[4] McDonald received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University,[5][6] during which she interned for the high school sports desk at The Washington Post.
She returned to the Post after graduation as a staff reporter[3] and left in January 2016 to work as the senior culture writer for The Undefeated.
[1] She frequently focuses her criticism on the intersection of art and race and has written on topics such as the weaknesses of a post-racial Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale,[7] and the racial anxiety of BlackAF.
[8] McDonald often critiques the nature of American theater's engagement with the topic of race[9] and has written about shows such as Choir Boy, White Noise, and Slave Play.
[2] McDonald appeared on the podcast Storybound in 2021 to read one of the essays that earned her nomination, Wandering In Search of Wakanda, with music sampled from Marco Pavé.