Checking in to wish everyone a Happy Juneteenth, which is too important not to write about this year (and all years retrospectively ).

I’ve been burrowing myself in listening and learning as of late. As a white woman, it’s taken me far too long to understand the layers of female oppression, historical, psychological, and systematic. It dumbfounded me, even as someone who worked on a ‘feminist zine’ in high school. Everything is a thousandfold more complex and more opaque, but the awareness and knowledge I gained has informed and empowered my everyday decisions and outlook on the world. The work was worth it…and continues.

As a white woman in 2020, a further and GINORMOUS (understatement) step removed from first hand understanding that absolutely extreme oppression of being black in America. Cultural, social, political, psychological, historical, financial, basically you name it… things have been absolutely unacceptable for a very very long time. I have my work cut out for me. I need do my own part in changing how I think ( or don’t think) about being Black in America, about white privilege, the systems I support and engage with , and how I can help (and not hurt). I don’t have the answers. I don’t know all the right steps. I know I will be wrong a lot, and have to hear that, and that’s okay. A lot has been so so wrong for so long, it’s time to change. Time to learn. Time to act. Time to share and support. *

( *my current actions ; as someone far far to anxious to handle the recent physical protesting, Ive been supporting black owned businesses, contacting elected officials, and doing a whole lot of listening and reading. It’s not perfect, bit it’s something. No matter where we start in this process, we have to start, and it’s going to be a long and complicated road, but it’s the right path)







