Author: Dr. Angela Nicole Parker

The United States and its children are drowning in gun violence

We often hear that print media is dying. Some may argue that this statement is hyperbolic, but numbers don’t lie. The decline in newspaper readership, and the number of newspapers that have closed their doors in the past decade, should alarm anyone who views a strong, thriving media as a necessity to keeping our democracy strong and viable. For the Black community, a strong press is more important than ever. As we watch the civil rights that we have worked hundreds of years for being rolled back, and are constantly being bombarded with narratives and images that traumatize us, stereotype…

This weekend Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween topped the U.S. box office with $27.1 million dollars, and while there was enough scary evil little girls and crazy men promising chainsaw massacres to satisfy those anticipating a good fright, the real horror was the way that Grandpa Joe kept bragging about his “pimp” past and his “hoes,” making light of a serious tragedy that is destroying the lives of far too many young men and women. Human trafficking is the third largest international crime industry behind drugs and gun trafficking. It reportedly generates a profit of $32 billion every…

Under the Hill…by Angela N. Parker When you live on this earth for thirty-five years without ever managing to be somebody’s wife or mother you get used to being alone. I know that some people dread loneliness, but I don’t. Sure I’d like to have someone to share my life with and there are times when the longing becomes so intense and so consuming that I feel like I am going to suffocate in a blanket of despair and longing. But most of the time, like 85% -90%, it really doesn’t bother me. This was recently hammered home when I…

By Angela N. Parker  News4usonline.com columnist I recently decided to compile some of my essays into a short book titled, Under the Hill: One Thirty-Something Woman’s Musings on Spinsterhood, Disappointment and Accidental Self Discovery. Anyone who has read my column knows that they are a type of satire, a comedic way of looking at the very real problems and concerns that single women in their thirties face. These columns are meant to be fun, so imagine my surprise when I received my first review and it wasn’t a complaint about the grammar or the writing style, it was a tirade…

By Angela N. Parker News4usonline.com Columnist Dealing with your family when you enter your thirties is a tricky thing, but when you’re unmarried and childless it’s an experience like no other. For whatever reason your family looks at you like you are in a perpetual adolescent stage. You’re a big teenager who they still have to nurture and boss around because if you could get your life together you’d be MARRIED by now. But at the same time you are also their fail safe — as in, “I failed to make enough money this week, can you help me?” I’ve…

By Angela N. Parker     News4usonline.com Columnist I was watching the trailer for the upcoming documentary Dark Girls, produced by Bill Duke for Duke Media, and literally let out a loud sigh when it was over. Call me naive, but I really had convinced myself that this type of colorism belonged to the 1980’s, when “light-skinned” girls were in vogue and you “made it” if you caught the eye of the pretty boy, with curly hair and light eyes, who sat next to you in math class. The longer I stay single, the more I have to beat back those old insecurities…

By Angela N. Parker  news4usonline.com contributor I was reading a story about a man who murdered his girlfriend, their two children, and himself, in front of his girlfriend’s oldest children and my mouth literally fell open when I scrolled down to the comment section and found a page full of condolences, not for the murdered woman, or her children, but for the “good guy” who “helped everybody.”    When a woman posted that “good guys” don’t kill their girlfriends, and that he was probably abusing this woman for years before finally killing her, a slew of hateful, ignorant, and may…

By Angela N. Parker  News4usonline.com Columnist I was having lunch with a co-worker and her friend when her friend suddenly announced that she was looking for a new man, one who “could bring home the bacon.”  As she continued with her “a good man is hard to find” diatribe, I realized that this woman wanted a lot in a man, but from what I could tell, she didn’t really have much to offer this ubermate in return.  She smokes like a chimney, screams like a banshee when she is angry, and has a hard time staying faithful to the man…

By Angela N. Parker news4usonline.com columnist Recently a co-worker of mine, who I’ll refer to as the Q-Tip due to her big, gray afro, finally got the boot after terrorizing the office for years. The whole company went into shock. Nobody expected to be rid of her, but what surprised me more than her offing was the giddiness it inspired in everybody.  One co-worker, who had offered to help her pack,  couldn’t stop laughing when he told me that he was looking for a box; another started dancing as she let out a salutation about the “Goodness of God. “

By Angela N. Parker   I was watching Oprah’s two-part interview with former protégée and self-help guru Iyanla Vanzant and was riveted to the screen as Iyanla explained why she walked away from Oprah eleven years ago to do her own show with Barbara Walters. Since then Iyanla has fallen on hard times, while Oprah’s other protégées — Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, Suze Orman and Rachel Ray— have found fame and fortune.

By Angela N. Parker I was clicking through news stories on-line when I found a festive little piece about the Iranian government banning Valentine’s Day for being “too westernized.” Now, they aren’t the first to try and drive a stake through this cutesy “arrow-slinging” cupid beast.  Every year you’ll find somebody railing against the “fake” and “commercialized” holiday “whose only real purpose is to make greeting card and candy companies rich.” Of course, these complainers are usually people who are playing for the other team — The Lonely Hearts Squad who’d rather cut their tongues out then admit that they…

Tick Tick, Is That the Sound  of Your Biological Clock? I recently turned 30 without ever managing to become somebody’s Mommy. I’m fine with this, more than fine, but some of my very well meaning family members can’t understand why I haven’t gone forth and multiplied. Take this past weekend, where instead of celebrating my Mom’s birthday, there seemed to be an awful lot of focus on the fact that I wasn’t one. See, my brother recently had his second daughter. She’s about three months old, gorgeous and content to just lie there. I was asked if I wanted to…