Your comments make me realize my last post was a big mistake

Over the past twenty years of writing this blog, many posts have been controversial. A controversial post begins with some people attacking my position and some people defending my position, then people debate each others’ opinions. My last post was not controversial. It was just bad. I knew it was really bad when the most […]

Dear DNC: I’d vote for a tent pole before I’d vote for Joe Biden

Addendum: After reading 250 of your comments in response to this post (below), I have had a change of heart. I still hate Biden. But I think I also hate this post. So I’ve written a new post, over here. The Democratic Party’s strategy is Trump is so bad that the DNC can win with […]

The art of the Covid career: string together thoughts while you homeschool

I am in between one son practicing his cello and one son writing his college essays. After ten years of homeschooling while being the breadwinner, my parent intuition tells me one kid is only going through the motions.

What a Black person thinks when they read this blog

Note from Penelope: This is a guest post of sorts. I asked Whitney to annotate one of my blog posts because I want to better understand the white privilege on my blog. I also thought this would be a way to share with you how much I learn from conversations I have had with Whitney […]

Quarantine with my ex changes my opinion about good careers

Things Nino hates about me: I yell. I’m ungrateful. I threw things when we were married. Things I hate about Nino: That he left.

The College Board is a case study in corporate racism

Every day, one million families watch every move on the College Board website because it controls so much of the college application process. Today it looked like the site was hacked.

Protesters in Boston are setting off fireworks all night every night. And it’s working.

Right after George Floyd was killed, there were fireworks in my neighborhood. All night long. I live in Roxbury, on a sliver of Boston between two gang territories. So I assumed the noise was gunshots. But a few days later, fireworks actually lit up the sky. At 1am. 2am. 3am.

laundry

We’re in the middle of weeks of protests to end the entrenched racism in America and I can’t stop thinking about Sula. I march and I scream that Black Lives Matter and I never add anything about how the black laundress I grew up with was not someone I could hug — because she was […]

Defund police and schools. Redirect the money to black families and communities.

I understand that part of Black Lives Matter means White Privilege Matters. Which is to say that justice requires white people to face our fears about giving up institutionalized advantages. If you are white and you’re not scared then you have no idea how much has to change the U.S. to function like black lives […]

Asking for advice is hard because accepting reality is hard

Recently someone in my writing class hired a lawyer to tell me she wants a refund for the class. The lawyer sent an email to me requesting $25,000 in damages for his client. I sent this email in response: Dear Sir. I don’t give refunds for the class. I do not say anywhere that I […]