By my count, Israel has assassinated all but twelve of the journalists left in Gaza. Let THAT sink in. (Also, Motaz was targeted today. In the part of Gaza that's supposed to be a "safe zone." While he was going to get his grandmother some water.)
The one thing I remember from last night is this: one out of every 1,000 Black people has died of COVID-19. By the time Trump is out of the White House, that number is projected to be one out of every 500. Why is no one talking about this? Why are we never hearing that statistic?
So pleased to share that I will be joing the Literary Arts faculty at Brown
@BrownUniversity
this fall. So excited to work with excellent students, and with all these fine people
I don't ever again want to hear from any Democratic candidate, on any level, who doesn't speak on police brutality today. It's state-sponsored murder. It's state-abetted domestic terrorism. It's the scariest genocidal problem we've got going.
#sayhername
#AtatianaJefferson
My kid crushed her audition and got into the Rhode Island Youth Philharmonic. She switched to cello just a couple of years ago. So, so proud of this kid, as always ❤
@ReenNahMean
Not true. Ivies allow the city police to harass Black students allllllll the time. I know in part because once upon a time, I was one of them.
It's official: my new novel, Kif, will be published by
@GraywolfPress
. It It first became a thing in my head way back in Mali, after I was shaken by witnessing modern-day slavery, and then it deepened into more of a thing after I witnessed the underage sex trade in Morocco,
@burn_naomi
@JTOWNACTION
Granted, when you look at the official list of 48 killed so far, it does not include citizen/independent. But those folx are also being assassinated/arrested. We have no way of knowing how many there are but I highly doubt the percentage of those being targeted is any different.
Twenty years ago I asked my then-husband to come here on our way back from Iowa and he said no, he had to get back to his wholly non-urgent life in NYC. I never would have lived the life I'm living if I'd stayed married, and I thank God every day I've never believed in forever
The video of the legless girl hanging from a wall last night in Rafah should be ending all this. All the footage from last night should be ending this. All the footage from the whole thing should have ended it.
I am thrilled to be back in the hands of the brilliant team at
@GraywolfPress
for my third novel, and grateful to have a publisher that handles the literary political landscape so well. Thank you, too, to
@waleslit
, for believing in the book. Grateful for you all!
@AdrianChen
Sorry, but this is bullshit. People have always, everywhere, tried to excuse slavery by claiming that others don't understand their culture.
I was a National Merit Scholar with a pretty decent GPA and a million extracurriculars. But you know what I can almost guarantee you I wouldn't have been admitted to Harvard if I hadn't been from semi-rural Kentucky. And no one ever talks about THAT kind of affirmative action
@CaitCorrain
Seriously? When I was young and drunk, I'd get caustically funny and start twerking on tables. Not, you know, systematically hunt down a bunch of writers of color on Goodreads and give them one star reviews
I've lost 55 pounds in five months, and the world's treating me so differently. Men. Women. Everyone. People believe what you say when you're thinner. They're kinder, more generous. I'd love a t-shirt that reads "There's a fat chick still inside me and she deserves respect, too."
Can someone please tell Julianna Margulies that Black people know there is plenty of Muslim anti-Blackness just like we know there is plenty of Jewish anti-Blackness, but that doesn't give any country the right to kill 20,000 innocent people
The 50th journalist Israel has assassinated. May he rest in power. My earlier number was three off: counting down from the photo posted a few days ago, I think we're now down to fourteen journalists total in Gaza. Imagine fourteen journalists total in Manhattan. Same population
@ReenNahMean
Thank you. It was fine. Someone had seen the cop walking down the hall and called others, and before I knew it, eight Black women I barely knew were in my room, helping me stand the guy down. It's prolly the only reason he left. I'll never forget it. I learned a lot that night.🖤
@melnickjeffrey1
You are entirely correct. They are men who had not previously imagined girls as entirely human, so they feel they need medals for actually fathering them.
It's her accomplishment, not mine, but I want to thank the village. Including so many of you. I've been flying solo since almost the day she was born, and never lived near family, but neither of my kids have ever felt that. Thank you ❤
@burn_naomi
@JTOWNACTION
So it's still a shocking number of people. And my whole point is that we are losing an awful lot of reporting. Enough to have created what is now a horrifying silence. I've seen almost no footage after last night's heavy bombardment, and I think we all can intuit what that means.
I picked up Amiri Baraka from the airport in 2000 and spent an entire day showing him around because no one else at the Iowa Writers' Workshop would acknowledge his existence. It was unforgettable, truly.
Not just old people. It's SO much faster to just look at a paper menu. I don't get why humans keep choosing the slowest means of doing a thing possible, just because it involves technology
I've seen so many older people struggle with QR code menus, robbing them of dignity when they're just trying to order a meal. HAVE PRINT MENUS AVAILABLE FOR PEOPLE.
I got divorced in part so no one under this roof would ever have to feel afraid, picked on, slighted, or insulted. So when my kids violate that rule, I get infuriated. And I'm sure they'll be talking about this in therapy later but we are. not. having. that. shit. in. this. house
My kid just informed me that her college meal plan really only allows her to eat an average of five meals per week. Y'all. The scrimping and cutting I'm doing as a single mom to pay her tuition and housing at that place. How have we not gotten out the guillotines yet.
I escaped domestic violence with two small children. Wholly on my own, with no help from anyone (and this was at a time in my life when a lot of folks in my then-department were kicking me in the teeth). I not only survived–I thrived.
Black folks: post a true, non-humble, flex about yourself that you’d never say out loud because you have couth.
I wanna see Ya’ll BRAG on what your Ancestors have rendered!
Me: I’m one the best thinkers, writers and speakers of my generation.
@hazarwlabgad
Gonna be a long thread. I've seen so many of these posts. People dismissed from positions, axed from journals, withdrawn from prize consideration, having their events canceled, etc. etc. and so on. You should ask others to add to this.
Can we talk about the pile of money we just spent on rescue efforts for five very rich people? From the coffers of four different countries. Estimates right now stand at $6,500,000. Think about all the social programs going unfunded. This should infuriate every single one of us.
@ReenNahMean
I know. Thank you. I will say that I think it's true unless you're a campus activist. Then? They send the real actual po po, every time. In fact, I can't think of a case when they just sent campus police to handle a protest.
Tina Turner, 1975, in Tommy, at the height of her "first act." No one thought she'd have a second act in her forties, after so many years on ice, but she came back as even more of icon than she was and crushed the game. We know what we're doing in honor of that, ladies
Some folks have Jesus; I have Prince. Prince kept me alive when I was an adolescent; he was the brightest light in the darkest night. I owe Prince so much gratitude. Consummate musician, teacher, businessman, philanthropist, feminist, freed slave. May we all be more like Prince💜
We talk a lot about when an Appalachian accent will hold you back, but can we talk about when it propels you forward? Because when I get truly pissed, I start speaking in Kentucky, and it scares ppl. I submit to you that a KY accent, far enough outside of KY, is a sort of swagger
I'm not giving up hope, but I find these numbers shocking. It seems the defining, universal issue of this election would be that this guy's federal pandemic plan is to let us all die. But it appears an awful lot of people would rather be dead than renounce racism.
I have gone from being an appointed official to an elected one. Deepest gratitude to everyone who supported my campaign. I look forward to keeping our school corporation one of the brightest stars in Indiana's torch.
Same. Even though everyone knew my SAT score was way higher than theirs. What's so unfunny is that even having killed affirmative action and DEI programs, they're still going to say this. They won't be satisfied until we're picking cotton again.
Thinking a lot about how the day I got into Harvard three different white kids told me I only got in because I am Black, how after I won a litany of awards a faculty member called me a diversity hire and after I earned tenure another one let me think everyone felt that way, about
I produced courtroom TV news for two years and never once cried after a verdict. I am just sobbing after this one. It's not relief, necessarily. It's that the United States made it legal to murder a Black person in 1699 and we never know whether White people still get to kill us
It's so strange how this is being spun as Mia Khalifa picking on this woman when this woman is clearly harassing the hell out of her in a public place. Why are we not doxing and dragging the harasser? Who even is she? She's dangerous.
The Zionists are losing the plot. She followed me through the lobby calling me slurs and didn’t stop the entire time she was waiting for her UberPool at the Antique Jewelry Fair. She’s a vendor- something she made abundantly clear so I guess this is what her business stands for:
You know who I love? People who just discovered last week that the US is complicit in every geopolitical filth on the planet. Like, where were you? Hanging out with the tooth fairy?
@ReenNahMean
I was at Harvard. The Boston police were in my dorm room. Campus police were never even called. Good for you that you only had to deal with Hupda.
So happy to be serving as Ann Arbor Public Schools Board President with
@RimaForAAPS
as Vice-President. Rima is such a great leader and just all around sterling person. Shoutout to her for earning the first Arab-American seat on our BOE. Looking forward to great things
Since both my daughters are gay, I think it's safe to say I've built a matriarchy over here. Do I get a smoking jacket and matching leather gloves? I wanna light some cigars. Put out hits. Drink champagne out of the skulls of my and my children's enemies. ;)
Happy Pride 🌈
My dad goes to the same church as Andy Beshear and says he’s a solid guy. A strong supporter of public education, for starters. But I bet it’s not him. Because we can’t have nice things
Ralph Yarl, the teen who was shot by a white man after going to the wrong house was named to the 2024 Missouri All-State Band as second chair for bass clarinet! Despite suffering a traumatic brain injury Ralph overcame his adversity!
#BlackExcellence
Pix from the opening of Maternal Interior, which is at Ann Arbor Arts Center through June 25th. My kid did all the work but let me slap some words on the side here. I'm so proud of this one. She also has work in a gallery in Brooklyn later this summer. More on that as I know...
You literally can’t make this up. They no longer want to honour Adania Shibli for her award winning novel A Minor Matter because *checks notes* it focuses on the murder of a Palestinian girl by Israeli soldiers. It’s almost like there’s a connection…
@BenjaminPDixon
School board member in a predominantly white district here... from the looks of the parent storm here in Indiana, I'd say it's actually both.
@NeurologistMom
Or a single woman. Or a woman who is Black. Doctors don't believe a word that comes out of my mouth. I see the attention others get for the same condition and I'm like...
The other funny thing in my mentions is how many ppl with bad reading comprehension suggested I got into Harvard as an affirmative action case. I was a National Merit Scholar who entered at the age of 16. Tho some of you dummos will have to look up "National Merit Scholar"
I'd been as far as Interlochen, but hadn't been to the extreme Upper Peninsula before this weekend, and now I want to live there, die there, be buried there. Please don't revoke my Appalachian card but I think the Upper Peninsula might be the most beautiful part of this country
@ShandersWrites
Day by day. I gave myself a daily word count goal. Woke up and wrote at 5am while my kids were asleep. 500 words a day was a novel in a year. You got this!
Me (to unvaxxed 11yo): Wanna hang out at Pride with your sister?
11yo: I'm scared
Me: Because of COVID?
11yo: Because a shooter might show up
My heart has been so broken this summer, I swear
If you're school board president, and sitting on the stage at your kid's high school graduation, will crying the entire two hours before the graduation keep you from crying at the actual graduation? Asking for a friend
and subsequent drafts of the novel were something altogether different yet no less political. The very last thing an escaped slave said to me in her interview was "I just want you to tell my story," and I am so very proud to be published by a house that does the political so well