racism

Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee. Moving forward, whatever happens during the ensuing general election, the fact that she is a woman will be an inextricable part of the narrative.

Whenever [my last therapist and I] got to talking about the ways that being fat had shaped my romantic experiences, or the ways that racism or xenophobia had shaped my family’s life, she would get this far-off look. Like, she wanted to believe me, but that she was grappling with this belief that I was choosing to see life this way.

It had never occurred to me to visit [a Planned Parenthood].... And yet, in a culture where the rights and healthcare needs of people assigned female at birth are constantly under attack, it’s easy, even for someone like me, to have warped ideas about exactly what one will experience.

Whether it’s your ethnicity, your religion, your sexuality, you do not deserve to be loved in spite of who you are — you deserve to be loved for who you are. Those things are a part of you, and they shouldn’t be swept under the rug or pushed to the side so someone can pick and choose the things they like about you.

In the immediate aftermath of the United Kingdom’s narrow vote to leave the European Union, reports are emerging that there has been a significant spike in hate attacks targeting Muslims, people of color, migrants, and refugees.

He opened his mouth and time stood still. My pulse quickened. My heart raced. My eyes filled with tears. And I. WAS. PROUD.

Though there was useful commentary, deeply personal stories, and some incisive observations, my problem with the episode is that it ultimately repeats a harmful framework:
Fat people (nearly all women) were on trial and up for observation (their privacy already considered non-existent) — not the fatphobic bias that had so clearly shaped their lives.

The danger of submitting to the false patriotic tranquility of the United States of Amnesia is Donald Drumpf. He reminds us that the United States of Amnesia is one of the most peacefully violent countries in existence, not only politically, but economically, socially, psychologically, and spiritually.