Category: Power to the People

Power to the People: Queer Existence Isn’t Dangerous. Bigotry Is.

There was a time when I believed the rights of queer and trans people were on the rise, and would continue in a neat upward trajectory, affording many people in my communities access to life-affirming and life-saving resources, healthcare, and legal protection. Then, into the headlines crept hints of backlash. A book banned from a library. A drag performance drawing protests. Steadily, it built to an all-out political attack on the rights and identities of queer, and particularly trans people.

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Power to the People: A Way Forward After the US Presidential Election

As we reflect on one of the most consequential U.S. elections in our lifetime, emotions are running high. This election brought us a choice between division and polarization or unity and inclusion. The contentious and divisive rhetoric surrounding the campaign was such that no matter who the winner was it would require some healing and a plan forward. Let’s commit to cultivating spaces where everyone can belong, empowered by our shared humanity.

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Power to the People: We Can’t Afford to Ignore Education

I began my professional career as a middle school teacher in Washington, D.C., teaching sixth, seventh, and eighth grades in a public school in a low-income neighborhood. While in graduate school, I studied the ins and outs of the public education system with a particular focus on urban schooling. Though my student teaching experience was in a rural Georgia high school, I figured that teaching in D.C. couldn’t be that much different — kids are kids, after all, and good teaching is good teaching.

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Power to the People: The Reversal of Roe v. Wade and IVF — Where Does Choice Really Lie?

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, conversations around reproductive rights have been reignited with a fire we haven’t seen in years. People are asking tough questions like, What does autonomy over our bodies truly mean in this country? And who gets to decide? While much of the conversation has centered around abortion, the ripples of this decision extend far beyond the abortion clinic. They reach into the private and often hidden realms of those like me who have experienced infertility and relied on reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization (IVF). Suddenly, choices we thought we had control over feel fragile and precarious.

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Power to the People: History Repeats Itself in the Fight for a Multiracial Democracy

The impending U.S. presidential election looms large in the minds of many around the world as a fight for democracy. We are being reminded once again of just how fragile this experiment is: to be a democratic society that purportedly stands for freedom, equity, and justice. At the heart of the struggle is race. The fight for a multiracial democracy in the U.S. has been marked by violent clashes and systemic attempts to maintain white male domination, most notably since Reconstruction, a period after the Civil War when the U.S. government tried to address both the destruction of slavery and the preservation of the nation. Sadly, history continues to repeat itself.  

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Power to the People: Don’t Believe the DEI Lie

Do you consider yourself a discerning person? Someone who isn’t easily swayed by pundits or propaganda and can see right through prepared talking points or an agenda? Excellent. Then I will let you in on a dirty little secret about DEI that some people don’t want you to know: You have already benefitted from DEI programs and policies, and you might not have even realized it.

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Racial Justice at Work: Practical Solutions for Systemic Change

Racial Justice at Work book cover

Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit

Inclusive Conversations: Fostering Equity, Empathy and Belonging Across Differences

We Can’t Talk About That At Work! (Second Edition)

Cover of the book We Can't Talk about That at Work (Second Edition) by Mary-Frances Winters and Mareisha N Reese

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