Does the comfort of my White colleagues matter more than my own? (That’s a rhetorical question!) — For the most part, I’m pretty good at doing me. But If I were to step outside my body and watch myself in situations where I’m the only Black guy in the room, particularly at work, I’d see me doing a me that’s not quite me. Though I don’t use…

Here are some other essential tracks from the goddess of art rock that you won’t hear on Stranger Things. — I’ll never forget the first time I heard Kate Bush sing. It was 1983, and my brother Jeff and I were staying up after midnight to watch a late late show called Friday Night Videos. I wanted my MTV, but we had basic cable, so Friday Night Videos was the…

My second-favorite decade in music didn’t need Thriller or Purple Rain to rock my world. — Half the fun of loving music is living in the past. Nostalgia is a powerful drug. That doesn’t necessarily mean we all want to return to the good-old days of listening to our favorite tunes on cassettes and 8-track tapes, but CDs and vinyl LPs will always have their place…

When love dare not speak its name. — “I was singing when I freed you But my pride was just a veil I pretended not to need you Now my heart tells a different tale” — “Hearts in Armor” by Trisha Yearwood On September 1, 1992, country singer Trisha Yearwood released her second album, Hearts in Armor, and…

My husband averted a potential hair disaster in Jamaica. — Familiarity doesn’t necessarily breed contempt — especially when it comes to travel. In my globe-trotting experience, places that remind me of somewhere else often make the best impressions. My husband and I recently returned from a seven-day Caribbean cruise that docked for one morning and afternoon in Ocho Rios, Jamaica…

How to get amazing customer support (a JetBlue success story). — To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from my first time. I’m taking about my inaugural flight on JetBlue Airways. I’d heard the horror stories, the ones that painted the low-cost airline as basically a one-star experience in the friendly skies — a must to avoid. …

We are all unique, but so many of our experiences, sadly, are not. — What’s it like to be Black in America? It’s hearing the news about 10 Black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, by a White supremacist simply for shopping while Black and wondering what will happen the next time you go to the store to buy a dozen…

Because they know the truth won't set them free. — First, full disclosure: Not all Republicans are monsters. I'm not here to paint them with such broad strokes. I believe even the red states are home to decent people who aren't Democrats. However, if party loyalty led you to vote for Donald Trump twice and continue to vote for GOP…

When world travel becomes a chore. — Below is a January 10, 2010 post I published on Theme for Great Cities, my old blog where I documented nearly a decade of my expat adventures and musings (from 2008 to 2017). I wrote this one three years and four months after leaving New York City and moving to…