Re-Entry anxiety is far different if you aren’t white, male or straight
Just about every day, more and more restrictions enacted during the pandemic are being lifted, not just in my city but in my country. As a result, cases and deaths are dropping dramatically. The fully vaccinated no longer need to wear masks except when traveling on public transportation, hospitals, nursing homes, or other congregate settings such as prisons. Over half of all adults in the US are now fully vaccinated.
This is the kind of news that I’d been waiting to hear for over a year. The forced…
When whites tone police, it’s an attempt to silence Black people.
Recently, I read an article online by someone where I disagreed with their viewpoint. In the comments section, I stated my position. After a couple of back and forth exchanges, the writer commented, “Wow. Your anger is showing. I’m sorry.” To add additional context to this anecdote, the writer’s photo by the article byline showed a middle-aged white woman. And I’m a Black woman.
I did not appreciate her comment about my alleged anger. For one thing, I didn’t think my comments were “angry” in tone. I felt passionate in explaining my position. However, no matter how Black people come…
Attempts to shatter my confidence in my writing won’t work. I’m here for the long haul
I recently stumbled across an article about writing that made me cringe. The gist of the piece was that articles advising about writing are a waste of time because if you haven’t mastered the craft by high school, you shouldn’t bother.
What an arrogant, elitist mindset.
Ever since childhood, I wanted to be a writer. I always felt that words had enormous power. The ability of language to transform one’s viewpoint or ability to empathize with other human beings defies description.
Speaking only for myself, I occasionally wrote in junior high and high school, mainly poetry. Looking back though, can…
Ending pandemic unemployment has racist and classist undertones
When I saw news stories like this one over the last week or so about various states in the US discontinuing pandemic unemployment, I seethed. And I’m not unemployed.
At least eighteen states are planning to discontinue the $300 weekly pandemic unemployment insurance by the end of June, supposedly because unemployment increased slightly in April according to a jobs report. These governors, most of them Republican, are claiming that pandemic unemployment insurance is making people shiftless and lazy. “If they’re making more on unemployment than they do working, then the socialist state…
For BIPOC, microaggressions start as early as the cradle-with our names
I don’t have a common first name. It’s four letters, two syllables and is pronounced Vee-na. According to my mother, one of her friends, who became my godmother, was a teacher and had a student by that name. She liked it and thus, I got christened with the name.
Throughout adulthood, I’ve been told several different meanings and origins of my name. One origin of it is Anglo-Saxon and means “vine.” Another origin of it is Hindi and is a musical instrument. Yet another origin that I’ve heard is…
Something that should be of little consequence is filled with angst for me
About a month ago, with some trepidation, I went on several websites looking for available appointments to get a COVID vaccine, initially to no avail. This was before many states in the US offered the vaccine simply by walking in. It took around four days before I snagged an appointment at the Javits Center on May 31st. In pre-pandemic times, it served as a convention center and event venue in New York City. Now it’s a mass vaccination site.
A week after making that appointment, I realized…
Derek Chauvin’s conviction for the murder of George Floyd isn’t the end of state-sanctioned violence
I wasn’t one of those people who paid any attention to Derek Chauvin’s trial. I have a lot going on in my personal life right now. The stress of taking on new responsibilities at work, processing my uncle’s death, and dealing with my father’s deteriorating health is enough to fling me backward from their winds.
All of those things in addition to still grappling with living through a pandemic as well as trying to exist in this toxic society as a Black woman are simply…
Or when my life got in the way
So. I haven’t written very much over the last six weeks, primarily because my offline life got more stressful. At my day job, I now work with a different team. I’m currently doing more time-sensitive and detail-oriented work than I’d done before, so it’s taking up more of my energy. However, that isn’t the main reason for my disappearance because usually, I’d still have the emotional and mental space to create.
The main reason I haven’t written much has to do with my personal life. My uncle, my father’s oldest brother, passed away at the end of February from dementia…
The Atlanta mass shooting of six Asian women highlights the disconnect among Asians and other communities of color
I’ve struggled for over a week about voicing my opinion on the mass shooting in Atlanta, where eight people were killed in a spa, six of them Asian women. It’s sickening that even in a pandemic, hardly anyone is safe from white male violence.
And yes, it’s enraging that once again, people want to make excuses for Robert Aaron Long, the shooter, because of his race and gender. Claiming he had a “bad day” or “he had a sex addiction and just…
Vena Moore
Dismantling white, male supremacy one word at a time.
