Full disclosure: I’m white but not the right kind of white.
I’m Eastern European, which in the age-old game of “Who’s More Superior” passes as barely-white. Still, Eastern Europeans and Slavs are proud participants in this game and have achieved incredible feats in racism.
I can hear the collective sigh of exasperation all the way over from the other side of the political spectrum.
“Aren’t we already talking about racial injustice enough?”
“Isn’t this all we talk about?”
The problem is not that there’s too much talking. It’s that there’s not enough listening.
Yes, we live in unprecedented times. Yes, we’re all ridden by a neurosis or two. Yes, the economy is sinking, the wildlife is dying, and the air of doom is hanging over us all.
Feeling hopelessness and despair is normal. Feeling like you alone can’t change anything — so what’s…
Many things existed before Hitler came into power. Here are a few.
All of these have existed…
Mondays always stood out in my relationship with my ex. He was addicted to diazepam and would take a dozen pills once a week — on a Monday.
Initially, I dreaded Mondays. The diazepam removed all personality from him — he was blank, idle, barely conscious. …
“You know how they beat you?”
“How?” I asked with dread. He had just told me about how he was picked up by the police one time and held for the entire night, without any reason or formal arrest. “Beatings all night,” he’d said, “then they tied me to a…
“Is there such a thing as a shy extrovert?”
“Are introverts depressed?”
“Do extroverts ever shut up?”
“What is holding introverts back?”
These are just a few questions I saw online today, confirming that our perpetual confusion about each other continues to live on.
People talk abut introverts and extroverts…
“It’s in the name,” people point out. “Nazi” is short for Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which translates to National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
But it’s more than just the name.
The party elevated the concept of Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community), increased the power of government, and had very prominent members who advocated…
“Communism lives. This is what it does to people.”
That caption was posted by an Evangelical Christian friend of mine, from a Southern US state, as she shared a video of several Roma families being forcefully evicted from a homeless center in my home country, Bulgaria.
I am friends with…
“You turn into a different person the moment we walk out the door,” my boyfriend told me once, soon after he arrived in my native country.
“How so?”
“You’re on edge. You harden up. As if you’re expecting something bad to happen.”
Hearing this was one of those eye-opening moments…
