The anniversary of the September 11th attacks is always a precarious time. Because this tragedy is wrapped up in nationalist sentiments, the memorializing of our national grief easily gets caught up in anti-Islamic sentiments. Grief and pain and nationalism all seem to get conflated and simplified during this time. This anniversary is often a time of heightened vigilance for … [Read more...]
6 Ways To Support a Friend After a Sexual Assault
From the stories unearthed by the #MeToo movement started by Tarana Burke, to #TimesUp, to sexual harassment and assault scandals surrounding such high-profile figures as Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump, and Jeffrey Epstein, it’s important to consider the effects these highly publicized incidents may have on those of us who have experienced sexual assault, abuse, or harassment in … [Read more...]
Black in Maine: 4 Ways Black Folks Take Care of Each Other in Majority-White Communities
NOTE: This is an article about Black bodies in white spaces, but this is really a love letter to all of the beautiful, dope ass Black women – femmes and non-femmes – speaking the truth and holding it down in one of the whitest states in the country. They’re my homegirls. After the 2017 white terrorist attack in Charlottesville, VA, an article about a man flying a Confederate … [Read more...]
Sharing Our Whole Selves in Community: 3 Self-Love Practices I’m Embracing This Ramadan as a Queer Black American Muslim
Ramadan began two weeks ago, and across the world, Muslims who are observing the month abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset for thirty days. For those of us who fast, readiness is a layered concept. For some of us, it’s the physical component that is difficult to prepare ourselves for. Denying yourself food and drink during the daytime hours is difficult. It’s … [Read more...]
“Are You Hot in That?” and 3 Other Hijab Questions People Can Stop Asking
There’s something about difference – almost any kind of difference – that makes people in dominant cultures or identity categories feel like they can disregard and disrespect others' boundaries by asking deeply personal questions or physically crossing the boundaries of people who embody that difference. And isn’t this the foundation for cultural appropriation? White people, … [Read more...]
Should I Consider My Cancer Body To Be Disabled?
Until two years ago, I had never had any real interactions with severe illness or with the US healthcare system. I am one of the lucky few living in the US who’s been able to have health insurance and access to healthcare for the vast majority of my life. Healthcare is a human right, but here in the US, we treat it like it’s a privilege and a commodity, and because of that … [Read more...]
The Good, the Bad, and the Weird of Being Queer and Muslim
Both of my parents converted to Islam in the early 1970s, so I was born and raised as an African-American Muslim in the US. When I was younger, my connection to Islam, spirituality, and Allah was tenuous at times. I wouldn’t understand faith and spirituality in a deep way until I left home for college. This is the way for many people who were raised in religious … [Read more...]
The Cure for Cancer Isn’t Optimism
Optimism will not cure cancer. Optimism will not will not magically stop cells from dividing and reproducing. Optimism will not stop disease from spreading. Most of us know this on a cognitive level, but it doesn’t stop us from hoping that, in addition to medicine, our attitudes can help us cure ourselves. I am someone who, not that long ago, was walking around with a body … [Read more...]
What Safer Space Looks Like For a Queer Black Muslim Woman
What does it mean to fully bring all of yourself into a space? As a person who occupies several different identities that are often marginalized in many spaces I walk into, this is a question that I consider on a regular basis. I am not someone who can easily compartmentalize all of my identities. When I was younger, I spent a lot of time compartmentalizing my queerness in … [Read more...]
Across a Sea of Whiteness: 3 Ways I Connect with Black Women in White Spaces
I’ve been living in a mostly white New England state for over seven years now. Prior to moving here, I spent eight years living in a less-white, but still white-as-hell Midwestern state. I moved to these places for school, and then for a job. For the past four years, I’ve made a conscious choice to stay in this white New England state – even took on a career change to … [Read more...]
