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Responding to Microaggressions

Filed Under: Everyday Feminism, Higher Education, Racial Justice By 3 Comments

The article “Rhetorical and Pedagogical Interventions for Countering Microaggressions” as it appears in the print publication of Pedagogy.

How do we respond to microaggressions, or those everyday and commonplace actions that convey bias, invalidate people, and reinforce structural oppression? We know from research and personal accounts that microaggressions occur all-too-frequently across contexts—workplaces, family gatherings, and community settings. From hurtful words to dismissive gestures, microaggressions do more than communicate harm. They have wide-reaching impact, for they deny access, constrain ... Read more ...

Responding to White Supremacist Terror, This Time in El Paso

Filed Under: Emotional Literacies, Everyday Feminism, Racial Justice By 1 Comment

Photo of Ross Castle in Killarney, Ireland, taken the day before the El Paso shooting. Photo looks up at the castle from the water.

I woke this morning in Ireland to news of the El Paso shooting: the latest act of white supremacist terror in the United States. My body was already aching (today’s a rest day after some seriously long walks), but the news ramped up the ache and lodged itself in my chest. I recognized the familiar heartache that comes with shootings and acts of violence, particularly against Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)—in this case, against Latinx folks in Texas. Along ... Read more ...

Self-Inquiry and Social Justice: What’s Walking Got to Do with It?

Filed Under: Contemplative Practices, Everyday Feminism By Leave a Comment

This image from Zion National Park in Utah (southwestern United States) shows a trail leading toward striated sandstone boulders. Green trees, blue sky, and puffy white clouds from the photo.

This summer I’m offering “40 Questions for 40 Walks: Toward Everyday Living for Justice”—a self-paced e-course to support deep-diving into conditioned ways of living, being, and intervening in the world. My hope is that these 40 questions provide structure and invite attention to a wide range of matters that factor into everyday life, yet may be easily taken-for-granted or overlooked as important to social justice, racial justice, and environmental justice. Why ... Read more ...

Toward Public Outcry: Why I’ll Keep Repeating #AbolishICE and #CloseTheCamps

Filed Under: Emotional Literacies, Everyday Feminism, Racial Justice By Leave a Comment

This image shares the quote “What’s clear is the need to repeat and repeat and repeat—strongly—anger and disapproval at detaining and imprisoning people,” against a dark blue background representing the night sky.

Outcry: a strong expression of public anger and disapproval This week I dreamed about being detained when traveling, taken aside in an airport and made to wait and wait and wait … It became clear that I was being monitored and considered dangerous and essentially arrested. What started in the airport turned into a full detention / internment / concentration camp experience. The dream’s details are sketchy, but I remember feeling powerless. I couldn’t call for help. I ... Read more ...

How Small and Sustained Actions Turn Resolutions into Habits

Filed Under: Everyday Feminism By Leave a Comment

This image (mostly white and green) shares the text “This summer, what are you being called to create or put into practice or do differently? For inspiration, see Heart-Head-Hands.com” with an arrangement of succulents.

Typically, by mid-year (by the summer solstice for those of us in the northern hemisphere), new year’s resolutions are a thing of the past. Months after setting resolutions, it’s easy to have forgotten or moved through them—with seasons shifting our embodied needs, creating the conditions for new intentions to be named. The summer solstice, then, provides the occasion for setting new resolutions, for looking backward to previous ones and forward to daily practices that ... Read more ...