Hiya, and welcome welcome welcome to another book of the month. This time, it is the absolutely brilliant book by Brit Bennet, titled "The Vanishing Half". This book examines the story of sisterhood, identity, race, motherhood, colorism, in such an intricate and convincing manner. Basically, it tells the story of Stella and Desiree Vignes from Mallard, Louisiana. See, Mallard is a [fictional] small, unknown town reserved mainly for light-skinned black people. Yes, you read that right. After growing up together in this town, sisters, Desiree and Stella run away at sixteen and they take very divergent paths that make the whole book. Many years later, one sister having first married the darkest man she could find, is back in town with her daughter. The other is secretly passing for white with a white husband that knows absolutely nothing about her secret. As we start to see how the lives of their progenies diverge because of the choices Desiree and Stella made, we learn a whole lot about identity, race, prejudice, passing for white, colorism, friendship, and love.
A New Dawn
I remember it like yesterday, President Obama's last day in office. The deep despair, angst, the paranoia, the feeling of impending doom, the intense fear that cast a shadow in people's eyes, the hopelessness that weighed heavily on hearts. I remember it all.
It turns out, for the most part, we were right. The past four years have been increasingly worse. As a matter of fact, if we knew just how much lay in wait in coming years, we might have spiraled into utter, manic depression. It's one of the best gifts God has given us: the inability to know what is coming. Because, my God, knowing what I know now, I don't know how much more we could have taken the ascendancy of Trump's to the oval office.
But we did.
As with most things—thanks to our resilience and fortitude, another great gift of God to humanity—we were able to withstand hit after hit from one of the most fascist, corrupt, divisive, immoral administrations in modern history. Four HUNDRED thousand people did not [literally] survive the incompetency.
When it looked like it was almost over, at the very last minute, there was a literal threat to our democracy. This man was ready to bring to ruins, century-old norms and institutions, just to cater to his narcissism. Again, our resilience won—just barely—but we did.
Weeping may endure through the night, but joy cometh in the morning
- Psalm 30:5b
Today, in a historic (in soooo many ways) inauguration, the 46th president of these United States was sworn in before God and hundreds of millions of people watching from all over the world. In what I like to term as a testament to the fact that no matter what, God's justice and truth WILL prevail.
It's a new dawn indeed.
Joy comes in the morning indeed.
Our job is not done. We must not retreat to our respective corners, throw our hands in the air, turn our backs and continue with our lives. No, we have to be active citizens, we have to pay special attention to our immediate communities, focusing on local electoral races that bear more significance on black and brown lives often more than the office of the presidency. We have to weed out white supremacy and call out injustice and speak truth to power as long as it is in our power to do so.
But at least now we can do that knowing we have a true leader, who has promised to be the president of ALL Americans; who has promised us that his soul is in this; and who we will hold accountable, because that's the premise of a democracy: that Joe Biden is there to serve we the people.
It's easy to only talk when things are bad and forget to rejoice when joy comes. So this post is rejoicing because I lost count of all the history that was made today.
I pray that we are a society; a people that look after the least among us, that clothe the naked, feed the hungry, offer shelter to the homeless, and seek justice for the oppressed and marginalized.
Because I am convinced it is what Jesus would do.
It's a new dawn, y'all.
It's a new dawn.
Love,
I
Friday Reflections
1.) Halos and welcome to another installment of Friday Reflections, people. It's a packed day today. Get your snack and get ready for the ride.
2.) How will you measure your life?
3.) Yoooo. White women. This story of blatant racism and bigotry on the set of Heroes (the TV show) will make your blood boil, especially the serious implications it had for Leonard Roberts' character. Meanwhile, throw Ali Carter away. I mean, such trash!
4.) Congressman Jamie Raskin and his wife lost their beautiful son to suicide on the last day of 2020. They wrote about the amazing life of their son here.
5.) Don't ask God for clarity? I certainly agree with aspects of that but hmmm, I don't see what's wrong with asking God for clarity.
6.) In the span of one week, Representative Jamie Raskin lost his son to suicide, survived the Capitol riot, and prepared articles of impeachment against President Trump.
7.) "'I called my wife and told her I love her I loved her': One Congressman's story from inside a Capitol under attack".
8.) In case you were wondering where we go from here, I wrote about the insane events of last week here.
9.) Accountability is core and extremely important to how we move forward. I love Forbes' model of holding the enablers and liars who contributed to ruining our democracy.
10.) Pssst, if your new year resolution was to get abs, get in here. It turns out it might even be a little dangerous to have abs. Instead, focus on a wholesome and overall healthy lifestyle: move your body, eat vegetables (NOT lettuce, sweetie) with every meal, and eliminate stress as much as you can.
11.) When the far right penetrate law enforcement.
12.) "This is not who we are" is a great American myth.
13.) I hate to say I told you so but WE FREAKING WARNED YOU.
14.) Therapy and therapists are not for everyone.
15.) It's so weird that when I defended I said I would write more about grad school and academia here and I haven't written a single thing. I just don't know what to write. So if you have any questions or ideas on what you want me to write, I'm free free, y'all. I have gotten some questions recently that I might expand into a post here I guess.
An Insurrection, An Attempted Coup, and a Case of Blatant Idolatry: America in the 2020s
I want to acknowledge the insanity that has been ravaging the United States of America these past few days. And the best way to do it is to just...write. It's what I do. I don't know that this warrants a few paragraphs or a post on its own. I want to start by saying, coming from my vantage point as a political scientist and as a first generation immigrant myself, it was not at all surprising. I saw this coming. It was why I tweeted that if you are surprised, then you have not been paying attention.
Those of us who study coups, uprisings, political movements, demagogues, conflicts and political unrest had continually cautioned, whether it was on Twitter or elsewhere, that the actions of the 45th U.S. president since the elections were dangerous. We predicted this. We freaking warned you. But we were termed dramatic, alarmists, despite the actual evidence showing otherwise. And here we are. Exactly one week ago, rioters, insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol— the actual shrine of American democracy. These violent thugs actually took to the Capitol to subvert a free and fair election and overthrow the government. They staged an insurrection, set up gallows and a noose, took the confederate flag to the Capitol (something that had never been that close), stormed the Capitol and raided it. These fools actually sat on the Senate President's seat, put their feet up on the Speaker's desk, and ransacked congressional offices.
First, please let the audacity of these [mostly] white men and especially white women who dared to think they could overthrow the government and get away with it sink in. They actually just thought they would attempt a coup and walk away like it was just another Wednesday. They actually went with the intention of capturing Congresspeople and "hanging" the Vice President. The president then went on TV to tell these people he "loved" them, that they are "very special". The same man who said "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" about black protesters last summer. The man who, referring to peaceful protesters against racial injustice, called them "thugs", "agitators", "looters".
I will say that it was not as jarring as I would have thought. Most Americans though, were flabbergasted. I don't blame them. I mean; when we have U.S. Congressmen having to call their families to tell them they love them; when we have a Congressman who had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan being more afraid at the U.S. capitol than he was in war torn nations, then perhaps we need to reexamine our democratic experiment in America.
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| The idiocy ended up being the worst revolution ever. |
People were shocked, devastated, angry, and there were lots of "this is not who we are. This is not America".
Except it is exactly America.
I am sorry all of this is happening and I am still very worried about the near future. But let this be a lesson to America and other so-called democracies that U.S. institutions are very very fragile and contrary to what lots of Americans might think, we are not that special. We are not that exceptional. Yes, laws and institutions are good, but in the end when bad actors are in positions of power and they are normalized, the consequences are dire. For me, what I am most angry about as my tweet showed was seeing the black maintenance staff and custodians clean up after those idiotic fools and thugs who broke through the Capitol. I am angry that yet again, black folks are bearing the brunt of white privilege. This is why heads must roll. It is why we must demand accountability and there must be consequences for everyone including the lawmakers who swore to uphold the law only to turn around to incite a riot against our most sacred institutions.
As with most things America, too many people just want to "heal", "unite", "move on". But how do you truly move on without consequences? How do you unite with actual, literal white supremacists whose very existence is predicated on the fact that they think the white race is supreme? Explain it to me like I'm a five-year-old. I always say, even with his most generous mercy Christ seeks repentance. He IS Christ and even he demands repentance before reconciliation. We are just human and you want us to let go and move on even though this same man threatened to shoot BLM protesters who dared protest unjust murders of black bodies?
My big fear right now is that most attempted coups are almost always followed (if not soon, eventually) by successful ones. That's what the data says. It is why there must be a demonstrable effort that shows that such a thing is truly not welcome in America.
I am most heartbroken by the so-called Christians and evangelicals, who for so long, continued to enable this monstrosity of an administration. They have continued to propagate idolatry and for some reason, the republican party (for all its ills towards and constant oppression of black folks, immigrants, the poor) is ostensibly synonymous with the Christian party. This is despite the fact that they chase power, wealth, greed, hate...and quite literally everything God hates. I am not saying Democrats are the better party but at the very least those ones don't go around using the name of God with every fifth word and then turning away from the same God.
Disgusting.
If you have ignored the fact of the matter—that Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. won the 2020 elections —because of your idolatry, racism, bigotry, and pure stupidity, you are insane. In the words of Beth Moore, what is Right or Left cannot be more important to Christians that what Jesus deems right or wrong. If Donald Trump is more important to you than the gospel and truth of Jesus or more important than loving your neighbor (even if that neighbor is black, gay, transgender, immigrant), then you are part of the problem. If you continue to lie because of your support of a man who, because of money, power, ego, narcissism, filth, corruption, has decided to ruin our country, you are NOT of God. If no one has told you point blank, I am here to tell you.
There you have it: America in the 2020s. What a wild ride.
Even though I don't want to be, my faith in God empowers me to be hopeful despite all this. It is how I know we will be okay. But it is also how I know we must always be active citizens. Arrest those idiots or not, there are plenty of them and they won't just disappear just because their cult leader is no longer president. Our own light must shine so brightly that their darkness disappears. It's how we win this: with truth, light, and believe it or not [actionable] love.
Love,
I
In Memory of 2020
I had two separate posts planned before the end of this year but honestly I just couldn't, and then I was just going to not say anything. But then I realized I would not like my last post of this [wild ride of a] year to be that last rant on this blog.
So in OG blog style, I will ramble on and see where this takes us. This is not a review of the year at all, neither is it a review of my own personal life. At least, I am not planning for it to be that. Who knows what it will look like when I finish?
I am exhausted.
Yes, I am very exhausted. What a year we have had? 2020 was something.
At first, it felt like something everyone just said but ultimately, it became all the more clearer that there was something about this year. There was a collective grief we all shared.
Whether it was Kobe Bryant's sudden death; or the wildfires that ravaged Australia; or whew the WILDEST phenomenon of our generation—COVID-19, a phenomenon that has taken significantly more than we could have imagined; or the racial reckoning and blatant injustice that continues to permeate our society; or the colossal mess that are the politicians running this country; a year in which people were so lonely some had to literally die alone; a year when it became clear just who the essential workers are; a year of sacrifice; a year of grief; a year of anger; a year of generosity; the year of ZOOM; a year marked by scarcity of toilet papers; a year of so so so so many deaths: RBG, THE Chadwick Boseman, Legendary John Lewis, pillars of societies, pillars of families; a year of selfishness; a year of irresponsibility, a year of greed; the year of quarantine; a year of readjusting.
What a year we have had.
Yet, this year was not all horrible. This was also the year people found love; the year people had their babies; the year people signed their book deals; the year people wrote; the year we had each other; the year we rallied; the year people connected and reconnected; the year we laughed; and cried from too much laughter; the year a black and asian woman was elected Vice President of these United states; the year more than 80 million Americans said no to fascism and hate and corruption. It was the year that was. In so many ways, it just was.
Even in its deepest, darkest, most frightening moments of this year, we can say there is something to be grateful for. Even if it's just you, yourself.
For all that this year was, for me personally, it will always be the year I defended my dissertation and graduated. I can't tell you how immensely proud I am and how grateful I am to God to have survived that and to have finished so well.
I am so thrilled we survived and so happy about all the great things that happened this year. But I also mourn all that never was this year. I mourn the deaths. So so many deaths.
I think I certainly could have blogged more than I did. If there ever was a year to record everything down, it was this one. Because it will always be in the history books and what a time to be alive.
I was extremely busy. Every time I had I poured into completing my dissertation. Since this is still solely a one-man situation, you can see how blogging took a back seat.
I looveeee having a blog. But this year, I also really reexamined my why. Perhaps it's also why I didn't write as much? Perhaps not.
Many people have been looking forward to 2021 and at first I was tempted to ask, "do you think just because it's a new day, just because the clock turned a minute to 12:00am January 1, things would automatically flip and life becomes oh so perfect again?" Oh you think cos its 2021 people would suddenly stop politicizing masks and become considerate and empathetic? What do you think will change? But I soon realized it was the wrong approach. The wrong question to ask. There is nothing wrong with hope. And hope, the way people have it for 2021, is actually what we need. And really, the fact that people can still hope for the new year is a testament to how resilient human beings are. The one thing people have not talked enough about is the toll this year has had on people's mental health, on increased levels of anxiety, on fear. The fear of the unknown; the fear that if something like this could happen, what is stopping something significantly worse in the future?
But there IS light at the end of the tunnel. I know it for sure. Case in point, we do have the miraculous invention that is the vaccine.
A part of me is worried that, as they said on SNL, the light at the end of the tunnel has shown us how dark and stinky the tunnel is.
Because how would people even get the vaccine? Why is it that people who denied this virus are suddenly getting front line access to the vaccine? Why is that a medical doctor who went online to sow distrust in the vaccine just to sound cool is suddenly getting this vaccine before most other people who actually need it? Why why why? How does the economy recover? Where do we go from here? What about all the hate and racism still prevalent among us?
So many questions.
But all the wrong questions
What we should focus on is the hope. Hope.
I KNOW God will come through. As surely as he lives, he will.
I KNOW we will be fine. So that hope people have for 2021, I hope it radiates even more.
Have an amazing 2021, everyone!
And see you on the other side.
Love,
I
Friday Reflections
1.) First of all, you know how it is: please check out the last post on spiritual and psychological abuse in the Church, and please share all your thoughts. Even contradictory ones :-D
2.) Second, welcome to December. wooohooo! I'm so glad it's the end of the year. But aren't we all? I'm excited for Christmas too. Here is something to get you in the Christmas mood.
3.) Oh and Happy Hanukkah to everyone celebrating. Or Happy Holidays to people who don't celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah. You too are welcome on this blog. All are welcome!
4.) An open letter from President-Elect Joe Biden to Delawareans and the First State.
5.) Wheww this old essay by Ivanka Trump's former best friend is an eye opener and an entry into the world of rich and privileged white kids. My God. First of all, what in the how-can-someone-be-so-spoilt? But also, yuck...how did these really gross people actually get to lead this nation for four years? God save us.
6.) This person wrote an interesting article explaining the pervasiveness of right wing extremists and donald trump's divisive rhetoric in America's politics for years to come. Y'all this country needs prayers, a LOT of it.
7.) For all the people with an obsession with "unity" and "reconciliation" and "reaching out to trump supporters", here ya go.
8.) An amazing and heartfelt essay by Meghan Markle on loss, grief, love, and pain.
9.) A brilliant profile on Feyikemi Abudu, one of the fiercest voices in the ENDSARS movement, who skillfully wielded her immense privilege to bring food, support, and freedom for freedom fighters during the protests.
10.) When I read that essay, I thought, wow how can someone grow up just miles from you but with a vastly different life and experience? I mean, her grandfather is neighbors with Obasanjo. She calls a sitting governor "Uncle". Just wow. But the great part is, more than just having privilege, she USED it for good.
11.) She's the perfect testament to the fact that having or being born into privilege isn't inherently bad, as with most things in life, what matters is what you do with it.
12.) One last thing, do me a favor and share at least one post from this blog with someone you know! Like right now. You know you want to *wink wink* haha. Seriously though.
13.) That's it folks. Have a great weekend.
Why We Must Demand Accountability of Christian Leaders and Christian Celebrities
What I want to write about today grinds my gears real bad and frankly I've wanted to write about it for a long long while.
