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Channel: melissahillman – Bitter Gertrude
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Today is Lammas

 . Today is Lammas (also known as “Lughnasadh”), the first of three traditional harvest festivals, what my mother’s people were doing this time of year in Britain while my father’s people were still...

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“Why Do You Have to Make Everything Political?”

Quote from the artist Ai Weiwei (source: @aiweiwei_art) “Why do you have to make everything political?” This is a common question my fellow white people like to ask when someone offers a cultural...

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Tikkun Olam: A Jewish Response to Charlottesville

Jews have a concept called “Tikkun Olam,” which means “healing the world.” As a little Jewish kid, I was taught that if Jews have been “chosen” for anything, it’s that– the moral imperative that we...

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The “Outrage Machine” and Calls for “Calm”

Connie Lim (aka MILCK) photographed by Rachael Lee Stroud.  Source: milckmusic.com A few days ago, I read an excellent article in Very Smart Brothas by editor-in-chief Damon Young entitled “Polite...

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Stop Telling Me to Watch Stranger Things

This post is full of spoilers, so be forewarned. . I know I’m late to this party, but the ongoing cult status of the Netflix Original series Stranger Things  (written and directed by brothers Matt and...

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Take a Knee, Puerto Rico, and Patriotic Hypocrisy

By now, everyone has heard of Donald Trump’s feuds with the NFL and the NBA. Donald chose to attack professional athletes this past weekend while displaying a total lack of concern about the utter...

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Why Didn’t She Just Say No To Aziz Ansari?

  The internet is blowing up with speculation about the Aziz Ansari allegation posted in Babe. People are desperately seeking to define it. Was it sexual assault? Was it not? The thinkpieces are...

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Juanito Bandito: Wholesome Family Racism

TJ Davis as Juanito Bandito in a PR shot from Who Shot Juanito Bandito? (Source: The Pickleville Playhouse) I’m old enough to remember Frito Bandito. I was a preschooler but I remember it well. He was...

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We Have Seen the Enemy

  This is America. (Source: amreading.com) Another school shooting means yet another young white man who has been radicalized by extremist right-wing thought and convinced that murder is the answer....

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I’m a Teacher. Please Don’t Give Us Guns.

Emma González. Source: cnn.com Listen, you and I both know that conservatives squawking about wanting to arm teachers have no intention of doing so. They refuse to pay for pencils, desks, adequate pay,...

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Mass Shooters: More MAGA Than Misunderstood

March for Our Lives. March 24, Washington, DC. (Source: washingtonpost.com) I’m deeply moved by the nationwide youth protests. The March for Our Lives was breathtaking for so many reasons, not the...

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A Memo to Gatekeepers Regarding Whiteness

Bitter Gertrude is thrilled to host our first guest blogger ever, the brilliant Ming Peiffer!    Dear People In Positions Of Power, When you decide to NOT produce a white artist’s work do NOT tell them...

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“Dress Like A Normal Person”: The Weapons of Fragile Masculinity

  “Egyensúly” by Nándor Bárány, 1936 Krista Knight is a young playwright well-known and well-loved in the new plays community. She’s well-loved both for her work (her plays have been produced all over...

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When White People Say “I Don’t See Race,” We’re Lying

“We don’t see color!” (Source: Honestly? I found this doing a google image search for “wypipo.” Public domain, according to google.) “I don’t see color! WE ALL BLEED RED.” People of color, you have...

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Samantha Bee’s C*nt and the White House

Samantha Bee. (Source: USA Today.) By now, you’ve heard that Samantha Bee called Ivanka Trump a “feckless c*nt” on television for Ivanka’s unwillingness to do anything to stop her father’s...

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Sending Love and Challah

My challah begins its first rise.  Baking bread is a labor of love. It takes hours to make, and you can go to any store and buy decent bread, especially here in the Bay Area. But nothing is as good as...

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Jeff Sessions Does Not Know His Bible

Jeff Sessions. (Source: Evan Vucci/Associated Press) Today, speaking in Indiana, Jeff Sessions used Romans 13 to justify the Trump Administration’s brand new policy of stealing children from their...

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Your Nonprofit is “Committed to Diversity”? How Diverse Is Your Board?

“People ask me sometimes, when do you think it will it be enough? When will there be enough women on the court? And my answer is when there are nine.” — Ruth Bader Ginsberg Few consider it odd that...

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Back to School: How to be a White Teacher, As Taught to Me By Students of Color

Image: JSTOR Daily (daily.jstor.org) This is the first piece in a three-part series about education in the US. I taught for many years as a lecturer at a state university in the Bay Area. Once, after...

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Back to School: Creating an Equitable Workplace

Only 2% of K-12 teachers nationwide are Black men, and just 4.5% are Black women. Black teachers are 50% more likely to leave the profession than white teachers. Just 4% of university faculty are...

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