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Category Archives: Society & Culture

On Being A Black Woman and Happy With It

So, there’s this thing happening in the black American community (and outside it) where women who look like me are supposed to be grateful for any crumbs that happen to fall into our bleak little lives. Apparently, our lot in life is to be miserable

Writing The Other Shouts-Outs – June 2010

At WisCon this year I participated in a panel called Writing the Other: Shout-Outs wherein the panelists named fictional properties they liked where the writers(s) wrote characters that were “other” to them. Not just white people writing POC, but also able-bodied people writing disabled characters,

Evaluating the Outrageous

Adviser for Americans arrested in Haiti suspected of Child Trafficking in El Salvador. So am I supposed to believe they just happened to find someone connected to human trafficking and hired him? Don’t answer that. In other “I hate the world” news this shit right

Transcending Race…A History Lesson

So this whole thing with Chris Matthews “forgetting that Obama is black” falls into that same range of racism as “Pretty for a black girl” and the “You’re not like those other black people” claptrap often espoused by the “I’m not racist, but…” crowd. They’re

On Haiti, Helping and Hurting

So, you want to help? Great. Here’s a list of charities. However if you feel the need to sound anything like Pat Robertson I’m going to need you to go sit down somewhere and be silent. The last thing anyone needs after a crisis is

Picture Yourself

Those of you who know me personally know that in another aspect of my life I write about technology. I get to play around with a fair number of gadgets in order to review them and it’s a very cool job, generally. There are very

Pearl Clutching and Urban Planning

Walk in My Shoes: Surviving the walk to school. You know I understand the whole “If it bleeds it leads” concept of journalism. Really I do. But, we live on the South Side of Chicago too. I grew up here and all those sunny park