A fragmented essay. “Did the law firms you applied to in Dubai call you?” I asked Zema. Teaching Black girls how to build their confidence is part of my job. Zema is a 21-year-old Black girl who lives in Tiya, a small town in the southern part of Ethiopia. Every day, after graduating from Wolkite …
Tag: race
When the Shooting Stops
A flash fiction. CONTENT WARNING In this flash fiction, there is a focus on an incident that involves a mass shooting One year after the shooting, I went to a festival. A few minutes after I arrived, fireworks—which sounded like gunshots—exploded in the sky. Darkness surrounded me. My hands covering my ears, I tried to …
When the Shooting Stops, 10 Black Twitter Moments, and the Ge’ez Calendar
Curated links. Favorite Article I Read This Week: Inconsolable Loss and Overpowering Damage Useful Article on Focusing More on the Things That Matter to You: In Your Own Way, Oliver Burkeman Useful Article on Writing (especially if you write short stories or novels): The 22 Rules of Storytelling, according to Pixar A Book I’m Currently …
Courageous Discomfort, Journey to a Promised Land, and 13 Months in a Year
Reading lists. Favorite Book on Race I Read This Month: Courageous Discomfort: How to Have Important, Brave, Life—Changing Conversations about Race and Racism. Books like White Fragility and How To Be An Antiracist discuss how to have uncomfortable conversations with white people. But there is something unique about Courageous Discomfort, a book on race and racism written by a Black …
I’m Exhausted by People Thinking the Reason I’m Sitting in a Senior Room Is That I’m Black,
NOT That I’m Excellent At My Job At Beshale hotel, in Addis Ababa, I met a Friend of a friend for Ethiopian Coffee. This Friend of a friend was a white man in his late 30s. In our conversation, what position I am at the institute I work for came up. When I said I’m …
This Precious Dark Skin
A memory told completely in poetic verse. Powerlessness your voice silenced, wrecked gutted hunched body numb body utter absence of any feeling creeps up your spine like an army of spiders. A white workspace under a spotlight, everybody breathing down your neck, suffocating, people sitting on a chair formulating a circle around your workplace looking …
11 Thought-Provoking Gems From Black Writers For Any White Person Committed to Antiracism Work
Sometimes words can help you put words to action, which might be exactly what you need. Sometimes words can be daggers that pierce through injustice. They can disarm you with love. When tackling such a thorny issue of race and racism, words are powerful. They can unify or divide us. Sometimes words can cut through …
‘Why Am I Finding Only a Few Black Women Essays on Your Blog?’
An answer to a reader’s question. Thank you to all new subscribers who subscribed to my blog this week! One of my readers emailed me a question, ‘why am I finding only a few black women essays on your blog?’ a few days ago. Here’s my answer: If you’re like my reader who is wondering …
When Your White Bosses Are Just Not That Into You
You’re left behind. On the way to our boss’s office, my friend, Haddish, asked, Do you think we will get a promotion this year, Olou? I hope so, I answered. In the law firm we worked, we were the only two black women. We were lawyers who wanted to one day get a seat in a …
13 Embarrassing and Demeaning Statements Not To Say to Black Women
And why you shouldn’t say them. 1. “Are you sure you’re black?” My friend was working with a white colleague on a project. She had just come up with a brilliant idea for a problem they have been trying to solve for weeks. Even though this guy could see that my friend is a black …