White supremacists target woc who love white men — Meghan Markle said in episode 2 of her Archetypes podcast, reports Entertainment Tonight, that she until she began dating Harry, she felt she was treated as a mixed-race woman. When she stepped out with Harry, however, the hatred emerged, and she felt targeted and ID’d as Black. It’s a vulnerable…

The Angry Women of Color in My Life — My mother is the darkest-skinned member of my extended family. She refuses to leave the house without curling her hair into waves more palatable for the white-washed suburbs in which I was raised. …

Miscommunication. Misunderstanding. All Misnomers for the same damn thing. — A man pulls me to the floor. I let him. I am drunk. I have not eaten more than two granola bars in two days. We are in a well-lit area, the floor of a hotel crowded with twentysomethings, Birthright participants like us. …

Rape killed the best woman I’ve ever known, so no. I’m still not over it. — My friend killed herself, and for the longest time I thought it was my fault. That night, she was drinking. D was always drinking, by then. She drank during the day. She drank all night long. She drank and sometimes she popped pills, but why would I worry about that…

Why We Need Stories About Strangers to Understand Ourselves — When Trinity steps onscreen, she looks what few Hollywood actresses have ever been allowed to be — old. She is mom to children who seem to have drained her of all life. Her smile is forced and brittle. Her skin looks chalky and painted on in the artificial colors of…

Nobody tells you how to protect yourself against your parents — Growing up has not fixed all the things I thought it would. Trying not to get hit by crazy drivers on the freeway, trying not to catch Covid from the millions of people who ignore its existence, all take up so much of my time. Then there’s my dad. With…

My grandfather saved another family’s kid, but he scapegoated me. — I thought it was just a game. I had never seen someone dying before. He was eight years old. I was nine. He was in the pool in my parents’ backyard. His parents were watching him die. They were doing nothing. I was a few feet away. I was probably…

How celibacy can become a trauma response. — We never had sex. Does it matter? Would it matter to me, if I was his wife? A year and a half ago, we were on the phone, talking about what we liked to do in bed. I can’t remember how we got on that subject. I never remembered how…

Being Everyone Else’s Hero Ain’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be — Someone recently asked me how it’s possible that Lizzo, famous for her heroism in fighting for body positivity and women’s rights, could have done the things she has been accused of. Here is my answer. When you find the strength inside yourself to fight some major social ill that everyone…