This week, we’re sharing a new conference we love, disappointments in SXSW, and a hard look at the meaning of the word “diversity.”
What we’ve been checking out…
If no one can decide what “diversity” really means, we can’t expect to throw around the word and have good things magically happen. Check out this terrific New York Times Magazine piece by FRESH friend Anna Holmes.
Another take on “diversity”: has it simply become a stand-in word when white people are too uncomfortable to talk about race?
We are obsessed with the Women’s Freedom Conference, which focuses on amplifying the voices of women of color. The coolest thing about this conference? It’s free.
Junot Diaz’s syllabi for MIT are de-centering the white male voice and taking down Literature with a capital L.
There are zero black women in the Senate, but Donna Edwards is trying to change that.
The latest from our speakers….
SXSW fails to see the irony in canceling an anti-online harassment panel because of online harassment. Samhita Mukhopadhyay explains how this is yet another win for the trolls who want to silence women’s online work.
Brittney Cooper sees the use of police force at Spring Valley High in South Carolina as the literal embodiment of our school-to-prison pipeline.
Mychal Denzel Smith disproves the so-called “Ferguson Effect” and other ideas about “black-on-black crime” by tracing the roots of intra-racial violence back to institutionalized racism.
Bisi Alimi appears on The Breakfast Club Special in Nigeria to discuss the state of persecution of LGBT people in Nigeria.
Obama just said what we all already knew: Playing like a girl means you’re a badass. Julie Zeilinger explores the timeliness of Obama’s remarks, given the state of unequal pay in the sports world.
Edited by Mara Meyers
Leave a reply