Life
Read more: 8 AI Prompts That Could Actually Change Your LifeThe real magic happens with AI when you stop treating it like Google with a personality and start using it like an extra set of hands—a personal assistant, if you will. For instance, I recently connected ChatGPT to my Google Calendar. Instead of asking it to suggest a schedule for several things I wanted to…
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One of the “Good Ones”: How Respectability Politics Protect Power
Read more: One of the “Good Ones”: How Respectability Politics Protect PowerDress properly. Speak carefully. Stay calm. Work harder. Do not appear angry. Do not make white people uncomfortable. Be respectable enough, and you will be treated fairly. False. Respectability politics do not dismantle racism. In fact, it quietly fortifies it by insisting marginalized people manage themselves around it. Attention shifts away from the biased institution…
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What If We Read ‘The Giving Tree’ Wrong?
Read more: What If We Read ‘The Giving Tree’ Wrong?As a child, I thought The Giving Tree was a story centered on generosity. As an adult, I’m no longer convinced it is. Children tend to be drawn to the tree. Adults, I believe, should be paying closer attention to the boy. The tree gives the boy apples, so he can make money. It gives…
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How to Impress a Non-Detroiter Visiting Detroit
Read more: How to Impress a Non-Detroiter Visiting DetroitStop Trying to “Defend” Detroit For decades, much of Detroit was marked by disinvestment, population loss, and visible decline. That history is real. But it is also no longer the whole story. The mistake people make when hosting visitors is trying too hard to convince them the city is “actually nice.” Let the city speak…
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Why the Chikei Rick Chow Verdict Feels Impossible to Ignore
Read more: Why the Chikei Rick Chow Verdict Feels Impossible to IgnoreSome verdicts end a trial. Others start a conversation. The acquittal of Chikei Rick Chow in the shooting death of 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton falls squarely into the second category. Legally, the case is over. Socially, morally, and politically, I suspect it is far from settled. Like many people who followed the case, I found the…
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The Scripts We Inherit as Women
Read more: The Scripts We Inherit as WomenOne of society’s greatest achievements was convincing women that many of the things draining the life out of them are actually proof they’re winning. That if a man chooses you, any man, somehow you’ve ascended the social ladder. The easiest way to identify women who most align with this mindset is the age-old rebuttal: “Well,…
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Things Men Do on Dating Apps That Immediately Give Women the Ick
Read more: Things Men Do on Dating Apps That Immediately Give Women the IckDating apps were supposed to make the courting process more convenient. Instead, they’ve become social experiments in emotional ambiguity, strategic detachment, and people wanting intimacy for the cost of ice. To be clear: women are not asking for perfection. Most are simply seeking: clarity, effort, honesty (for the love of God, honesty), consistency, and basic…
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American Propaganda Works So Well Most Americans Don’t Believe It Exists
Read more: American Propaganda Works So Well Most Americans Don’t Believe It ExistsAmericans are extensively taught how propaganda operates in other countries while rarely recognizing the ways their own beliefs, fears, values, and definitions of “freedom” are constantly being engineered and reinforced at home.
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5 Romantic Phrases That Sound Kind, But Are Usually Insults
Read more: 5 Romantic Phrases That Sound Kind, But Are Usually InsultsI can’t tell you how many times I fell for what they call the “okie doke” from my late teens into my early thirties. Yes, I’ll own that. Now that I’ve grown into a stronger sense of self-worth and advocacy, I can look back at those cringeworthy dating moments and see exactly where I should…
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Black Motherhood in America: When Care Becomes Control
Read more: Black Motherhood in America: When Care Becomes ControlThere is a point at which a health crisis stops being about medicine and starts being about power. Black maternal health in the United States has reached that point..again. The data has been clear for years. Black women are far more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than their White counterparts. Even as maternal…
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Skincare in Your 30s: Let Me Save You Some Time
Read more: Skincare in Your 30s: Let Me Save You Some TimeThere’s no shortage of products, routines, and “must-haves” when it comes to beauty. New ingredients trend every few months. New devices promise transformation. And somewhere in all of that, it’s easy to lose sight of what actually works. I remember preparing for a birthday trip to Japan, hoping (honestly, praying) that the TikTok products I’d…
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The Switcheroo in Healthcare: Why I Don’t Just “Go With the Flow” Anymore
Read more: The Switcheroo in Healthcare: Why I Don’t Just “Go With the Flow” AnymoreEver schedule an appointment with someone specific only for things to quietly shift once you’re actually in the chair? Ever notice how it’s presented like it’s no big deal? Like you’re just supposed to go along with it? For a long time, I did. But, after enough of those moments, you start to pause. You…
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The SAVE Act, Midterm Elections, and Why Your Vote Matters Right Now
Read more: The SAVE Act, Midterm Elections, and Why Your Vote Matters Right NowVoting in the United States is not just about showing up anymore. It is about whether: (1) you can register easily; (2) your identification is accepted; and(3) the rules change before you even get the chance to find out. The SAVE Act is not a distant idea. It has already passed the House, and is…
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Sneaky Saving Strats: Stack and Invest Money Effortlessly
Read more: Sneaky Saving Strats: Stack and Invest Money EffortlesslyMost people assume that building savings or investing consistently requires a high salary, perfect discipline, or hours spent studying the stock market. That belief alone is enough to stop many people before they even begin. But, the reality is much simpler. Financial stability is often built through systems, not willpower. When saving and investing are…
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Favorite Metro Detroit Spots Right Now
Read more: Favorite Metro Detroit Spots Right NowThere’s a lot happening in the U.S. right now, and it can feel overwhelming at times. As the weather starts to improve and the sun finally returns, it’s a good reminder that our mental health matters too. Getting outside, spending time with people, and enjoying the spaces around us can help bring a little balance…
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A Serious Question: Why Not You?
Read more: A Serious Question: Why Not You?Many of us grow up believing that opportunity belongs to a specific type of person. The person who is smarter, prettier, thinner, richer, more charismatic, and/or more connected. Somewhere along the way we begin to quietly remove ourselves from consideration before life even has the chance to. We see the job posting and assume someone…
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Sidewalks and Basic Courtesy
Read more: Sidewalks and Basic CourtesyThey seems small. Three simple, yet powerful phrases: Excuse me.Please.Thank you. Social hierarchies are maintained through small rituals (i.e., who yields; who acknowledges; who defers). For instance, under Jim Crow, Black people (not the dehumanizing word ‘blacks’) were required to step off sidewalks to allow white people to pass. They were required to use honorifics…
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A Tale of Two Neighborhoods
Read more: A Tale of Two NeighborhoodsThere is a certain kind of inconvenience that is easy to dismiss. The deodorant is locked up.You press a button and wait.No one comes.You wait longer. It is mildly irritating. Nothing more. The produce section looks sparse. The apples are bruised. The lettuce wilts early. The shelves lean heavily toward packaged foods with long ingredient…
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The Invisible Scoreboard
Read more: The Invisible ScoreboardYou’ve opened LinkedIn and, suddenly, your stomach drops to the pits of hell. Someone just raised 1M in funding.Someone just bought a second home.Someone just made partner before 30.Someone just moved abroad—cost of living low.Someone just launched something innovative, bold. And without meaning to, you start computing. Shouldn’t I be further by now?How old am…
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What Changed When I Stopped Trying to Be Disciplined
Read more: What Changed When I Stopped Trying to Be Disciplined“I’m just not a morning person.”“I’m bad at consistency.”“I’m not a reader.” These statements feel harmless. Honest, even. But, they quietly lock you into an identity that keeps your behavior stagnant. The problem isn’t that you don’t want better habits.The problem is that you’re trying to latch onto change instead of leveraging your environment to…