Posts Tagged Personal Is Political

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

Quick hit: Back the fuck off

From the blog Speaker’s Corner, whose creator is also responsible for the brilliant Keep Your Boehner Out of My Uterus, comes this heartbreaking story of a woman who terminated a intended and very-much-wanted pregnancy when she discovered that the fetus had dire developmental problems.

We went home. I called my parents. We were supposed to meet them the following weekend for a vacation. We were going to show them photos of their soon-to-be-grandchild. Instead, they canceled their plane tickets, switched to come into our town the following day. We canceled ours. My husband had to fight with the airline to get a refund credit, while dealing with his own grief. I have no earthly idea what my husband ...

From the blog Speaker’s Corner, whose creator is also responsible for the brilliant Keep Your Boehner Out of My Uterus, comes this heartbreaking story of a woman who terminated a intended and very-much-wanted pregnancy ...
By Maya Dusenbery • 13 years ago

On Alexandra Wallace, incivility, and responding to hate speech

On Tuesday we covered the racist rant by a white UCLA student named Alexandra Wallace that has been making the rounds–and, I think, offering some lessons about the challenges of responding to ignorant and hateful speech.

As Jos noted, the Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA offered excellent suggestions for how to respond to the video in a productive way. It was an attempt to preemptively cut off a cycle that, Anna North points out, happens a lot in this internet age: “offensive statement, public condemnation, threats, public condemnation of threats, rinse, repeat.”

For those who defend the First Amendment rights of all the Alexandra Wallaces of the world, it’s a standard principle: Instead of censorship, answer ...

On Tuesday we covered the racist rant by a white UCLA student named Alexandra Wallace that has been making the rounds–and, I think, offering some lessons about the challenges of responding to ignorant and ...
By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

Death, taxes, heartbreak

I got my heart broken last week. Badly. Worse than it’s ever been broken in my admittedly short life. I’m not even really sure how I’m writing this, because I’ve spent the week in a fog of tears and panic and anguish and shock. I’ve barely been functional, I’ve barely been coherent. The morning after the break up, when I woke up and remembered what had happened the night before, I cried so hard I think I pulled a muscle in my chest.

I’ve survived the first few days. I’m still breathing, even though sometimes I feel like I’m gasping for air. I’ve left the house, and held conversations, and gotten a bit of work done, even though it takes an ...

I got my heart broken last week. Badly. Worse than it’s ever been broken in my admittedly short life. I’m not even really sure how I’m writing this, because I’ve spent the week in a fog of ...
By Rose • 13 years ago

When trauma leads you to politics

Via the National Partnership for Women and Families, check out this really genuine story about how one young woman was inspired to become an activist after Dr. Tiller’s murder:

When George Tiller was gunned down in his Kansas church, it changed the course of Emily Boyer’s studies…She changed her major from music to sociology, with a minor in women’s studies. And she became an intern at Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.

For one semester she spent First Fridays canvassing crowds with petitions for support of comprehensive sex education, passing out condoms on her campus and sitting at information tables…Her internship ended a year ago, but Emily never quit volunteering. Now, as ...

Via the National Partnership for Women and Families, check out this really genuine story about how one young woman was inspired to become an activist after Dr. Tiller’s murder:

When George Tiller was gunned down in ...
By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

Happy Scramiversary!

Last week, I celebrated a rather important occasion: the anniversary of a breakup. In October 2009, I ended an eighteen-month relationship with a man I loved very much. And this October, I celebrated the one-year anniversary of a really good decision.

My relationship with Isaac was an exercise in extremes. When things were good, they were really, really good. We were blissfully happy together. And when things were bad, well, they were awful. After graduating from college together, we both moved to New York. Moving to a new city and transitioning from being a college student into someone leading something that resembles an adult life is a challenge, for anyone. It can strain even the strongest relationships. My relationship with Isaac ...

Last week, I celebrated a rather important occasion: the anniversary of a breakup. In October 2009, I ended an eighteen-month relationship with a man I loved very much. And this October, I celebrated the one-year anniversary of ...
By Courtney • 13 years ago

Saturn frickin’ returns

So around the same time that I turned 30, my life sort of exploded. In some good ways. In some really difficult ways. I won’t belabor them here, both for the sake of my own privacy (I can imagine writing about some of it once it’s good and processed, but not quite yet) and your attention span. In any case, trust me. Life threw me a few curve balls.
So often when I would bring up the big transitions I was experiencing, women friends would nod their heads knowingly (Sami, ahem, Sami) and say, “Uh huh, that’s Saturn Returns.” Don’t know what it is? Trusty Wikipedia’s got an explanation:

It is believed by astrologers that as Saturn “returns” to the degree ...

So around the same time that I turned 30, my life sort of exploded. In some good ways. In some really difficult ways. I won’t belabor them here, both for the sake of my own privacy (I ...
By Rose • 13 years ago

BET: What about the survivors?

Chris Brown’s “breakdown” during his Michael Jackson tribute at the BET Awards
*Trigger Warning*
On the last day of the US Social Forum, I ran into an old friend from a campaign I had worked on a few years back. I had seen her on the first day but bee-lined in the other direction. I was dodging her because the only Rose she had ever known was a woman who felt trapped in a domestically violent relationship. I have since left that relationship. Years have passed since then, but I am occasionally haunted by memories when I see an old friend from that era of my life and they ask me the dreaded question, “Are you still with him?”
Blood ...

Chris Brown’s “breakdown” during his Michael Jackson tribute at the BET Awards
*Trigger Warning*
On the last day of the US Social Forum, I ran into an old friend from a campaign I had worked on a ...
By Rose • 13 years ago

Can the Nanny Speak?

An article in this month’s Essence (available only in print, not online) gives me pause. Veronica Chambers’ “I’m Her Mother, Not Her Nanny” tells a Black Latina’s testimony about the frustration of being misidentified as the nanny of her biracial child.
Veronica explains her experiences of racism:

I have to deal with strangers who treat me as if I were a hired hand. It angers me because when someone asks something so ignorant, I’m reminded that even under the leadership of this historic Obama administration, there are many people who only see me as a dark-skinned woman in a position of servitude.

Veronica has every right to be properly identified as the mother of a child she helped bring into the world. ...

An article in this month’s Essence (available only in print, not online) gives me pause. Veronica Chambers’ “I’m Her Mother, Not Her Nanny” tells a Black Latina’s testimony about the frustration of being misidentified as the nanny ...

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