I was disappointed to get The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening as my very first video game. I’d never played anything but platformers and Tetris, and this weird top-down adventure was completely new. It had never occurred to me that a video game would let you explore a map, play…
The novel I’m working on has two protagonists. Each has qualities and sides to her identity that I share, and each has some for which I have to use my empathy and imagination. For example, one’s gender presentation is masculine-of-centre, and so is mine. One is Jewish, and so am…
In the prelude to my last blog entry, I raised some questions about diversity and taste: how do we evaluate the equity of our personal taste? Does that question even make sense? How much of what we call our taste is malleable, the result of environment and choice, and how…
Looking over this list, I see there are still a lot of places for me to reconsider my media intake. Few of the artists I’ve mentioned here are Black, and, although I’m allowed to like the artists I like, the fact that this list doesn’t reflect the diversity of the…
4:33 PM As the semester starts, I’m considering what I can do as an instructor to combat anti-Black racism in the classroom and the academy. Obviously, I can listen to the lived experience of folks and learn how to do my best to make my courses universally accessible–universal design helps…
But, in the meantime, here’s an article on specific, actionable ways to demand justice for Jacob Blake.
As you can tell by this blog entry, these reminders are as much for me as for readers of this blog. The long haul is hard, but we can do it. This month, the Black Solidarity Fund (via Canada Helps) benefits from donation-matching. If you’re in a position where financial…
This month, I’m focussing on being mindful of who receives my discretionary spending. I’m fortunate to have some money to put toward recreation, so I’m going to focus on paying Black creators. I’m buying Black authors’ ebooks after enjoying them from the library and joining the Patreons of the Black…
Some of the phrases used to dismiss calls for equity for marginalized groups do something weird: they take words that, definition-wise, seem like a good thing, and insinuate that it’s bad. For example, consider the infamous “Social Justice Warrior” (SJW). Opponents use this term to disparage those who advocate for…
Fellow Canadian? Here’s another collection of links for places to support Black Lives Matter in and outside Canada, and great resources for finding Black-owned businesses in Toronto. I’ve committed to be more mindful about where I spend my money–it’s difficult, especially during a pandemic, but I’m getting there! Apart from…