Posts Categorized: Uncategorized
#Resist: Join Our 2017-18 Journalism Team
It’s that time of the year again! We’re looking for a new class of Student Journalists to write for the ChoiceWords blog for the 2017-18 school year. Reproductive justice work is making headlines all around the world right now, and your voice could be a part of the movement for reproductive freedom for all. Because we believe in intersectionality, we know that reproductive justice is economic justice is racial justice is labor justice. That allows you, our blogger, to write about almost every aspect of our social and political life! Our bloggers have discussed Black Lives Matter, anti-trans bathroom laws, Beyoncé, and the fight to increase the minimum wage. They have encouraged participation in the political sphere over ending the Hyde Amendment, restoring voting rights and filling the Supreme Court…. Read more »
Protect Trans Kids
Yall’s president decided to rescind protections for transgender students that allowed them to use restrooms corresponding to their gender identity setting the tone for how his administration is going to handle LGBTQIA issues over the next four years. As organizers, activists, and advocates, we knew on November 8th that the next four years was going to be filled with actions and protests to protect the constitutional rights of traditionally oppressed and marginalized communities that are being threatened. From interrupting confirmation hearings, nationwide marches, and holding elected representatives accountable at townhalls (when they actually show up), we have been vocalizing our distaste and concern of a discriminatory agenda from the White House. This agenda’s next target is the trans community, and we have to prepare ourselves to stand against this…. Read more »
(Pod)Cast Your Sorrows Away: 3 Podcasts from Black Women
2016 was the year of the meme. The year itself became a meme, with millions of people anxiously tweeting their excitement for the year ahead. Then 2017 rolled around – and it sucks. Though 2017 is barely 2 full months in, there have been many more defeats than triumphs and it seems the impending doom will continue. From increased ICE raids to Donald Trump’s repeal of laws protecting trans folk’s bathroom safety, there is no shortage of bad news. 2017’s endless list of badness presents a perfect opportunity to incorporate nuanced and diverse voices into your life. One of the many ways I do this is through podcasts. Not only are podcasts hilarious, informative, and interesting they also feel like hanging out with best friends you’ve never actually met. So,… Read more »
Do Texas lawmakers actually care about Texans?
Pro-choice activists gathered at the Texas state capital this Wednesday to testify against three preposterous anti-choice Texas senate bills. This included ardent outcry against proposed senate bill 415 which would make it a crime for doctors to perform surgical abortions in Texas. Proponents of the bill, such as its anti-choice author Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), claim that it protects children, but the vengeful, persecutory nature of the bill demonstrates otherwise. Like nearly all anti-choice legislation proposed in Texas this session, this bill aims to shame individuals who have or provide abortion care. Discussion during the hearing was explosive. Jezebel reports that the Health and Human Services Committee Chairman attempted to silence pro-choice activist Maggie Hennessy by pounding the committee gavel. In his urgency to cut Ms. Hennessy’s testimony, he smashed… Read more »
Why The Grammys Hurt So Much
I update my music playlists every three months. If people want the latest reviews on music, I am not the femme they should be speaking to. For some reason, listening to new music stresses me out. For one, it’s extra work. It’s often hard for me to find music, and I don’t download it illegally. Also, there’s the whole sitting there and listening to the music thing. You have to form an opinion on it. All of this is just way too much effort for me. I’d rather just listen to my Kanye West and Florence + The Machine playlist I’ve had since high school, and go on my merry way. Because of my lack of interest in new music, I guess I missed getting stung by the Beyoncé bug…. Read more »
Beyond Hate: Why Racism Kills
Racism is heavily misinterpreted. Aside from determined chants from neo-liberals that racism is soon to expire, there is also a tendency to eclipse the nuanced nature of racism to make it purely about intentional, violent acts motivated by malice. This reconfiguration is typically done by white folks who have a particular interest in monopolizing and defining racism. Beyond the obvious Social Justice 101 error of explaining over folks who actually negotiate with racism and white supremacy, it policies people of color’s invocation of racism and white supremacy to “appropriate” scenarios. What usually constitutes an experience that can rightfully be defined as racist is a base level of extremity and outlandishness – an experience so severe and vitriolic that it is undeniably racist, but even here is an undertone of paternalism…. Read more »
An Ode to Beyonce
We would like to share our love and happiness. We have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes. – The Carters A photo posted by Beyoncé (@beyonce) on Feb 1, 2017 at 10:39am PST Dear Beyonce, When I heard that you were pregnant again, I burst into tears because after the week of executive order from y’all’s president, I forgot to know what happiness and joy felt like. Yet, you knew what your fans needed and dropped the hottest maternity photo shoot to grace mankind. Your background symbolizes women’s connection with the earth as the creators and planters of this land. Your belly symbolizes the creation of new life, and your body… Read more »
All or None
It feels as though with every notification of a new Executive Order from Trump, I feel a 20 pound weight being added to an imaginary backpack full of emotional baggage. However, Trump’s Muslim Ban (that’s what I’m calling it, because that’s what it is) really struck a nerve. Placing a hold on refugee resettlement for 120 days, and also banning travel to 7 countries, Trump’s ban is clearly unconstitutional, the result of Islamaphobia, and the US’s resistance to accepting that white men continue to be the number one creator of terrorism in this country. Resisting the urge to stay in and eat ice cream, I decided to attend an immigration rally/protest at the Atlanta airport. Hartsfield-Jackson is the world’s busiest airport. Atlanta serves as a cultural hub and a home… Read more »
The Hypocrisy of March for Life
Nearly a week after Trump’s control of America started, March for Life — a movement built in preserving the fetus’ life and fighting for its rights — is making headway. Although the march happened on the 27th, its meaning is really valuable now, since Congress has introduced a total abortion ban across the United States. Not only will this piece of legislation be unconstitutional, but it will not solve the problem. This and other anti-choice legislation introduced into Congress would have a devastating effect on safe and legal abortion access, but this will not stop these same women from going to back alley doctors to receive medical care that is harmful. March for Life marches for life of the unborn, but they neglect to give the same respect to the living…. Read more »
Reproduction of Race Science: How My Health Care Education is Teaching Racial Bias
“You have to push harder when you give black women epidurals, you know, because black people have tougher muscles.” This is how an acquaintance of mine in nurse-anesthetist school described his recent clinical experience administering epidurals. Where did this person learn this? Was his assumption racial bias he brought to nursing, or was the racial bias taught as a part of his health care education? How are such flagrantly racist biases circulated as “scientific truths” in the medical community so that practitioners are emboldened to state them as fact? Easily, if my first semester in nursing school has taught me anything. Racism and race science is a part of our curriculum. For example, one instructor taught my class that “black women have a higher breast cancer mortality rate. We’re not… Read more »
