Pinned

For Black American Womxn, There Are No Safe Spaces, Only Empty Ones

Two years ago on my birthday, Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, signed the Safe Spaces Act, a framework for penalizing sexual harassment. The Technical Drafting Committee and the Philippine Commission on Women were charged with transforming that loose framework into a specific legislative code. Five days ago, that code…

Black Women

9 min read

For Black American Womxn, There Are No Safe Spaces, Only Empty Ones

Black Women

9 min read

Published in ZORA

·Pinned

5 Phrases Your Black Friend Wishes You’d Stop Saying

If you start practicing now, you can probably eliminate these words from your vocabulary by Black History Month — Statistically speaking, about 75% of White people don’t even have a Black friend, but on the off chance that you are one of the White people who do, I have a message for you from your (one) Black friend: Do better. In her New York Times bestselling book White Fragility…

Racism

7 min read

5 Phrases Your Black Friend Wishes You Would Stop Using

Racism

7 min read

Dec 6, 2022

For the People who Almost Didn’t Make it Through the Pandemic

Life is worth living. They won’t be better off without you You didn’t let them down And if you did, it can be healed Restor(i)ed Resolved. Yes, the hole is deep, But there are stairs. Yes, your feet are bleeding, But there are chairs. Someone cares Someone cares Someone always cares. Something is…

Mental Health

1 min read

For the People who Almost Didn’t Make it Through the Pandemic

Mental Health

1 min read

Aug 19, 2022

The Adena “Giants” and the Search for a Lost White Race

The year was 1830. The conspiracy was — in a word — ludicrous. Earthen mounds and artifacts had been discovered on the land of a white Ohioan named Thomas Worthington. Dating revealed these artifacts were at least 1000 years old, and possibly older than the pyramids. This was a major…

History

5 min read

The Adena “Giants” and the Search for a Lost White Race

History

5 min read

Published in The Brain is a Noodle

·Aug 16, 2022

Self-Doubt

A Ukiah Don’t expect them to listen Just because it’s true Circe was always right too A ukiah is an inversion of the poetry form haiku which was possibly made up by Robert Ropars. Instead of the usual 5–7–5 syllabic format of haiku, ukiah uses 7–5–7 to express something meaningful…

Poetry

1 min read

Poetry

1 min read

Poetry

Self-Doubt

A Ukiah

Don’t expect them to listen
Just because it’s true
Circe was always right too

A ukiah is an inversion of the poetry form haiku which was possibly made up by Robert Ropars. Instead of the usual 5–7–5 syllabic format of haiku, ukiah uses 7–5–7 to express something meaningful…

Aug 15, 2022

Is it love or Stockholm syndrome?

A senryu Fellow Black people: should we leave America or wait here to die? Ajah Hales is a writer and Race Educator from East Cleveland Ohio. She may want to underground railroad her way out of this country. You can read Ajah here or hire her here.

Raceinamerica

1 min read

Raceinamerica

1 min read

Poetry

Is it love or Stockholm syndrome?

A senryu

Three joyful Black women hug each other as they sit on a verdant green — Photo by Andra C Taylor Jr on Unsplash

Fellow Black people:
should we leave America
or wait here to die?

Ajah Hales is a writer and Race Educator from East Cleveland Ohio. She may want to underground railroad her way out of this country. You can read Ajah here or hire her here.

Mar 27, 2022

Keep Your Good Intentions — If You Want to Show Up for People From Marginalized Identity Groups, try Acting Intentionally.

It’s 2022. By now, most people have heard that when it comes to race, intentions don’t matter. But what if they do? Not in the I-had-good-intentions-so-you-can’t-call-me-on-my-actions type way — that’s not flying in 2022. As Jamie Utt told everyday feminism: “What we need to realize is that when it comes…

Race

3 min read

Keep Your Good Intentions — If You Want to Show Up for People From Marginalized Identity Groups…

Race

3 min read

Published in An Injustice!

·Feb 14, 2022

Stop ‘Protecting’ Your Children from Racial Awareness and Social Responsibility

You’re not protecting your kids. You’re protecting your racism — “I wouldn’t feel comfortable showing that to my [younger] child.” a Eurodescendant woman tells me when I ask her to consider having her sons join a youth discussion of When They See Us. Her youngest is thirteen. She considers herself an ally. Yet when given the option, she can ‘protect’…

Parenting

5 min read

Stop ‘Protecting’ Your Children from Racial Awareness and Social Responsibility

Parenting

5 min read

Published in Cultured

·Jan 31, 2022

5 Ways to Tell if You’re an Ally or Allyability

The real reason why none of your closest friends are Black — “Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. The unhappy man who has long been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species…Under…

Racism

8 min read

5 Ways to Tell if You’re an Ally or Allyability

Racism

8 min read

Published in The Brain is a Noodle

·Dec 29, 2021

When White Womxn Cry

An ode to estuaries, fjords and fountains When white women cry, Black men die, Black womxn get fired, White men heave a sigh. “Our cherished property is our solemn duty, We have to protect Karen, Nancy, and Judy.” They punish the chattel when we get unruly Don’t talk back to Karen And don’t piss off…

Poetry

2 min read

Poetry

2 min read