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I drove to the gym this morning. I turned left onto the main road, taking the turn with cars behind me. A woman nearby was finishing her walk up a steep hill. She was looking down as she walked but raised her gaze to mine as I approached. I steered
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How do I perceive the world? My frame of reference is by default a colonial one. I often think and speak in English, which is a language not native to the land I live on. My parents and most of my family members are not white. We belong to many
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this is a collaborative post: concepts and words by Jamie Martinez and josh martinez. I’m so excited to unveil my 200th post for be the future. It’s wild that I’ve been at this for more than four years. I couldn’t have done it without the love
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I was sick with covid last month. For what it’s worth, the symptoms this time weren’t nearly as bad as my first time with the virus. I was still contagious, of course, so I couldn’t go anywhere. After a merciful 24-hour fever, I had to hide out
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This post is narrated! Listen below… What does it mean to belong? I heard many fantastic speakers cover this topic at the 2024 Othering and Belonging conference last month. john a. powell remarked that we humans are all connected to each other. This is true whether we’re aware of
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The Duwamish Solidarity Group sends a newsletter to Real Renters about once a month. Their email in February opens with, “One of the most frequent requests made of the Duwamish Tribe is an invitation to offer a land acknowledgment.” They share a performance by Duwamish Tribal members Ken Workman and
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My colleague Clara and I were facilitating a meeting that was long overdue. The participants were there to solve a problem that was also long overdue. One participant explained, with clear emotion in his voice, everything that had gone wrong. He told us how the actions of others caused him
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This post is narrated! listen below… I had a situation gnawing at me for the better part of a year. I was working with a group for several months and had a good rapport with almost everyone. One person in particular was stirring conflict in ways I struggled to respond
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My extended family was very social when I was growing up. The Sri Lankan community in Austin, Texas is one of the largest outside of the island itself. Once or twice a month someone in the community would throw a dinner party at their house. These were nothing like the
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I’ve been thinking about Nat Turner’s Rebellion for the past week or so. Imagining the sticky late summer of 1831 in Virginia, an hour’s drive west of Virginia Beach. Learning more about Nat Turner and the brave people who joined with him. How he struck out against
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How do organizations change? Why is it that most organizations can set goals for racial justice and then never achieve them? What’s so difficult about doing things in different ways? Equity filters can be clunky. They can be hard to integrate into an existing decision-making process. I want action
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So many people want to do the right thing. With enough awareness, we start to see the world of injustices embedded around us. We might think, “all I need to do is get a bunch of friends together and we can change the system!” Lots of people, including me at
