ERIN AUBRY KAPLAN is a writer and journalist who has been an opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times–the first African American in its history– and staff writer for the LA Weekly. In 2001 she won the PEN USA award for journalism. Her work has been widely anthologized and has appeared in many publications, including Essence, Salon.com and Oxford American magazine. She is the author of ‘Black Talk, Blue Thoughts and Walking the Color Line: Dispatches From a Black Journalista,’ a collection of her journalism, essays and memoir. She was born and raised in Los Angeles and lives in Inglewood.