One of my favorite portraits.
I got to see my grandmother the day before yesterday and she told me stories about moving to NY and being a model. She pulled out photographs of her growing up, our relatives, a magazine and newspaper clippings that were snapshots of history and reminders of her life before me.
I usually don’t have much to say about celebrities, because there are so many other more important, pressing issues we’re facing than a statement from a blue checkmark account announcing their departure from a social media platform or the illustrious entanglements famous people find themselves in. Now, don’t get me wrong, I consume pop culture like a hungry hungry hippo, but it’s not something I feel compelled to write about too often. However, this unhinged tirade from DaBaby that took place during one of the many insanely populated music festivals (we’re still in a pandemic, eep!), Rolling Loud, has me in a state of anger and exasperation.
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.
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.
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.
