You know when something’s so offensive it doesn’t even register? Or, to paraphrase Dave Chappelle, something’s so racist that all you can say is ‘that was racist!’ That’s what happened to me when I read the ‘black black’ paragraph in US Esquire’s Jay-Z profile. Before I even get into it, let’s take a look at the quote.

“Jay-Z is black black. He is old-school double-dark-chocolate-chunk black. He is black the way Labatt is blue. He is not white black, Barack black, like our president. Or the kind of black that doesn’t curse and deplores the n-word, the genteel black, like Oprah. He is, arguably, the first black-black guy to cross over into Oprah-land and Bill Clintonworld without making the Oprah-sized no-look-back forward flip that means you’re selling not necessarily your soul but perhaps something fleshier, a little more external.”

Let’s start with the quote ‘Old-school double-dark-chocolate-chunk black’. It’s a phrase so offensive I can’t believe it made it into print. Did no one read it and think that rating blackness on a chocolate based Richter scale could be viewed in a negative light?

Without breaking down the quote word for word, The main gist of it is that not there are levels of blackness and cultural traits that can be considered white or black. Barack Obama doesn’t fit into these, so he’s ‘white black’ – an offensive phrase whether it’s referring to his mixed race heritage or character traits. Oprah doesn’t make the cut either, as she’s one of the ‘genteel’ blacks. Never mind all she’s achieved, she doesn’t swear or call people nigger, so therefore isn’t black enough in the Taddeo’s book.

It’s rare that people call things racist nowadays, mostly because it’s become a slur on par with paedophilia, but the above quote is a racist one. I’m not saying Lisa Taddeo is a racist – I’m sure she has black friends, maybe even black black friends – but what she wrote is undoubtedly racist.

It’s rare that I look forward to anything on the internet, not because I’m a curmudgeon, it’s just that the flow of new things is so constant I don’t have time to get excited. An exception to that rule is Street Etiquette’s ‘Genesis of Style’ project. While I am excited about the project itself, what I’m really excited about is the shift in menswear blogging it represents.

Last year was all about craftsmanship; we got treated to endless factory tours and studio visits. Somewhere in all this gusset and yoke talk, the relationship between wearer and clothes became secondary. Don’t get me wrong, I like the details, but there was a point where it all got boring. I love music too, but I don’t want to know how Thom Yorke tunes his guitar.

It goes without saying that workwear took shit over last year. Chambray shirts, indigo denim, brogues and a hastily grown beard was the unofficial uniform of the new workwear aficionado. An annoying side-effect of this rise was the increased amount of negative comments on anything that was deemed as feminine. I wouldn’t mind this if we spent all day featuring frilly skirts and dresses, but the idea of feminine clothes stretched to anything that wasn’t blue, grey or black.

While these comments annoyed me for a few reasons – ignorance, homophobia and general stupidity to name a few – what really ground my gears was that comments like these totally ignored the relationship between clothes and wearer – the most important factor in clothing. As a wise man once said, it’s never what you do but how it’s done. Maybe we’ll get back to that this year.

Has there ever been a worse time to be Nigerian?

Being Nigerian has never been as cool as, say, being from the Caribbean (I was reminded of this constantly as a youngster) but it’s taken a few serious knocks lately. Firstly there’s the whole online scamming thing – I’ve no sympathy for the numpties who fell for that nonsense – but this wannabe bomber has taken it to new depths.

Aside from the obvious issues here, what country wants to be known for a failed bomber? At least if he’d pulled off he’d have shown some initiative, and drive – but he failed and he’s forever tarnished his country as the one that made the guy who stuffed explosives into his boxers.

The news reports haven’t helped either. I know they have to report the news, but do they have to mention that he’s Nigerian in every news report? That’s negative reinforcement on a grand scale. Before you know it the BNP will start talking about Nigerians in the same way they do about, err, every race, gender, colour and creed different from themselves.

And that’s not to mention how hard it’ll be for any Nigerian to board a plane. We’ll be subjected to those random checks that were carried out on anyone vaguely Middle Eastern. I’m lucky I have the double whammy of a British passport and an English sounding name (which, as the old joke goes, shows that my parents wanted me to have a good career). Any Olufemi Adeyemi’s out there might not be so lucky.