Webster’s dictionary defines a deficiency as “the quality or state of being defective or of lacking some necessary quality or element: the quality or state of being deficient : INADEQUACY.” When it comes to showing up for folx with marginalized identities, we are all deficient in one way or another.

Why correct a deficiency? Because they don’t go away on their own. Because by ignoring them, I’m actively causing harm to folx who have marginalized identities that differ from or are the same as my own. Because I am responsible for the impact of my actions and inaction.

To correct…

Entertainment

I recently binged the Neflix series Sexify. It’s a Polish show with zero black or BIPOC characters, which is typically not my bag at all. Still, the show drew me in with its stellar character development and oddball comedy. Sexify is funny, awkward and sweet, which is hard to do in a show that focuses on the female orgasm.

Those are the reasons why I watched the series. But what kept me bingeing was that it was a new story.

I’m so tired of watching the same stories over and over again, aren’t you? I mean, how many times can…

Poetry

I’m not a good person, I’m an American.
I ate cashews with glee
until the soft crunching tasted
like little brown fingers
salted. I don’t eat them now.
my clothes are blood.
my sKIN/care is blood
my furniture is Poison, dipped
in Blood.
I’m no good.
I look at white men and see
potential mass shooters
likely serial killers
the carmine banality of old or young killers
i can’t afford the Benefit
of Doubt, today.
I look at white women
womxn
womyns
and see a noose
(we have always been)
the Better killers.
I look in the mirror
mortem obscura
meets iris abtruse. Who wants
to be g(o)od,
Anyway…

MENTAL HEALTH

I write to try and understand what it means to be FREE and Black in America and to discover what it means for me to be FREE as a Black, cis, queer, neurodiverse womxn. When I put my vulnerability to pen and paper, everything I write seems personal.

Every rejected pitch feels like I’m a shitty writer who is deluding herself about her chances at being a successful freelancer. Every negative comment feels like a personal attack. Every ‘meh’ response from friends and family feels like a one-star critic’s review.

Because negative memories are stickier than positive ones, I can…

Race in America

Anti-white racism isn’t a thing

I’m a writer and race educator. I spend a lot of time and effort breaking down racism, intersectional identities, and power dynamics. My work has taught me that a good analogy can anchor a concept within an adult learner’s mind, or, in other words, help them to ‘get it.’

In my article Why I Don’t Want to Talk About Reparations with White People, I used this analogy to highlight how ludicrous the national conversation around reparations is:

Think of it this way: imagine a bank error that caused you and millions of others to lose…

Racism

They say don’t feed the trolls. I say feed them…fire. Feed them so much fire they are either utterly consumed or reborn as someone slightly more useful for marginalized communities.

I see this as an act of love, for those whom I stand in solidarity with, for the commenter, and for anyone who may be reading their comment. With that being said, I’m not about to set myself on fire just to keep others warm. …

Poetry

Consumption is the highest form of flattery

white women with curly hair/gay men.
dip in 24 karat spray tan, famin
filler full lips and hips and ass, bangin
*Taylor Swift* mediocre white womxn — can I get an Amen?
brunettes, beach blondes, Eastern Europeans
Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Korean.
Black man. Black men. Blackmon.
someone biracial, or Gina Rodriguez
Jennifer Lopez or that one white girl with the big ass
Black with an accent
white with a blaccent
white womxn who steal your work and don’t pay you a damn cent
B-listers, D-listers, mediocre dancers.
covert capricious copycats regurgitating answers
Out liars. Outliers. Out and out liars
white men who are supposed to be funny. Anyone…