The older I get, the more I find that you can only live with those who free you, who love you with an affection that is as light to bear as it is strong to feel. Today's life is too hard, too bitter, for us to undergo new bondages, from whom we love. -Albert Camus
Oh, so it turns out I did have a heart attack back in April when I resigned from my last job because of stress and my health. Now I have a chronic heart condition and will probably need open heart surgery. Anyway, wear a mask and never give these jobs your life.
Dear white academics:
If you're editing a collection that specifically addresses race, you must move past poeticizing your guilt. You must also answer the question: why are you white-knighting this collection? What do YOU offer this convo that BIPOC scholars have already done?
An overwhelmingly majority of American voters think the minimum wage should be at least $20 an hour, according to new polling from Data For Progress.
Voters believe people need to earn at least $26/hr to have a decent quality of life in this country.
As someone who tried organizing and unionizing AND WAS FIRED FOR DOING SO, please be sure your methods for communication are private/encrypted. Your employer will absolutely use every means to stop you, including surveilling your personal communications, including texts.
In the first year of my PhD, I set out to do a history of surveillance as prep for my dissertation. Surveillance has its beginnings in the United States through tracking Native peoples to every degree, including how much of every item they owned.
White folx: You mighg be getting mixed messages right now: either to not make right now about you or to speak up in support. I know it's uncomfortable and even scary to talk about race, so let me give you some advice as another white person who had to learn.
Yo, this right here. We need to get serious about solidarity across Black and Native communities because our histories are interconnected. Also, there are a lot of Black Natives who are still fighting anti-Blackness on top of anti-Indigeneity.
@katharinehorgan
i was ghosted by a months-long long distance partner who promised he wouldn't ghost me because i have ptsd from a previous partner abandoning me. he did. then came back months later pretending to be this music composer i told him i admired. why are they like this??
Grad students are often teaching, mentoring, organizing local and national conferences, and publishing research ON TOP OF their programmatic research expectations on a year-round schedule and I see some of y'all arguing that they should know these unspoken communication rules?!
Okay, the ink is still wet, but I'm excited. I agreed to take a job with the ACLU of Idaho as their Digital Communications Specialist. The team there is hella nice and collaborative, and I'm heart-warmed to continue doing work that directly helps people. 😁
The system isn't broken; it works as intended. It normalizes ableism so that disabled people can't even expect masks in healthcare settings, let alone in our communities. It marginalizes whole groups of people as if we are acceptable causalities for capital.
The system isn’t broken, it’s working as intended. It makes you work 40+ hours a week and exploits you in every way possible while you continue living paycheck to paycheck and are too exhausted to do anything else. You’re stuck in survival mode so you can’t fight back.
How many of you know that COVID-19 is hitting Native communities disproportionately higher than other communities? You won't see it from NYT, WaPo, or even your local papers.
But also, this works in a pinch and is normative enough that some students may find comfort in it when the rest of their lives are chaos. It's okay if you aren't making super creative, exciting content on the fly with no training or support.
Not gonna be ok today. I'm letting me have this sad. Even though I know leaving academia will bring me blessings, I need to grieve the life I worked a decade to have.
My ex-best friend once told me I couldn't hang out with her and her husband if I wore leggings because I'm "too fat."
Anyway, I'm out here wearing some with a horizontal striped crop top, chola hoops, razor sharp eyeliner looking like a whole meal.
Welp. I'm done for the day. I just called my whole dept out for white supremacy in an email. Students deserve us to change. I'm gonna go play legos with my little.
If any of you are teaching something I wrote, but your class is asynchronous, I'd be happy to record a short video for students that ties my pub to course content and assignments. I just made one on my "Writing to Have No Face" chapter for
@cara_messina
's class and it was fun!
despite Boise State having a couple decent tech and game design programs, my kid is leaving Idaho to go to college in a much less bigoted state where they won't face the loss of reproductive and gender rights. KY and ID will continue to lose brilliant youth to their bigotry.
My daughter is quickly reaching college age. She, like her friends, are exactly the kind of talent we want to keep in KY. However, she has made it clear that she won't go to college here or live here after. Poor legislation like HB470 is why.
I'm now the Executive Director for the Indigenous Idaho Alliance. We're working on outreach and support for our Indigenous and Native relations and communities in Idaho.
Another student emailed to thank me for being the only accommodating professor they have. They were laid off and are stressed. What are people seriously trying to accomplish in their classes right now?
@idummkopp
@oodhamboi
tribes have been attempting to uphold treaties and and sovereignty laws since always. The government usually wins them because the legal system has significant biases embedded into it.
Hey, all. I'm tentatively back on this space. I've been forced to resign from my position at Boise State, finally. Admin decided to punish me for trying to support our under-supported grad TAs. No idea why that was so horrendous, but here it is. I'm officially leaving academia.
thank you all so much for the support. i went to sleep and this took off a little. But the anti-vax/mask folks are finding it and being ignorant in my comments, so i'll probably mute. Ain't gonna waste precious time arguing with people who hate facts and science.
Hey, Rhet/Comp folx: never forget that Asao reminded us that Krista Ratcliffe was enacting a listening to Jaqueline Jones Royster when she "created" her theory of "Rhetorical Listening." We owe Royster and every other Black woman our time and attention.
Don't listen when they tell you that you "function so well in society" because that could be your capacity for masking, which is also absolutely burning you out and meant to gaslight you into ableism. Speaking from experience.
If you tend to frequently relate with autistic people when we talk about our experiences but autism assessment questionnaires or symptoms lists have led you to write off the possibility for yourself, allow me to gently encourage you to reconsider with a different approach.
The full prof who observed my grad class last night for my P&T file loved my pedagogy so much and how I've been able to build community in a zoom course that they wrote an email to my dean and president about my teaching 😭💗
Poor and once-poor folx only:
What's a "non-essential" essential thing(s) you buy for yourself when you have a little extra money?
Me, I buy nice skincare products to make me feel good and have a sense of investment in myself.
you cannot decolonize something that was always colonizing. Academia is a colonial institution; it colonizes thought and land as its mission. Nothing you do as an academic will ever be decolonial. Ever.
It hadn't occurred to most of you white academics that you legit have jobs because you are white, right? Even if you're disabled and/or queer. Even all you "good" white people. LOL.
You might be afraid to say something wrong when ypu speak up, so instead you stay silent. That is not cool. Silence perpetuates white supremacy. You have to come to terms with messing up, saying racist shit, and being accountable to the racism you have. We all have it.
Welp, I cried happy tears for 30 minutes because my boss called to tell me the big raise is happening retroactive to April 1st. It's thousands more, y'all. And they are paying 100% of my kids' insurance premiums. Like...academia never did any of this.
Decolonization is the process toward LAND BACK. INDIGENOUS AND BLACK SOVEREIGNTY. You can do work toward these things, but you cannot decolonize anything that remains in a colonial system.
I'm really happy for all of you getting vaccinated. I also ask that you remember the rest of us who may not be vaccinated for months still if at all. The class, race, and access divide is so apparent from the abyss of continually waiting to die.
In 3 weeks we are moving and just in time as today Idaho legislators are trying to pass a trans bathroom ban. My kids will be safe if I have to die for it.
@KaoticLeftist
I am a trans person and I know his family very well and met him before. He has been estranged from the family for being so horrible for a lot of years now.
It's with surprised and excited news that my college and university is addressing the racist violence I and others have experienced in our workplace in ways that present a sustainable path forward. At this time, I'll be keeping my position as TT faculty in Rhet/Comp.
The big meeting in my dept is today, like in 15 min. I already know what's dropping. We'll see how all these people act. I don't need to be petty. I'm gonna sit here glowing in the light of justice and anti-racist action.
So...umm...a large group of Tech Comm grad students, alumni, and UGs got together to write a letter in defense of my teaching cultural rhetorics in the MATC program and in response to my being kicked out of the program for promoting cultural accessibility. Y'all 😭💖
LRT: I'll never forget that for a few of the years while I was in my doctoral program at an R1 top program in my field, the grad students published more than the faculty and all we got was a "good job, this will look great on your job apps." And now I'm unemployed.
It's not that my pedagogy (pass/fail, accommodating deadlines, accessibilty-focused content) makes it *easy* to go online. It's that, by focusing on accessibility and inclusion as praxis means my pedagogy is FLEXIBLE for many access needs, including needing to be online
That's the thing with racism being systemic; it's built into and normalized by language, assumptions, social norms, and the function of society. So, essentially, there's no way NOT to mess up. Get okay with that inside yourself. Get comfy with people calling you out.
if we had UBI and free college education, we wouldn't need to have this conversation at all. Everyone deserves to make what they need and also do what they wanna do as a job. It's not that hard to remove hierarchies and classism.
I'm excited to work in the real world and not in the ivory tower where I've been silenced, paid trash, and treated worse. My life is so much better every step I make to get out. So thanks for being my friend in here.
Due to the lack of support through this surgery and the outright racism and ableism (and homophobia) I've been experiencing here since day one, I just notified my chair that I will work until the end of my contract, but I am not returning to Boise State in the fall.
Hi. If you're training graduate students in cultural rhetorics, can you please have them read "Decolonization is Not a Metaphor" by Tuck and Yang? I'm tired trying to teach so many people that decolonize isn't just this thing anyone can do.
I had an important meeting regarding my future in academia today and I've done nothing since. On the come down from a lot of anxiety and emotion. But things are okay.
Coinciding this practice was the surveillance plantation owners and the government did on slaves.
Tracking people has always been a weapon of information and control on Indigenous peoples.
Begging all y'all to stop expecting humanity and morals from the ruling class. It is never going to come. Biden will protect Trump before he will even recognize the rest of us as anything more than numbers that serve their capital interests.
Hey, all. The booster had me gone all weekend. I'm back. I started my job today at the ACLU Idaho, and it's awesome. While I have an ungodly amount of paperwork, the culture and support there is already worlds away from academia. Idek this is dope.
It's official! I have a third part-time job writing grants for an amazing person starting an Afro-Indigenous healing and wellness nonprofit. Things are aligning and it's going to be amazing to start getting paid again, but this time working with people who accept me as me.
A queer student in my intro to TC class said that my course design and readings helped them see me as a safe, supportive professor. I love that kind of validation because course design is often so invisible, but the people I'm trying to support have the space to be them and ✨
i started
@Nnedi
's Binti trilogy and wow i haven't had a book engulf me like this in a long time. What a ride and a read. Only one story in, but i am committed. It has been years since i could finish a book, like in the before times.
@Nnedi
's writing is a gift.
Organize. Organize. Organize. Learn how to be in community with Black folx and NBPOC without centering yourself. But, most importantly, always make amends and do the work when you mess up. Because you will always mess up. Try harder. Do more. That's it. That's how you start. Bye.
Welcome the call outs. Welcome learning the hard way and staring youreelf in the face when you see how racist you really are. Then, work on that. Read everything you can. Sit quietly when Black folks speak and hear them. Believe them.
According to my chair, the email I want to send to students in solidarity and support apparently has to go through white "administrators" before it can be sent out. This means it'll be co-opted, erased, or rewritten without my consent. An example of systemic white supremacy.
Guess who is in a car full of diapers and was told they don't look a day over 30 by the director of the Idaho Diaper Bank? lol 40 and proud of my 9-step skincare routine.
@prisc_lynnette
@anthonyocampo
Or the thousands of Native people the government murdered and force removed for the Hispanos and white settlers to move there.
I've decided to stay local and not go on the academic job market. I'm tired of relocating thousands of miles and starting over. I love my friends and community here. The work I do with
@indigenousidaho
has been a gift, a joy. I'm gonna keep doing this and find a job worth me.
okay so this is wild. The cbd oil I bought for pain is working...? And I'm legit not experiencing excruciating pain for the first time in a week. Why aren't more people using this?
It took a few minutes to stop laughing when i learned from an anonymous faculty member that the department is stressing out trying to quell the student fury they've unleashed by pulling me from classes *AND* find qualified people to teach my four classes. LMFAO
JoAnne Epps, the acting president of Temple University, died today after collapsing on stage at a campus event. She was a Black woman, an Ivy grad, community leader, and a beloved
law professor. 💔
I will never forget the last sentence of this article.
seeing Ali Wong go private after backlash for supporting an abuser reminds me of the group of academics who doxed me because i wouldn't name the victims of a serial abuser so they could protect their involvement in covering for him and now give talks and pubs on "social justice"