On Anti-Asian Sentiments, Ingrained Anti-Blackness, Michelle, and Sandra

in , , , ,

We can't talk about the horrific murders of Michelle Allysa Go and Sandra Shells without examining the ugliness at the intersections of the patriarchal white supremacist national sentiments around homelessness and housing insecurity. We also can't talk about what happened to Michelle and Sandra without examining mental health advocacy and the perceived and perpetuated value of Black and Asian women in the United States. And we definitely shouldn't be having conversations about Michelle and Sandra's murders without incorporating an ever-evolving understanding of the deeply ingrained passive acceptance of anti-Blackness and anti-Asian hate that has permeated this country's mindset for hundreds of years.

Read More

Monday's Opening Thought: January 17, 2022

in , , , ,

This week’s opening thought: some thoughts on performative white nonsense “in the name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” on MLK Day, with past and recent history and sentiments for additional context (not that it's needed).

Read More

Monday's Opening Thought: January 10, 2022

in

This week’s opening thought: Late last Friday night, I was winding my evening down, taking out some trash and recycling, when I saw a white male going for a late-night jog. It’s not the first time I’ve seen this man going for a late-night run; I’ve seen him off and on over the past year. As usual, he had his earbuds in and was in the zone. I’m assuming that the pandemic and its reverberative effects likely led to his night workout routine. His presence wasn’t peculiar to me, but I quickly noticed that it hit a nerve in me that night. Standing in the crisp night air, I felt sad for a moment because I knew why I felt the way I felt in seconds. Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers had been sentenced earlier in the day to life sentences.

And it was very apparent to me at that moment the amount of white privilege that jogging any old time of the day comes with.

Read More

Monday's Opening Thought: January 3, 2022

in

This week’s opening thought: I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions. Never really have been. With that said, I believe that if you are going to resolve to do something over a span of 365 days that it should not be a toxic practice that could leave you feeling worse about yourself on day 30 than you did on day 1.

If you’re the resolution type, I implore you to look beyond the confines of 365 days and resolve to take care of yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically every day of the rest of your life with as little toxicity and societal pressure as possible. Make healthy life choices for yourself, societal and familial pressure be damned.

Use the next 365 days to start a lifetime of caring about yourself, because for many of us there will hopefully be life beyond December 31, 2022.

Monday's Opening (Year-Closing) Thought: December 27, 2021

in

I wasn't going to post a final opening thought for 2021 because, well, I'm chillin' at the crib and felt that I'd said all I needed to say this year. But then I saw that Dr. Fauci and the CDC admitted that they shortened the COVID-19 isolation guidelines to get people back to work faster. While hearing the CDC share their "reasoning" wasn't even remotely surprising, it did prompt me to give y'all one last opening thought. Consider this my ending thought for 2021.

Ending thought for 2021: your value to your family, your loved ones, your community, to humankind is much more than a job or career that is pushing you to put yourself and your community at risk during a global pandemic. Just because the government has given your employer the power to expect you back to work in a matter of days after testing positive for a contagious virus doesn't mean that all you are is a series of tasks you perform for financial compensation 5-7 days a week. Capitalism or not, you matter beyond the boundaries of a workplace and its culture and pressures.

I'll see y'all in 2022. Take care of yourselves and each other.