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Editorials

DJ CISCO: I Love Plus-Sized Models
(Monday, March 29, 2010 - BlackVibes.com)

Recently I have seen models in ads that I consider normal sized. What I mean by that is they look like women and not crack heads but according to an Arizona State University study they have found that plus-size models cannot sell products as well as crack head models, and researches say this is in part because these normal sized ladies lower womens self esteem. "We believe it is unlikely that many brands will gain market share by using heavy models in their ads," says Naomi Mandel, marketing associate professor in the W. P. Carey School ... Read More

MANIFESTO: Should We Whip Our Children?
(Thursday, March 25, 2010 - BlackVibes.com)

During my lunch break on a recent day of substitute teaching for a high school, I was a silent third party to a conversation in the teachers' lounge between two instructors who were discussing what they would do should they ever be put in a situation where their physical safety was put in danger by one of the students. The conversation, by a black man and a woman, both in their 40s, was simultaneously entertaining and worrisome: it involved teenagers potentially getting thrown across rooms, chin-checked and so forth. It's not so much their descriptions of what they'd do if... Read More

DJ CISCO Wants To Know What's Your Legacy Going To Be?
(Thursday, March 11, 2010 - BlackVibes.com)

Someone I know died of cancer. This person won't be missed by many. The stories I have been told about him was how terrible a man he was, an abuser, verbally and physically, controlling, manipulative, etc. I heard he picked on his family and berated them for anything he felt like. He wouldn't allow them to travel until he wanted to go somewhere. The wife rarely saw her family. Not once did I hear a good thing about this man. Not to long after his death, based on a conversation that took place, I got the impression that a weight had been lifted from the family and that the famil... Read More

MANIFESTO: Being An A*shole In America
(Tuesday, March 9, 2010 - BlackVibes.com)
Assuming you haven't been stuck under a sheet of rubble for the past several weeks, you've likely caught wind of the ballyhoo over John Mayer's interview in the March issue of Playboy. He caught a sizable amount of flack for everything from dropping the N-bomb and ruminations on his racist penis to his sexual addiction to Jessica Simpson and speculation on ... Read More

MANIFESTO: The Perils Of Dating "My Own Kind"
(Monday, February 22, 2010 - BlackVibes.com)
There are two very significant barriers that I've encountered when it comes to dating black women - but not for the reasons that might come to mind when hearing this from a black man. To explain the first reason, I'll start with a story: Last Friday, during a night out at the club, I engaged a young lady with whom I'd attended college on dating life in Chicago. Given that she's a black, mid-20-something career woman who also happens to be physically quite attractive, I wanted her perspective given the recent ubiquitous media attention on the challenges that black women have with getting married. Sure enough, she confessed that dating has been pretty dif... Read More

MANIFESTO: Review of The iPad
(Friday, February 5, 2010 - BlackVibes.com)
iPad

Not long ago, I was sifting through a box of old effects from my college days when I came across my trusty old Sony Discman. It triggered a flashback to the late 1990s when I would cart around something of a "man-purse" full of CDs - jewel cases included -for my bus ride to work on the east side of Detroit. Back then I used my Uncle Vincent's disc player, which weighed about as much as a brick and would skip if you breathed on it too hard. I did the portable CD thing for a good seven-plus years after thatâ€¦while studying, ... Read More

MANIFESTO: (Porn) Dreams Do Come True!
(Thursday, January 21, 2010 - BlackVibes.com)
Remember the scene in Spike Lee's Malcolm X movie when Denzel Washington's El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz meets Elijah Muhammad for the first time? And he walks in the room and starts weeping at Muhammad's "magnificence"? That was me at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas early this month...only minus the tears. And the bowtie. I went to Vegas simply to break out of Hoth - a.k.a. Chicago - and chop it u... Read More

DJ CISCO... My Life As A DJ
(Thursday, December 31, 2009 - BlackVibes.com)
Pioneer Record Player

I got my start as a DJ by telling a lie. Back in the day, the kids in my neighborhood were break dancing, but I couldn't dance so I told everyone I was a DJ. Three guys formed a break dancing crew called Triple Crush and were about to start touring on the Fresh Fest tour. They came to me and said they wanted me to DJ for them. Of course my skills as a DJ were non-existent. After all, I did lie. I panicked, grabbed my mom's Fisher Price record player (back then they weren... Read More

MANIFESTO: The Best of 2009
(Monday, December 28, 2009 - BlackVibes.com)
Best Album: This one goes to Raekwon for Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. II. Rae crafted the most cohesive hip-hop album since Lupe's The Cool; an anachronistic product that works marvelously considering rapping about crack creation and sales is thoroughly mid-1990s. I was among the biggest skeptics that he could follow up with a decent sequel to The Purple Tape some 14 years and two wack albums later. But with a Tour De Force of producers and ... Read More

MANIFESTO: Is Ignorance Bliss In Entertainment?
(Friday, December 11, 2009 - BlackVibes.com)
With R. Kelly and Chris Brown on deck with new albums, lovers of mediocre R&B music have moral decisions to make on their way to the retail checkout.

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