Tag Archives: racism

Nonviolence, privilege and grief. Thoughts on South Carolina and a child I love.

This morning I sat down to write a letter to a beloved recent teen in my life, a newly minted thirteen-year-old. We go to protests a lot, and museums where we learn about farm workers and the Black Panthers and the American Indian Movement. This beloved recent teen has been to hell and back, andContinue reading “Nonviolence, privilege and grief. Thoughts on South Carolina and a child I love.”

Code switching, hipster racism and inter-POC cultural misappropriation. (or, Aren’t you glad I didn’t get braids with extensions when I was 19?)

When I was 19 or so, I thought about getting braids. Braids with extensions. Braids with beads on the ends. “African Braids.” “You’d look like a poser,” my mother said, and that was the end of that. (Admittedly, if that HADN’T been the end of that, further research into the cost of getting braids putContinue reading “Code switching, hipster racism and inter-POC cultural misappropriation. (or, Aren’t you glad I didn’t get braids with extensions when I was 19?)”