Either all of us are illegal or none of us are illegal. [UPDATED 3/10/26] When I was a teenager, my friends used to shock me. Some of my white and Asian classmates would occasionally show me items they had shoplifted from stores. I heard them joke about a phenomenon called “dining and dashing.” I was horrified! I have a Nigerian mother and father, so there was no one to induct me into the world of “petty crime” that many white youths committed. Apparently it's so common that

GETTING MRIs About a year ago, I was at the Chicago Rush Hospital Medical Campus getting an MRI with my brother, Chidi. I get really nervous about MRIs. The first few years when I would do them, it was no big deal. But after realizing how high stakes these diagnostic exams are, it would put me in a panic every time I have had to get one. For this reason, I've asked a number of friends and family members to accompany me. They will just hold my ankle for the entire time and sin

By Chinyere Osuji aka Dr. Chi I was watching a performance by the Korean band called Sangjaru. They play Korean fusion, mixing traditional instruments with contemporary ones. I watched the performance on a very snowy evening from the comfort of my community room with two of my neighbors. As I was watching the performance, my friend, a native Korean, explained the names of the different traditional instruments to me. The one that stood out the most to me was a double-sided dru

Why are they eating white bread toast for breakfast? Yuck! After watching dozens of K-dramas, I have learned about Brahms in Do You Like Brahms and Modigliani in Dali and the Cocky Prince. In Hometown Cha Cha Cha, I saw the male lead debate the merits of Burgundy versus Bordeaux French wines. However, I cannot recall characters lauding over Korean artists or contemplating regional varieties of Korean alcoholic beverages. For some reason, there was a moment in 2020 in which se

Being originally from Chicago, I have seen hustling and have even been victim to a scam myself. Having recent roots in Nigeria, I now laugh at emails from "Nigerian princes, ” even when they are from a white man living in Texas. More recently, a “Danish prince” scammed an American Nigerian woman and her family out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. That was not so funny to me. I first noticed something was odd when I asked about disability parking where I live. I had just m

I saved up my pretty pennies and had my family members chip in for me to buy the Bioness L300 Go. Unfortunately, I get so many read alerts telling me that electrodes are not in place and it slows me down every time I try to leave my house to try to figure out whether there is an actual issue or a fictitious one. Today, I was on my way to church and there was a fictitious issue that I could not figure out. It kept saying that the electrons were not in place, despite taking th

The Difference Really Matters I used to be so staunch about how in English, we have to stop saying that we live in one America. A lot of people from Spanish-speaking countries have expressed their annoyance that we in the United States like to call ourselves Americans. I often think to myself, that's a bit of Spanish – centrism! Back when they were the colonies of Spain, called new Spain or new Granada and stuff, the United States had decided to fight a war for independence.

Here’s why it’s hard to empathize with Onyeka My name is Chinyere Osuji and I am the author of Boundaries of Love: Interracial Marriage and the Meaning of Race. It was based on over 100 interviews with people in black-white interracial marriages. I am an associate professor and teach classes on race and blackness in the United States, Brazil, and around the world. I recently came across Onyeka Ehie’s “Danish deception” story. Like Onyeka, I am also Igbo and an American Nigeri

Why were interracial couples doing the most? Remember the Latine couple who shared their slave-mistress kink with the world? George Floyd protestors did not risk their lives for this.

"I'm not grateful, innit." During the COVID-19 lockdowns from 2020 to 2021, I discovered the audio social media app, Clubhouse. This happened in the middle of a global rise in nationalism from India to Canada. This included Black Americans who inhabit a bit of a nation within a nation as a minority with a strong sense of linked fate. In these spaces, I became familiar with the term “ADOS.” Political commentator Yvette Carnell and attorney Antonio Moore had already created t

We had just started to get vaccinated and were slowly emerging from lockdown. We were not okay.

Women who cannot run. A woman will be running from danger and will trip over a log in the woods, sand, an embankment, her own feet, nothing. In "Castaway Diva," nobody questioned why a woman would wear white gym shoes on a rainy day. But I also questioned why no one would interfere seeing a man in a dark raincoat walking quickly towards a woman who is running away with all her might. Whatever happened to see some thing, say something? But she couldn't outrun him. Why? Becaus

These buttons open the same door. Several months ago, this year (2025) we put in the silver plate. The blue button has been here at least three years. Why would we automate it again? Who asked for this? (Not me.) How much did it cost? Who thought this was a good idea? I really hope it was free.

In 2019, I gave a keynote speech for the Black Doctoral Network Conference. I decided to tell them the things I wish someone had told me...

"They said that the average power density of many devices had higher levels than guidelines allow."

I am currently on vacation in Chicago. I'm visiting family and friends. I went to a Ukrainian restaurant that was quite delicious called...

A difficult aspect of trying to be a feminist is that Black feminists in the U.S. often overshadow other types of feminists. It seems...

In elementary school, I had created a character named “Fifi La Rouge,” a white woman with blonde hair who would interject random French...

One thing about Korean dramas and gender dynamics is that mothers-in-law are almost always portrayed as terrible people. This resonates...

Imagine you're a young woman whose parents immigrated from Africa. You've decided you want to become an immigration lawyer, and you're...