“Here comes the lady,” I hear a voice say. I’ve just come through the gate into my beloved neighborhood park on my daily morning coffee walk, and the every-Sunday pickup basketball bunch is on the court. We always smile and wave — yes, smile, because I’m sipping on my travel mug of caffeine so I’m […]
Thanksgiving reflections on this morning’s coffee walk: 27 years ago, I was a very green college grad struggling in my first “real” job at a management consultancy in Silicon Valley. I just didn’t fit in with my ladder-climbing, MBA-worshipping peers and it was making me miserable since I hadn’t yet been able to imagine a […]
Today I stumbled upon this brilliant letter written in 1865 by Jourdan Anderson to his former enslaver, Colonel P.H. Anderson. Spoiler alert: Surprise surprise, the enslaver did not respond by paying back the wages of $11,680 owed to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson for the labor stolen from them. I just did the math, and with […]
We liberate before we unite. That’s how we do this. White folks, let’s wring our hands less about inclusion for the people who oppose our values, and work much more to include the people we supposedly value whose voices have always been suppressed. One ballot dropbox per county and we shrug and say “Texas went […]
Before it’s official, before the celebration begins, I have a promise to make. To my Black, Indigenous, and people of color friends. LGBTQ+ friends. Friends who can get pregnant. Muslim friends. Immigrant friends. Friends with disabilities and illnesses. Friends who love people who are any of these things. I will never forget that the majority […]
SCENE: Two days ago. My neighborhood grocery store. It’s small, old-fashioned. The narrow aisles barely allow Dude to push his cart past mine, never mind six feet of distancing. Dude is my age. Dude is White. Dude is wearing a neck gaiter. It is currently uselessly gaitering his neck. We make eye contact. I give […]
SCENE: December 2016. Nonprofit event. Lots of folks I haven’t seen since before The Election. Near the food table, I’m delighted to run into a colleague who’s a Black man. We hug and start catching up: ME: *does the thing I’ve been starting every conversation with for a month* Oh my god, isn’t it awful? […]
Hey friends. As you may have noticed, I’m a white Jewish curly-haired woman who urgently wants to be part of the racial justice movement. So is Jessica Krug, formerly known as Jess La Bombera, which was a completely false AfroLatina persona she invented to steal unearned trust and resources from the people she purported to […]
I’m turning into my father. We used to make fun of him and his so-called “Classic Stories.” Then yesterday I’m on a call (zoom of course) and my colleague says, “Such a relief, today it’s only 95 degrees after all this time at plus-100.” And I go, “That reminds me of the classic story.” Silence. […]
I’m in a big tight-knit facebook group about a shared interest that shall not be named, to preserve everyone’s privacy. Last week, it exploded into a very painful and acrimonious fight in which Black and Latinx participants called out the racism that they had been experiencing in the group’s online interactions – and a handful […]