Pack It Up, Pack It In. Let Me Begin.

Hello. My name is Shani Hilton and I'm stoked to be here with you all this week as a guest blogger for TAPPED. While you gird your loins for my bombastic blogging, I'll tell you a little bit about myself. I'm a Californian from America's most miserable city -- this was before it topped the list of metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates -- but I fled easterly to pick up a journalism degree from Howard University in D.C. Now I reside in Central New Jersey where I'm employed by an academic institution.

In the geography of the World Wide Web, I come to you from PostBourgie, a blog that our illustrious founder describes as "a running, semi-orderly conversation about class and politics and media and gender and whatever else we can think of." That sums up what I do pretty well. At PB I've written about natural hair; race and gender tropes on Fox's Glee; Michael Steele's stop at my alma mater; and once, even, a defense of Sarah Palin (I stood by it for 10 days until she made it clear she was indefensible).

A few things I believe in: gender equality, home cooking, being nice to one's parents, and that Black Thought is the best rapper in the game right now. I'm not much of a wonk -- though I've developed many a wonk crush on Prospect writers -- but I am a very curious person, and I'm looking forward to sharing that curiosity with all of you.

--Shani O. Hilton