Feb 18, 2020
Why My Father Could Not Embrace His Name
From his youth until late in life he was able to “pass,” his heritage all but invisible until he mentioned his name.
From his youth until late in life he was able to “pass,” his heritage all but invisible until he mentioned his name.
I had a sense, unvoiced, that living well and loving steadfastly were one and the same. I translated that sense into certainty: Marriage would make me Good.
Just as Sendak inverts a stereotypical association of white with youthful ingenuousness, Max inverts the expectations of many a children’s morality tale, for he is allowed to be wild.
Italicization too often bolsters a sense of superiority when it comes to the unitalicized, reinforcing a thick patina of whiteness or other cultural dominance.
The diary was how I organized a life suddenly thrown into chaos. This is what the human mind does; it looks for a narrative, for meaning.
Humanity appears to have succeeded at solving the climate crisis and eliminating capitalism. But how? And at what cost?
Here’s a thing about being labeled “smart” as a kid: When there’s a thing you’re not good at, people assume it is because you are lazy.
In insisting on an anatomically correct Charlotte, E. B. White was playing with fire: People hate real spiders.
In this strange territory of dorkiness, role-playing, and absurd props, there is something like real magic, and it makes me shiver.
Before I transitioned, perfume was the only thing I felt safe to experiment with. It worked in the realm of the invisible, the as-yet-unsayable.
Racial equity must be a top priority for everyone, incorporated into how a company hires, makes decisions, and approaches all of its objectives.
Since voicing my intention to transition, I’ve been revisiting my favorite love-as-a-woman songs and reorienting myself within them.
I try to focus on this. What is my anxiety telling me? What can I say in response?
Who will remember me when I am gone? Will my stories exist beyond my life? And what about the things we already forgot?
Here, Vietnamese people hold the distinction of having been refugees twice over—first from Vietnam, second from Hurricane Katrina.
What does the word “country” mean? Does it mean anything on its own or does it just color in Americans’ fuzzy sense of what constitutes Americana?
My life as an American in Paris is a far cry from what the glamorous direct-to-DVD movies make it out to be. Still, that’s the story I tell.
Succubus, siren, gold-digger, temptress: There are so many words for a woman with money in her hands.
There is a comfort in believing that all our ancestors’ understandings of time and space, however met with destruction, live on.
Every day, as news reports about climate change become more threatening, I grow more nostalgic for the places and objects of my childhood that feel increasingly imperiled.
