The Supreme Court’s decision to toss out nearly 50 years of precedent and “settled law” around Roe v. Wade has sent a lot of you into a distress, dismay, and depression. I get it; I really do. It upsets me, too. I do believe all of us are entitled to catch our breath and grieve that the conservative justices ripped …
The hardest thing about being young is that people don’t listen to you, especially when you are a kid or a human under the age of 18. For some reason, the adults forget what the early years of life are like. At the age of 49, I find myself in a strange place. I am no longer the youngest person …
Days before being elected president, Biden promised to “ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, implement universal background checks, and enact other common-sense reforms to end our gun violence epidemic.” There have been at least 20 mass shootings since Uvalde—including one in Philadelphia being reported on as I write this and all Biden has to say is, “I can’t dictate this …
A few nights ago, I had a real-time exchange with a few local acquaintances that gave me pause—and reminded me once again of the work that white-bodied people need to do in anti-racism spaces. In short, the acquaintance, whom I had not seen in some time, was sharing that they had started following me on Twitter and that some of …
There are more guns in this country than people. That is a horrifying and difficult truth. Perhaps an even more difficult truth is that the number of guns—while horrifying and difficult–is not the actual problem. It’s only a symptom. The actual disease is why we buy guns. I know that feels bad to hear and maybe a little counter-intuitive. We’re …
Last night, I saw a TikTok video where a woman who was Black was commenting on the wonderful current trend of Black men “frolicking.” The trend is that Black men are recording themselves frolicking joyfully, often in a field, frequently ending by tumbling down into some flowers. The woman’s TikTok (I’m sorry, now I can’t find it to share the …
A few days ago, I was having a routine evening chat with my teen-aged daughter, and she was sharing how she has been targeted for racial harassment on certain social media sites since breaking up with her girlfriend. The young lady she had been dating was white; my kid is not. Despite the ex-girlfriend making a video saying their breakup …
I guess we’re supposed to talk about the Buffalo tragedy but I just don’t know how to discuss this anymore. How many times can we reveal our Black humanity in an appeal to whiteness? How many times can we spell out our quantifiable worth to all things cultural, spiritual, and economic to this country? An infinite amount of times, really, …
We are living in strange times, as if it wasn’t enough that we are living through a never-ending plague where the people in charge have just given up. Those of us who possess uteruses and live in the United States are reckoning with the fact that the government thinks we are too incompetent to manage our own bodies. Or is …
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Of course a make-believe pirate hijacked the #MeToo movement
By Liz Henry I couldn’t help but sit back, turn off my screen, and consider: How does one combat a dickfestation? Is there an exterminator for that? Like, for the culture? Of course a make-believe pirate would hijack the progress of the #MeToo movement. I did not watch the defamation trial of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp live. This was …
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