Worried about voter intimidation and being challenged as a US citizen about your ability to vote? If you're registered, you have the right to vote, and it's illegal for anyone to try to stop you from voting. Here's information on that:
If you're an adult US citizen, please vote! In many ways this will the most consequential election in a century. You should be a part of it -- don't let anyone take away that right or responsibility.
Thank you for you attention. Here's a picture of a cat.
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1. Yes, but also, here's a thing: I am not ignorant, nor am I uneducated, nor am I malign on these issues, AND STILL I got waaaay too far along in my adult life thinking systematic racism wasn't still as active, and endemic and as pervasive as it actually is...
2. ... and at this point, as much as I am aware of it especially thanks to the last four years, what I'm even more aware of is that I am still largely insulated from its realities and in most ways will not ever experience its depths. And ALL of that is for the same reason...
3. ...which is that a salient feature of systematic racism is its ability to mask from its beneficiaries (including mostly liberal, mostly educated, mostly not ignorant white people, like me) how bad and pervasive it STILL is at every level.
Today is the 18th anniversary of Krissy's starting day for the company she works for. It's also the 18th anniversary of her first promotion at the company she works for, because SHE IS JUST THAT GOOD, and the company was smart enough to recognize that very early on.
That was an interesting conversation to have, incidentally:
K: So, I don't have that job I started today anymore.
J: Uh-oh.
K: I got promoted.
J: Wait, what?
K: Yeah, they thought I'd be better at this other job that pays more.
j: Awesome, you'll VP by the end of the week.
She was not VP by the end of the week, but the company paid for her to finish up her college degree so that she could take a still different job with the company, which she did 15 years ago. We like this company, and like that they saw value in Krissy and her work right away.
1. I had a friend note to me today that they were not sure that trans (and non-cis authors) in general were aware my site's Big Idea feature was open to them to promote their newly released works. So, to clear up any confusion: It totally is.
2. Here are the guidelines for pitching to The Big Idea -- if your book fits those criteria, pitch away! Because of the quarantine times we're in, I've been running more Big Idea pieces than before, to promote authors and their new work. So there's space.
3. Also, the Big Idea feature is not bounded by genre or author type -- it tends to get more SF/F because I'm me and the community knows about it, but it's open to all genres and all people. Don't be shy about making a pitch; if there's space available, I want to promote authors.
GOOD MORNING HUMANS OF EARTH although I'm aware that thanks to the curvature of the Earth it might not be morning for some of you NEVERTHELESS I have information/commercial notices relating to books and events this week, followed of course by a cat picture. Ready? LET'S BEGIN.
ONE: Christopher Paolini's MASSIVE new novel To Sleep In a Sea of Stars is out, and I'm enjoying it! I will be talking with him about it TWICE this week:
TWO: Real live astronaut @AstroTerry has written "How To Astronaut" -- just in case you ever wanted to know, and you probably did -- and I am ALSO speaking to him about this book and other cool stuff, this Wednesday:
1. So, in talking about class privilege and white privilege here in this thread, I realized something, which is that in no small part due to the high school I went to, my own experience of white and class privilege is (slightly) different than most folks. Let's explore!
2. To begin, two clarifications: In the US, white privilege and class privilege are SUPER-related, both as a matter of correlation and causation. More than 96% of the 1% are white. Come on. They're intertwined and inseparable. This is important for later in this thread.
3. Also, when I noted the "boarding school college counselor" thing, I was meaning it as "in addition to white privilege" not "instead of white privilege" and did it poorly enough that people wanted clarification. My mistake, BUT it made me think on my own white/class thoughts.