Racial Justice
In ZORA. More on Medium.
My parents groomed me to be a model minority. It kept me from being an ally.
When my high school classmate Regina Lee* was 17, she gave a presentation in U.S. history class on the topic of why affirmative action enables “reverse racism” that punishes Asians for being academically overachieving.
I found this out recently after reconnecting with Regina since I became “extremely online” while under self-imposed lockdown due to the pandemic.
She was deeply embarrassed by her adolescent politics, but I quickly assured her that I was just as bad, if not worse. My teenage self was vehemently opposed to Tibet’s liberation, and refused to acknowledge Taiwan as a country. …
The sparks of global rebellion we are seeing today are rooted in the Haitian Revolution, the first successful Black-led uprising for racial equality and independence in the modern world
“What’s his name?! George Floyd! What’s his name?! George Floyd!” a crowd of hundreds of protesters shouted on May 28 as they watched Minneapolis’ third police precinct be engulfed in flames. The precinct was the workplace of the four officers who murdered George Floyd during his arrest. Protesters had stormed the precinct earlier that evening to demand justice for the assassination of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. In a surreal scene, the crowd cheered and fireworks exploded into the night sky.
The burning down of the third precinct was the beginning of fires ignited in over 100 cities throughout the…
It might be the only way we get the justice we deserve
Sitting on my back porch the other day, listening to the cold Florida breeze, I started thinking about this old shithole country called the United States and how long racism has endured. It seems nothing can stop it. Politicians campaign with promises of fixing it, but they fix nothing. Simply calling out racist systems and institutions does little to change our reality.
Perhaps it’s time we stop playing nice.
Many people will claim to be ignorant of their own prejudices, but being anti-racist isn’t rocket science, and there are too many teachers, trainings, studies, tools, and too much history out…
Personal awareness practices make healing possible — both individually and communally
It’s 6 a.m. on a cold morning in San Francisco, and I’ve been standing on the curb for a few minutes more than I’d like. The Uber I had called to get me to the airport for a short flight to Southern California is late. I’ve got a day of challenging conversations ahead of me, and am more than a little nervous. Waiting for the Uber is not putting me at ease.
For days, I’ve been preparing to present a speech on contemporary barriers to inclusion, and to facilitate a conversation about building community, on a college campus roiled by…
Black girls are disproportionately penalized for arbitrary infractions like having a ‘bad attitude’
I met Stephanie Patton, the principal of a public middle school for girls in Columbus, Ohio, in 2016. At a community meeting, she announced that after a lot of deep reflection and discussion about the criminalization of Black girls, she and her faculty would no longer punish their students for having a “bad attitude.” She had noticed that responding to her mostly African American student body with exclusionary discipline was only contributing to the harm these girls were experiencing.
Instead, she developed a school discipline continuum that included mentoring, positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS), restorative conferencing, and an advisory…
