It’s Keep Being Amazing™ time! This August has been a month for me. I announced that I have been diagnosed with a new rare condition and learned that August is Gastroparesis Awareness Month! As a Virgo I love this unofficial planning. The response from folks about this new diagnosis has been appreciated and I have been connecting with people in the GP (that’s what we call gastroparesis in the streets) community. But I will be honest with you, I am not doing well. I am having a hard time with this diagnosis and my impact on my amazingness. But this is not about me it is about you!
Okay ways to Keep Being Amazing™ in August!
Attend: My August talk The Intersectionality of Workplace Abuse. This fireside chat will be with Danielle King, a fellow EDS baddie, where we will explore the intersection of workplace abuse, discrimination, and systemic inequity through our personal stories and broader societal trends. Together, we will examine how oppressive workplace systems reinforce exclusion, how current cultural and policy shifts disproportionately impact marginalized communities, and why psychological safety is essential for equity at work. Surviving toxic workplaces (I talk about some of them in my book) is nothing short of amazing and I have survived a few. Tune in Saturday August 22 @ 10am.
Read: I had the pleasure of meeting the author of Was That Racist? How to Detect, Interrupt, and Unlearn Bias in Everyday Life. Dr. Evelyn Carter was in town to talk so we met in the middle of Silicon Valley and Oakland to, well, be seen. We have the same publisher and wrote about the same topic and relived similar trauma to help folks learn and unlearn. Naturally to celebrate our amazingness we signed and exchanged books! As soon as I hopped back into my car I purchased her audiobook (we both narrated our books) and listened as I sat in traffic back to Oakland. I finished it in three days! I HIGHLY recommend her book and if you are a parent she has great tips to have an anti-racist kiddo. Give her a follow at Evelyn R. Carter, Ph.D. and do the work!
Reflect: I know, well I hope, you know about the increase of lynching of Black people. From Taisa Fortune, hung high from a tree to Nolan Wells, found dead after being abandoned by his white “friends.” Please know that Black people do not hang themselves from trees. We do die by suicide even hanging and strangulation but not in public. Not from trees. See our history as Black people in America used lynching to control and instill fear amongst those who wanted to escape enslavement. This is not how we unalive ourselves as the past is too painful. I want you to reflect on the mothers, fathers, caretakers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins and grandparents that do not get justice. They do not get to grieve and yet they somehow find the strength to advocate through the loss of their loved ones. They somehow become pillars and beacons and activists willingly or unwillingly in hopes of justice. Not just justice for their loved one lost to one of the most overt ways of how white supremacy physically manifests, but for others who have lost their lives in the same painful brutal similar fashion. So take the time to reflect on how amazing these advocates are. Reflect on how their grief never goes away. Their closure may never be met. But their amazingness shines.
Being amazing in a country that does not want you is amazing!
Did you know it is Black August? Yes you can support Black owned businesses like mine. Buy a Keep Being Amazing shirt or vintage piece from my shop. But Black August is about celebrating our movements and leaders of resistance and our efforts as Black people to dismantle white supremacy. History shows things heat up in August and right now we are seeing that continue. I know there is a lot going on but remember I think you are doing amazing! In the comments, please share ways or moments that inspired you Keep Being Amazing™!
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