Minorities in rural southeast Kansas are treated similarly to supernovas — sure they may exist, but they’re impossible to observe from our vantage point. “I heard they have a black kid on their team!” High school basketball teams would find themselves trapped between arrogance and curiosity as they watched opposing…

The first pair of shoes I remember wearing were Huaraches. Purple and black. First grade. I couldn’t yet tie my shoes but if you’re familiar with the Huarache upper you know it can be manipulated by even the most motor-skill averse fingers. A few frenetic twists on the balls of…

The fedora should have been arresting. It should have twirled and glowed like an emergency vehicle’s cherry red lights. But ubers aren’t ambulances. He listened to sports radio. Loudly. I’m always interested in what strangers are going to listen to. Typically my curiosity is directly connected to my vanity. Will…

My friend died today. Apparently it was a brain aneurism. My friend complained of a headache through a facebook status update. Then his headache manifested itself in an explosion in his brain. He has a wife and three daughters. You want a kicker? His wife survived brain cancer. She endured…

The NBA functions as America’s celebration of Black culture and social critique — I am white. Too many of my musings require that disclaimer these days. But there it is, I am white. …

History repeated itself through the election of Donald Trump. His presidency is not following the script — Following a succession of missteps and mishaps the Candidate learned that he had, via cataclysmic surprise, become the president-elect of the united states. The only persons certain of his pending victory were a few most ardent supporters and the Candidate himself. His campaign came from somewhere on the frontiers of…

Twenty-five sure-fire guarantees for the 2017–2018 NBA season — Let’s not mess around. Here we go. LeBron dodges questions about his pending free agency all season long. Eventually he runs out of vague responses to the constant barrage of questioning so he begins speaking in a nonsensical stream of dictionary vomit. “LeBron, we know the season is winding down…

Should we give a crap about an NBA offseason that moves mercilessly toward inevitability (paging Mr. Durant)? The Unbalanced consulted the preeminent voice on meaninglessness. — I hate being happy so I recently watched the Emoji Movie with my wife and three children. Thirty years from now, when main character T.J. …

Restricting the advancement of humanity’s most endangered group — white males — Full disclosure — I am a white male. I am a white male working in higher education. My wife, though not male, is also white. She also works in higher education. Circumstance could nary offer me a better platform from which to speak in response to the US department of…