It’s time to talk about the “woke ladder.” The term “woke” goes way back, originally coined in the black community and now used widely to describe an awakened state of being, an awareness of systems at work behind closed doors that the less “enlightened” may not notice or acknowledge. In today’s call-out culture, verbal sparring between political and ideological opposites is …
My parents were in town recently, along with my grandparents — the first senior members of my family to visit since my husband and I moved south from North Dakota to New Orleans last year. My youngest sister visited in October; my middle sister is planning to come out in a few more weeks. I find that visits from family members …
There’s a lot of extreme emotion in the air this week. It’s tangible. I see it across my social media feeds and dripping between words spoken and unspoken at home, work and play. Most people I know, myself included, are in a constant state of vacillation between disappointment, rage, despair, determination and just plain old fatigue. Other people are rejoicing, …
It’s been some time since my last post on Unheralded. There are a few reasons for this: The start of the fall semester is always a busy time, especially since it follows a summer PhD residency for me, the second — of three — of which I completed just this past July. But ultimately, the heaviest hitting contributing to my …
Got your attention in the headline, didn’t I? Contrary to what you might be thinking in this moment, I’m not actually going to be talking about White Privilege (though I have before — and I can again). In this moment, in the aftermath of terror attacks across the world (Paris, Beirut, Baghdad and more — terror has struck many places in recent …
One is the best of times … one is the worst of times … I’ve been very fortunate to be invited to participate in several speaking engagements of late. Each of them has been unique in their own way — the setting, size and age ranges of the audiences, the length of time and level of detail to which we’re able …
A subject frequently brought to my attention whenever I discuss issues of diversity and inclusion is that of responsibility. For what perceptions or actions am I personally responsible? Is it my job to make sure people don’t see me as an “angry black woman,” or is it the responsibility of another individual to recognize biases as they occur and do …
I started my doctorate this summer (I know, I’m crazy, you may never hear from me again). One of the most memorable pieces of advice I received before I started this process was to be aware that I would be learning “increasingly more about increasingly less” (I don’t remember who said this — see, the memory loss has already begun). That …
I have been quiet for quite a while. Online at least. Every once in a while, I like to pull back from posting or commenting on hot-button issues on the Internet just to watch people’s behavior. By doing this, I get a sense of what the most common arguments are, which of them seems to have the most staying power …
I gave myself a new nickname today. I kinda like it. The whole thing started when an acquaintance online made a gardening analogy to assert a belief that I was “looking for problems where there weren’t any” (an argument I’ve heard many times before) when discussing issues of race. Essentially what this person said was that worms were a reality …
We’ve all got “stuff” that makes us passionate. Some of that “stuff” leads us to say (and do) horrible things to each other. There’s a lot of “stuff” going on out there in the world this week that has lots of people saying (and doing) lots of things. I don’t want to talk about any of the “stuff.” Not in …
“Keep it simple, Stupid.” We’ve all heard those words. They seem to be the universal model for everything: — Don’t clutter a PowerPoint presentation with too many slides. — Don’t ruin a perfectly good song with overly complicated riffs and vocal pyrotechnics. — Overdone special effects in a movie look ridiculous. You get where I’m going with this. Unfortunately, sexism, racism, any …
Never have I heard anything good follow such a sentence … “I’m not sexist, BUT … I just don’t think women make good business owners.” “I’m not homophobic, BUT … I just can’t support that lifestyle.” “I’m not racist, BUT … I just plain don’t like black people.” No joke, I’ve heard people use all three statements. There are totally …
A lot of people bristle at the word “tolerance.” Some bristle because it feels like they’re being forced to put up with the presence and behavior of individuals or groups with whom they disagree. I like to remind those people that as much trouble as they’re having “tolerating” those who are different than them, there’s probably someone else having just as …
Whoopi Goldberg has said it. Morgan Freeman has said it. I’m not African-American. I’m an American.” To them, and others who promote this racial theory we call “Colorblindness,” my response is always the same: “That’s cute. I wish I lived in that reality.” Here’s why I say this: Both Whoopi and Sir Morgan (I’ve never felt like I could just …