Should Essence, one of very few magazines exclusively for black women, have hired a white fashion editor? After debate on this question recently simmered online, Editor In Chief Angela Burt-Murray defended her decision as a color-blind merit pick. She also noted that when the mag covers issues possibly more substantive than an editor's race, the public reaction is generally "crickets" (or, as translated by my people, "bupkes").

The meaning of "vintage" depends on usage. For our purposes, we won't be discussing wines from a particular harvest, apologies to our vintner readers. Instead, the term, via Vintage, will be used to showcase, per Dictionary.com, "the high quality of a past time." The goal is to explore the impact of history on our current culture.