This brings me to the way the conversation around the vaccine has been framed as some easy black and white decision. As if there’s no nuance whatsoever in the population of people who don’t want to get vaccinated. It’s not fair to lump everyone into one category and not try and understand what some of the reasons are behind vaccine hesitancy. Instead, there are mandates now keeping people out of places that have made the decision not to get the shot, and let’s face it - lot of the people who aren’t getting vaccinated are black and brown folks.
Career Talk: I Wasn't Ready. Now I'm Ready
This post is a bit of a departure from the usual diatribe against this hellish society and its inability to majorly progress without boisterous resistance from bigots and racists. No, today I am writing about something a lot more personal and slightly more positive. I’ve been feeling very grateful recently about where I’ve ended up in my career and I wanted to share a few things that have been on my mind recently. It feels weird writing about myself in this way, but for some reason I’m compelled to share, and who am I to stop myself.
4th of July is a Lie
Okay, so this sentiment isn’t unique and with the new battle cry against Critical Race Theory (and also teaching history to children as it actually happened in any capacity), the Republican party continues to instill fear of the “destruction of America.” The 4th being a lie is also something that is so glaringly apparent, it’s comical at this point. Fourth of July is supposed to be the birth of America. It is the day we as Americans are supposed to blindly celebrate the passage of the Declaration of Independence, which was signed by our forefathers (most of whom owned humans), and bask in the glory of the story of an underdog nation that fought to be. However, this tantalizing teaching of the holiday distinctly leaves out the extremely important reality that no, not everyone became free that day and that freedom as we’d all come to know it is never free and always comes at the cost of lives, integrity, and humanity.
Juneteenth: A Federal Holiday - We Need An American Apology
As the war wages on between those who want Critical Race Theory (CRT) taught and those who want to stick their fingers in their ears and sing the national anthem, the Senate has voted on making Juneteenth a federal holiday. The House still has to vote to make it official, but obvs it’ll pass.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am excited about the acknowledgement that Juneteenth exists and will be recognized on a national level BUT miss me with that bs it’s somehow enough to have a day off without understanding why…
Back to Normal?! NoOoOoOO
As more and more of the country becomes vaccinated and we move towards the hot girl summer we’d been robbed of last year, I’ve been hearing more and more people relieved we’re getting back to normal. While I, too am looking forward to hugging my family and traveling without constant, looming thoughts of sickness and death (they’re now more interspersed), I am not looking forward to the apathy that I can already see settling into the country. Going back to normal means a lot of things in different contexts, but as a whole going back to the way things were before the pandemic doesn’t sound entirely appealing to me. Going into an office every single day, riding the subway for hours a week, going to parties where you know two people and cling to them for dear life, scrunched in a sea of people at a concert unable to dance wildly like the music asks.