Why with anti-oppression work are you still relying on oppressive RFP processes? You’re asking BIPOC consultants to spend hours on proposals unpaid. Why? What’s equitable about unpaid labor? Here’s what I would suggest instead:

1.) Do your research. Pick 3-5 consultants you would like to work with.

2.) Invite them to a paid interview. Ask them for their hourly rate and schedule an hour to discuss your needs/your vision.

3.) Decide on an honorarium for a proposal.

I’m partnering with @projectinclude to lead research that looks at how remote workplaces within tech have changed since COVID-19. 1/ We’re currently leading qualitative and quantitative research to understand how employees across intersections of race, gender, class, disability, etc., are experiencing online workplaces. 2/

I designed and am leading a four-part action mapping program on anti-racism and transformative organizing for the Association of College & Research Libraries. After one of my sessions this week, I got an email just as I was closing up my laptop for the night. 1/ The email was from a person thanking me for the presentation and noting a conversation we had during the program about a quote from Desmond Tutu where he says:
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor... 2/

When we uplift the knowledge and experiences of leaders just because they are Black, or just because they are queer, or just because they are women, we set ourselves up to put white supremacy culture on repeat. 1/ Being Black doesn't mean that a person is dedicated to eradicating Black communities of anti-Blackness. Being queer doesn't mean that a person cares deeply about the wellbeing and safety of queer people. 2/

One of the many ways that perfectionism hurts us as Black and Brown people is by leading us to believe that we can escape the impacts of our trauma in this world. I've come to the realization that we cannot. 1/ When we're younger, it's easier to mask the ways we are negatively impacted by white supremacy. It's easier to compartmentalize the impacts of our marginalization on us. Sometimes, we hide it so well that we forget that it is even there, that we forget who we actually are... 2/

With this announcement of Kamala Harris as Biden’s VP, I just want to acknowledge that there will be people who will be severely disappointed by this choice because of Kamala’s history with policing and prisons. 1/ There will be people who will be excited because they like Kamala and like what she stands for.

There will be people who will be neither happy nor disappointed about the announcement because they are just trying to get through another day in this world in which we live. 2/

If you would emphatically tell a person to leave an abusive relationship with a partner but then encourage that same person to just stay and accept abusive behavior within an organization... 1/ you have to ask yourself when the capital of an organization became more important to you than the health and wellbeing of human beings.

To fully embrace and apply the pillars of anti-racism and anti-oppression, we have to confront our internalization of capitalism. 2/

Recently, I've noticed a pattern of white leaders within organizations deciding to teach themselves about anti-racism via discussions with colleagues and bookclubs. 1/ I think these actions can be helpful in developing shared vocabulary and language as well as cultural norms for talking about race and racism in the workplace. 2/

I want you showing up because your values are rooted in our shared liberation.

Because what is social or just about an “allyship” that does not also free you too? 1/ If you are in the fight for Black lives only because you want to help Black people, you have to understand that your why is incomplete. That your reasoning lacks foundation. 2/

It can become so easy to lose sight of who our real enemy is. So easy in fact that we quickly turn to shaming those in our social justice communities who express that they will not vote for Joe Biden and shaming those who say that with heavy reluctance they will vote for... 1/ Joe Biden as a form of harm reduction.

Why are we shaming each other for those choices? Especially in a country where about 56% of the population vote in presidential elections, not counting those who have been barred from voting in U.S. territories or those who have been... 2/

We’re conditioned to strip identity and difficulty from Black women. So when you have, for example, Black moms in Englewood who for years have been protesting violence in the community by creating a wall of justice around it, with their bodies... 1/

https://twitter.com/saladinahmed/status/1285252902085427201

that’s shrugged off as just something Black women do.

Black women don’t have to do that. Black moms don’t have to do that and yet - they have, they did, and they do. Their sacrifice isn’t worth less than the sacrifice of white moms. 2/

It’s hard going up against organizations that hold power. I just want to name that because I’ve been there many times. When people hire me to help them organize for equitable policy within the organization, I try to emphasize that I understand what that pain feels like. 1/ I understand because I have been there so many times. I’ve confronted the anti-Blackness. I’ve confronted the transphobia. I’ve confronted the homophobia. I’ve faced the racism. Many times, I did that alone. I felt alone. And I’ve never regretted naming the harm. 2/

Let’s talk about accountability. Let’s talk about the fact that there is no harm that can be neatly wrapped in a box with a bow or told so that it makes us feel good and comfortable. 1/ And if it’s doing those things, there’s truth missing. If it’s doing these things, we have an opportunity to reflect on why our takeaway from a person’s experience with harm is that we feel good or that we feel comfortable. 2/

Do you know the name of Anna-Murray Douglass?

On the fourth of July, we often hear about calls to re-read and re-consider Frederick Douglass' work “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
1/ And on the fourth of July, and every other day of the year, we are encouraged not to ask exactly who helped Frederick Douglass get free.

This is Anna-Murray Douglass, abolitionist, member of the Underground Railroad, and Black woman who was born outside of slavery. 2/

“Mr. Covey seemed now to think he had me, and could do what he pleased; but at this moment--from whence came the spirit I don't know--I resolved to fight; and, suiting my action to the resolution, I seized Covey hard by the throat; and, as I did so, I rose. 1/

https://twitter.com/dereckapurnell/status/1279400999099211778

“He held onto me, and I to him. My resistance was so entirely unexpected, that Covey seemed taken all aback. He trembled like a leaf. This gave me assurance, and I held him uneasy, causing the blood to run where I touched him with the ends of my fingers. 2/

I have a sibling who is a malignant narcissist. In my immediate family, we are the only two people who are not cis. For many years, my sibling bullied me as a child and then attempted to manipulate my choices and my self perception as I came into adulthood. 1/ It was painful and at the time I had no concept of a what a narcissist was. I just remember that whenever I sought to confront them for some terrible thing they had said or done, they would go into some long preamble about some calamitous event they had experienced. 2/

It’s not Say Their Names. It’s #SayHerName. Black women must not only contend with the violence of police brutality. 1/ Black women are also forced to contend with the violence of Black men who are socialized to see the life of a Black woman as one of the most dispensable and disposable lights ever to exist - as a light that is designed to be used up and destroyed. Oluwatoyin was 19 years old. 2/

Dear cis Black folks who do anti-racism work:

I appreciate you and I love you. And also, if you're asked to be on panels about racial justice and the only people on those panels are cis Black folks or cis Black and Brown folks - please speak up against that. 1/ We know what it's like to witness white people lead panels on diversity with only white people being asked to speak. 2/

Two Black trans women have been reported killed in the last 24 hours.

Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells of Philadelphia, PA.

SAY HER NAME.

Riah Milton of Liberty Township, Ohio.

SAY HER NAME.

There is so much outrage when cis Black men are killed. 1/ Where is the outrage for Black women?

Where is the outrage for Black trans women?

In the words of Raquel Willis, “Cis folks of the Movement 4 Black Lives, the Queer, and the Feminist movements have failed us. 2/

White people comparatively emphasizing that the protests of the Civil Rights movement were “nonviolent,” is inherently racist. It’s not only untrue, but it also serves as a means of prioritizing the comfort of white people over the safety and wellbeing of Black people. 1/ If a Black woman, back then, is protesting and is being kicked and hit and spat on as she sits at a kitchen counter or at the table of a library - that protest is non-violent for who exactly? The white people who are abusing her? What sense does that make? 2/

I think many times when we think about dismantling white supremacy, we think about the fire and the fury.

But dismantling white supremacy can also be soft. It means that we get to rest without worrying that we haven’t performed productivity. 1/ It means that we don’t have to hide our disabilities from people in community for fear that they will think that we are "weak" or treat us like our own understanding of our capacity cannot be trusted. 2/