In today’s edition of “What In the Hell Is Wrong With This Country?”, we find ourselves in Illinois, where a church and its congregation have decided on a “fast from whiteness” for Lent.
You read that right.
“Fasting from whiteness.”
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Image description: a clear bowl can be seen sitting on a dark wooden table. Inside the bowl is 20 oatmeal raisin cookies, sitting in the bowl at various angles to make sure they all fit.
I made oatmeal raisin cookies the other day. Why? Because I had a hankering for oatmeal raisin cookies. So I set the oven to 350, made cookie dough, dolloped heaping globs of dough on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, and made two batches of oatmeal raisin cookies.
I made them while amid two virtual meetings.
I interrupted those meetings to check on my oatmeal raisin cookies' progress and put the second batch in the oven.
And I told the people I was in those meetings with why I was putting them on hold.
Some of y'all might consider that "unprofessional." Some of y'all might think that I wasn't present or focused on the content of those meetings. In response to those notions, I share two things:
1. What you call "unprofessional" I call refuting white supremacist workplace culture and white supremacist ideology. Sit down and unpack that on your time.
2. I was present and focused on the parts of those meetings that pertained to me and my work. It isn't my fault that those meetings were heavily bogged down with white supremacist urgency. White workplaces and their urgency, their need to make everything a DEFCON-5 situation, has nothing to do with me and my work. It's not my job to carry white supremacist workplace ideology in my brain, body, or soul. Real talk? Me making cookies was more important than their urgency. Why?
Me making those cookies symbolizes how we all need to work on not carrying the burden of every little thing happening at work and elevating them to urgent matters. Why is it so "urgent" now if this "urgent matter" wasn't urgent a week ago, a month ago, three months ago when it was at its apex? And why aren't y'all ever this urgent when homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, racism, sexism, ableism, and intersectional hate is playing out in your workplace?
Do you know what was urgent, however?
Eating them oatmeal raisin cookies. Not only were they delicious, but I also enjoyed them with no stress in my body or weight on my mind.
Don't walk around with the random crises at your workplace on your shoulders or weighing down your mind. Most of what happens at work every day isn't a crisis: it's white supremacy and patriarchy in action. And if your workplace doesn't want to address these issues but wants to freak out over that report that is suddenly due in 48 hours?
Set your boundaries and make yourself some damn cookies.
[Image description: a clear bowl can be seen sitting on a dark wooden table. Inside the bowl is 20 oatmeal raisin cookies, sitting in the bowl at various angles to make sure they all fit.]
I'm not watching the confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. I'm not watching because I like my peace of mind, and I think we all knew this would be some racist, white supremacist, misogynistic, anti-Black nonsense. From what I'm seeing of the snippets and clips I've stumbled across over the last few days? I was right.
These mediocre white folx, white folx who have accomplished nothing in their lives outside of bringing their hate into national politics, are deadset on attacking Ketanji's intelligence. They're throwing all sorts of CRT fear-mongering and random vaguely abortion-related questions. The anti-Black rhetoric, the abrasiveness, the pushiness coming out of these white politicians' mouths as she maintains herself and doesn't crumble under their hatred is a window into what Black women face just trying to exist in this world every day. And this is why I can't watch these events in real-time.
Existing shouldn't always have to be this damn hard, y'all.
Being a Black woman shouldn't always have to be this hard.
Read MoreTW: Anti-Asian hate, violence, murder, fetishization.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long murdering eight people in a mass shooting spree at three Atlanta, Georgia, area spas, which Long claims happened due to his "sex addiction." Long's actions led to the senseless murders of Xiaojie "Emily" Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; Paul Michels, 54; Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63.
The murders of these eight people, living their lives and trying to make a living, were not isolated incidents.
Attacks against Asian Americans have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic. The FBI reported an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes since 2019. The group Stop AAPI Hate has tracked nearly 11,000 hate incidents against Asian Americans from March 2020 to December 2021, with more occurring in 2021 than 2020. Most of those incidents targeted women from AAPI communities.
With racial attacks on the rise, AAPI communities are increasingly fearing for their safety with very little accountability for the actions of those initiating hate crimes. A recent survey published this month from the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF) found that 74% of Asian American and Pacific Islander women reported experiencing racism and/or discrimination over the last year. 53% said the perpetrator was a stranger or someone they didn't know. For East Asian respondents, in particular, 51% of women said they feel less safe today than at the start of the pandemic.
As we look at the anniversary of a violent and hateful act, I feel so much pain for my AAPI friends, family, and colleagues. As a person of color, a Black person, I feel this pain deeply because I know how terrifying it is to believe you might not make it home today. I know how horrifying it is to think that your loved ones might not make it to the dinner table tonight. But what I really feel, deep inside my soul, is exhaustion.
I'm tired. I've been tired. One thing I'm so tired of is watching as communities of color have to acknowledge painful and traumatizing anniversaries while asking for justice and safety that never come. Many of my AAPI friends, family, and colleagues are also tired. I know many of you are hurting, scared, still trying to reconcile why this has to be your reality and why there is so much hate in this world. I don't have answers. But you do have me – my support, care, and solidarity.
I stand with my AAPI friends, family, and colleagues on this painful anniversary and every other day of the year too. I stand with AAPI women and femmes on this painful anniversary and every other day of the year too. I will always stand with you and fight for your right to live, to exist, to thrive, not to be objectified and fetishized by white supremacy and hate. And we'll keep fighting together to make it so that the only anniversaries we're observing are celebrations, not trauma.
Beware of the woke white feminist filmmaker. From The Grio:
“Jane Campion is in a bit of hot water after a controversial comment about Serena and Venus Williams at the Critics Choice Awards.
Campion won best director at the 27th annual Critics Choice Awards on Sunday for her Netflix film, The Power of the Dog. During her acceptance speech, she made comments about the legendary tennis players.
At first, Campion seemed to praise the Williams sisters, who were in attendance in support of the film King Richard, a biopic about their father and tennis coach, Richard Williams.
“Venus and Serena, what an honor to be in the room with you,” Campion said. “I’ve taken up tennis. I really have, and when you want to come over and give me lessons, I’d truly love it.”
Then, after acknowledging her fellow nominees as “the guys,” she ended the speech by evoking the Williams sisters again. “Serena and Venus, you are such marvels. However, you do not play against the guys like I have to.”
Campion was making a statement about the competition she faces amongst male directors. She is only the third female filmmaker to win best director at the Critics Choice Awards. She was nominated with Paul Thomas Anderson, Kenneth Branagh, Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg, and Denis Villeneuve, as reported by Newsweek.
However, many viewers felt Campion referring to the Williams sisters during her speech was unnecessary and uncomfortable and expressed those views on social media.”
UGH.
She won a damn award, and she somehow couldn't stop herself from levying out a microaggression and playing a game of oppression Olympics while belittling two of the greatest athletes in world history as her possible future tennis instructors DURING HER ACCEPTANCE SPEECH. Like, who decides to use their acceptance speech at an award show to take shots at Black women?
White people, that's who.
I'm not even shocked. And you shouldn't be either. White women do this kind of thing in workplaces every day, centering themselves and their struggles as more prevalent and important than those of other women and femmes even when they are in the power position. Sure, Campion has had to fight for her space in Hollywood. But like most white women, she was fighting for spaces and opportunities for white women and not for all women. To allude that Venus and Serena have not had to overcome whiteness, white men, in their sport is ludicrous. Take a glance at who runs the international and national governing bodies of tennis. You'll see a sport governed by whiteness and white men. You don't even need to look that hard to see this. Venus and Serena's accomplishments speak for themselves, especially when you place them under the lens of having to fight for space in a white supremacist, patriarchal structure. There's a reason a movie was made about them and their father. Jane Campion throwing shade at Black women via a backhanded compliment shows how threatened she is by their presence and likely the presence of all Black women she comes in contact with.
This ain't no isolated incident, y'all.
This was something she's done before outside of the public eye that tumbled out on stage for all to see.
Campion's speech exemplifies how many white people, white women, view their struggles as more worthy of a platform and applause, even when their whiteness comes with power and privilege that allows them to achieve success with fewer hurdles.
Enjoy your award, Jane.