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BGN sits down with the creative minds behind Magic City: An American Fantasy, a bold and visually stunning series that reimagines the vibrant nightlife and cultural heartbeat of Atlanta in the 1980s. Executive producers Jami Gertz, Jermaine Dupri, and Cole Brown, alongside director Charles Todd, share their inspiration for crafting a genre-bending narrative that blends music, fantasy, and Southern Black culture.

The team dives into the show’s fantastical themes, the importance of reclaiming historical spaces, and how Magic City seeks to honor the legacy of Black excellence through style, sound, and storytelling.

Interviewer: Jamie Broadnax

Video Editor: Jamie Broadnax

Magic City: An American Fantasy premieres August 15 at 10:00 pm ET/PT on STARZ. Remaining episodes will air weekly on Fridays at 9:00 pm ET/PT.

The post Inside the Magic: BGN Talks with the Creators of ‘Magic City: An American Fantasy’ appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.

These days, we’re a lot more aware of toxic masculinity — but that doesn’t mean it’s stopped entirely. We’ve all seen those memes of ‘Kyles’ punching drywall, but the thing about memes is that they’re based in reality.

So, when an Airbnb guest decided to take their anger out on the wall, the host reacted in the funniest way possible.

America is among the wealthiest nations in the world. It’s a country that prides itself on abundance, innovation, and the promise that anyone, regardless of their background, can make it. It’s the land of opportunity, where hard work is supposed to yield results, and the American Dream is sold as something accessible to all. From towering grocery chains to food delivery apps, there’s really no shortage of ways to access anything you might crave in this country, at any time, in any place. So, in theory, no one in this country should go hungry, right?

Sadly, the promise of the American Dream often rings hollow to far too many Black communities across the US, where food insecurity isn’t just common, but systemic. The so-called land of opportunity feels anything but in these neighborhoods, as full-service grocery stores are scarce, fresh produce is a luxury, and diet-related illnesses run rampant. These places, often called “food deserts” and quite conveniently overlooked by the country, suffer from chronic disinvestment and discriminatory policies, which make accessing nutritious food a daily battle.

Food deserts, for those not in the know, are often defined as areas where residents lack easy access to affordable and nutritious food, usually because there’s no supermarket within a reasonable traveling distance. But the definition alone barely scratches the surface of all the underlying problems that make food deserts possible in the first place. We have to ask ourselves what leads to the formation of food deserts, how one of the wealthiest countries on Earth allows food deserts to persist, and, more importantly, does the US have the conscience to fix these issues?

Food deserts tend to affect people who are already at the short end of the stick. It’s not just geography we’re dealing with. It’s a systemic issue, like with any form of inequality. The system creates a cyclical pattern for people born in an impoverished area, and they’re affected by these issues the most. Even with the charitable season, people who live in food deserts still have the same inequities regardless of the time of the year that it is.” — Nettie Freshour, human nutrition and foods teaching associate professor in the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Food deserts don’t form in a vacuum. Nor are they, in the case of the US, merely the result of geography or chance. They’re created by design (white scales), through the decades-long redlining, racial zoning, and systemic disinvestment in Black and Brown neighborhoods. We could argue that food is a basic need, and that there’s clearly a demand for food in these neighborhoods.

And that’s a completely valid argument. However, when a major grocery retailer looks at the map and chooses not to build in certain areas, it’s not because the need isn’t there, but because of calculated decisions about profitability and risk, which are shaped by a long history of structural racism. As a result, millions of Americans (disproportionally Black Americans) are left to rely on corner stores and fast-food restaurants, where options are calorie-dense, nutrient-poor, and, adding insult to injury, greatly overpriced. The consequences of this are devastating.

Communities with limited access to healthy food experience higher rates of obesity, hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, and other chronic illnesses. So, this clearly goes beyond just what’s on the dinner table tonight. For Black families already facing the burdens of economic inequality and medical bias, this issue only adds to the cycle of poor health outcomes that stretch across generations. It goes beyond just what’s on the dinner table tonight. It’s about long-term wellness, life expectancy, and quality of life, simply because you are what you eat.

On a broader scale, the difference in lifespan between residents of food-scarce and food-secure neighborhoods can be as much as 15 years, and the differences in the quality of life are staggering. These are not small gaps or statistical inconsistencies. This is a full-blown moral crisis. History has taught us that we as a society often rise above when we name an injustice clearly, by its name, and while the definition of food deserts stands, the food scarcity faced by Black and Brown communities in the US should be called “food apartheid”.

It’s a much more apt name; food deserts are often the result of poverty, but apartheid implies something more intentional, more systemic. It makes clear that these aren’t accidental conditions, but the result of deliberate policies and neglect. It also centers the role of race in this crisis, which is often either softened or completely omitted in mainstream conversations about hunger and poverty. Calling it food apartheid reminds us that we’re not dealing with a natural disaster, but human decisions that continuously prioritize profit over people. So, how do we fix this?

Fixing the food apartheid in Black communities demands a systemic change and sustained commitment, and many are already paving the way. Black-led organizations across the country are leading the charge with urban farms that reclaim vacant lots, food co-ops that give residents ownership, and pay-what-you-can markets that grant access to fresh produce without shame. These are not just practical solutions to food apartheid, but also powerful acts of resistance against a crisis that never should have existed in the so-called land of the free.

Still, communities can’t fight this alone; the issue also demands structural reform, and policymakers must challenge the racial inequalities embedded in food access by rewriting zoning laws to attract grocery investment and supporting Black farmers through subsidies and land protections. In the end, this isn’t about individual choice, because no one can choose healthy foods that don’t exist nearby or afford produce when prices outpace wages. It’s a matter of national responsibility, and if America truly stands for freedom and equality, it must reflect those ideals in every aspect. So, why not start at a dinner table?

The post Food Deserts in Black Communities: Does America Have the Conscience to Fix It? appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.

For centuries, humans have looked up at the stars wondering if there are creatures “like us” out there. Science fiction authors have offered cautionary advice: “careful what you wish for.” What if extraterrestrials are a little too like us? I.e. homicidal resource guzzling maniacs with an innate drive to expand and control? If aliens are indeed enlightened, they’re probably smart enough to leave murder-primates like us alone. If they’re not, then human civilization might soon get a taste of its own killer medicine. Here are the 10 best sci-fi books about alien invasions, written so wishful thinkers like you can start preparing for interstellar combat instead.

The Three Body Problem

A modern sci-fi war epic, Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem is one of the most celebrated alien invasion books of the modern era. Book one of the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, Liu’s novel takes its title from a problem that has plagued physicists for centuries. When three or more celestial bodies are in orbit around each other, their movements are nearly impossible to predict. When you’re an alien species living on a planet that orbits three suns, solving the three body problem isn’t just a theoretical conundrum – it’s the key to your survival. The solution? Abandon your planet and look for a more hospitable place. That blue one a few lightyears away looks pretty nice – if you were to get rid of the organisms already living on it. Trouble is, those inconvenient organisms are us, and we now alien invasion on its hands! Hard problems call for hard solutions, and this hard sci-fi novel packs a hard hitting punch.