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Baratunde Rafiq Thurston is an American writer, comedian, and commentator. Thurston co-founded the black political blog Jack and Jill Politics, whose coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention was archived in the Library Of Congress, and was director of digital for The Onion. In 2012, his book How to be Black became a New York Times bestseller.Early life and educationThurston was born in Washington, D.C. He grew up on the intersection of 14th and Newton Streets in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington. His father was killed when he was young and his mother worked in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He has an older sister. In junior high, his mother and he moved to a suburban black neighborhood in Maryland. Thurston was educated at the Sidwell Friends School and Harvard University where he graduated with a degree in Philosophy.CareerThurston is the author of three self-published books: Better than Crying: Poking Fun at Politics, the Press & Pop Culture Keep Jerry Falwell Away from My Oreo Cookies Thank You Congressional Pages As part of Laughing Liberally, Thurston emceed the YearlyKos convention in 2006 and also appeared in 2007.Thurston has contributed to the Huffington Post and the Weekly Dig. More recently Thurston has become a semi-regular panelist on the podcast this Week in Tech with Leo Laporte.