Category: Veteran
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Half of the Sky

Cloudy Skies Ahead During my young and single days, like most 20 somethings, I was looking for love in all the wrong places. But I had fun while looking. I was at a bar one night in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. I met a young nurse we’ll call “Rose.” She was sitting alone at the…
Activism, Culture, Dating, Drugs, Economics, Education, equality, Equity, Feminism, Gender, Health, History, Human Rights, International, LGBTQ, Love, Manhood, Marriage, Media, mental health, Newspaper, Non-Profit, Police, Politics, Poverty, race, Religion, Science, Service, Sex Crime, Sexism, Social Justice, Television, Veteran, violence, Writer, Youth -
Lockdown: Orange is the New Black Goes Dark

On June 17th, 2016 Netflix released the fourth season of their hit show Orange is the New Black. This season of the show took on many hard-hitting topics, such as racism, prison privatization, CO brutality, and sexual trauma. This controversial season has sparked many online debates, with some critics calling it ‘ trauma porn’, a…
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The Evolved Man: Six Tips to Step Up Your Game and Evolve

The Personal Evolution Before I launched my website, it took me a good while to come up with a title. I went through several names, and it finally hit me, “Evolved Man.” A term I learned from dating guru and business consultant by the name of David DeAngelo. He refers to the meaning of an…
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The Rise of the White Savior Complex and Our Failure in Diversity

What do movies like Dangerous Minds, Hardball, and The Freedom Writers all have in common? They’re all movies detailing a well-meaning white person coming into the ‘hood’ to save all of the little black and brown children from themselves and the wayward people in the community. The White Savior Complex is a modern spin on…
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The Police State and the Black Community: Redux

Why We Say Fuck Da Police “Get your fucking hands up now!” They surrounded the car, pointing their automatic assault rifles at the four of us sitting in a 1989 Mercedes-Benz. “Get outta da fuckin’ out the car!” “Where are the drugs?” The men thoroughly destroyed the inside interior of the vehicle. This was Memorial…
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Finding Peace in the City of Wind

“Peace is a lot like love. In order to have love, an individual must open themselves up to possible rejection and pain caused by another. Just like a community might risk war by opening themselves up to another community. To have peace or love, there is always some type of vulnerability that must be shown.…
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Depression, Struggle, and My Road to Self-Worth

The Big 3-0 Turning thirty years old personally for me was a significant milestone and a year of significant transition. During my time growing up on Chicago’s South and West sides, I was placed in various foster homes starting at the tender age of three-years-old. Fortunately, I was adopted at the age of twelve. When…