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Change starts with connection: Unplug a little and find hope

By Shay | April 21, 2024 | 0 Comments

Back in 2019, I spoke at a conference at Illinois State University in Normal. Illinois is my home state, but Normal is not really a place Chicagoans flock to unless it is related to the university. The town is only two hours away from Chicago, but it bears no resemblance to Chicago. It is a typical small Midwestern town, complete …

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Are we gonna “ride or die” all the way to regional war or worse?

By Shay | April 17, 2024 | 0 Comments

Look, I understand the “ride or die” concept. There are people who have my back or whose back I watch over who qualify as ride-or-die—either the way they feel toward me, me toward them, or both. But like so many sentiments and philosophies, when it’s taken to a certain point, it loses positive meaning and becomes toxic and destructive. If …

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Riddhi Patel: How movement work falls short or forgets our mutual humanity

By Shay | April 14, 2024 | 0 Comments

A few nights ago, I found myself up late, scrolling through social media. My usual bewitching hour of insomnia, inspired by the change of life. Given that I now sleep in two shifts, I have stopped fighting it. I almost always go back to sleep within an hour, and I have adjusted my daily schedule to allow for a later …

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Calling All White People, Part 65: Are we just going to yawn at the passing of DEI?

By Average White Guy | April 10, 2024 | Comments Off on Calling All White People, Part 65: Are we just going to yawn at the passing of DEI?

Calling All White People, Part 65 TODAY’S EPISODE: Diversity efforts deserve more commitment and less indifference   I’m not saying that people are simply heaving a collective yawn at the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts—if they notice their dwindling presence and imminent death at all—but I’m… …yeah, I’m saying it. That’s exactly what I’m saying. I see …

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A racist representative reveals a racist reality

By Shay | April 6, 2024 | Comments Off on A racist representative reveals a racist reality

There is a certain naiveté about racism in New England—a belief that it just isn’t a big issue here. It’s a fallacy that continues to thrive and survive despite evidence to the contrary. The truth is that racism is as firmly entrenched in New England as it is in any other part of the country. Sure, it often looks different, …

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Florida gets positively “antisocial” about media and minors

By Shay | April 2, 2024 | Comments Off on Florida gets positively “antisocial” about media and minors

As wildly out of touch with reality, rights, logic, compassion and more as Florida lawmaking can be, it might shock you that when Florida passed a law to ban minors from social media last week, it wasn’t the first state to do so. Still, if it survives legal challenges, it will be one of the most restrictive on the books, …

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The real-life implications of moving beyond anti-racism work

By Shay | March 25, 2024 | Comments Off on The real-life implications of moving beyond anti-racism work

I have a confession, and I am not particularly proud of it, but here goes: The way that people have pivoted away from anti-racism work over the last year has me in a constant state of low-grade rage. Yes, part of it is because it has made my day job extraordinarily harder than it already was. See, without funding to …

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Activist fatigue and the future of the movement

By Shay | March 22, 2024 | Comments Off on Activist fatigue and the future of the movement

A few days ago, I was on a call with a nationally known movement activist and fellow Black woman who has been in the trenches of the anti-racism movement for as long as me, if not longer. We talked for a while about how, as we find ourselves growing older in this work, our views and approaches to the work …

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Hidden Black women and their greatness, often unrecognized until death—if even then

By Shay | March 8, 2024 | Comments Off on Hidden Black women and their greatness, often unrecognized until death—if even then

“Unfortunately, she exists in a long tradition of Black activist women who die impoverished, who die sick and alone and scared, because we love an activist until they need something.” – Mikki Kendall There is a long tradition of Black women fighting for social justice issues, raising awareness, and essentially spending their lives working to create a better world. Too …

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Social media giveth; social media taketh away

By Shay | February 25, 2024 | Comments Off on Social media giveth; social media taketh away

For the past several months, millions of Americans have had their spirits boosted by a young librarian, Mychal Threets. Mychal is the supervising librarian at Fairfield Civic Center Library in Solano County, Calif., and he became social media (and general media) famous for sharing snippets of his life as a librarian on various platforms. Mychal is a breath of fresh …

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Change starts with connection: Unplug a little and find hope

By Shay | April 21, 2024

Back in 2019, I spoke at a conference at Illinois State University in Normal. Illinois is my home state, but Normal is not really a place Chicagoans flock to unless it is related to the university. The town is only two hours away from Chicago, but it bears no resemblance to Chicago. It is a …

Read more

Change starts with connection: Unplug a little and find hope

By Shay | April 21, 2024

Back in 2019, I spoke at a conference at Illinois State University in Normal. Illinois is my home state, but Normal is not really a place Chicagoans flock to unless it is related to the university. The town is only two hours away from Chicago, but it bears no resemblance to Chicago. It is a …

Read more

Round Up

A curated list of relevant articles & a peek into what Shay's reading

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Sample Round Up

By Shay | May 29, 2022

Happy Friday! It’s a gorgeous day up in my corner of the world and way too beautiful to be writing a blog post today. So I present you with the Friday Round-Up a list of blog posts this week from other bloggers that blew my mind. Perhaps if you need to kill some time or have a quiet moment you can check them out. http://ravingblacklunatic.blogspot.com/ Check out this cat, I have been a fan of his work forever. http://www.whataboutourdaughters.com/ Good stuff here as well http://sweetersalt.com/ A Maine blogger who talks fashion and food…the best of both worlds http://paganchild-starmommy.blogspot.com/2011/03/keeping-focused.html A new blog that offers words of wisdom for all of us. http://mscleaver.com/ Another Mainer who for Lent is giving up pants, she is also a crafty gal If you have any links to good blogs, feel free to leave em. It’s my hope to make the Friday Round Up a regular feature at my new home specifically I would live to shine some light and love on smaller bloggers. It’s hard out here in this blogosphere with so many good blogs to choose from and so little time so let’s help everyone get a slice of the pie. I will be back on Monday, at that time I will unveil some ideas I have around monetizing things but You May Also Like: No related posts.

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