FEATURED WRITING

The constant of an unchanging, steady monarch soothes those who fear and resist the changes of the 21st century. We hear this sense of loss reflected in American political rhetoric today, the yearning for an idealized time when people had grit, understood sacrifice and knew their place in a segregated society. In the refrains of Make America Great Again, we hear the siren call of monarchy.

But getting this child ready at this moment in time involves preparation parents past could never have fathomed. I’m sending my child off into a society where mass shootings are commonplace, where children of his complexion get arrested for being kids, and where his name gets equated with terrorism more than peace. How do you prepare a 5-year-old for all that?

Our collective inability to grapple with race and identity could not be more clear than it’s been this week, when President Joe Biden signed an anti-Asian hate crime bill while Vice President Kamala Harris was weirdly snubbed as not being Asian American enough—all while Congress failed to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act before the one-year anniversary of his murder.

One of the worst things you can say about a relationship is “it’s complicated.” At best, it projects a sense of futility about anything changing. At worst, it’s a disregard for your own self-worth. If your partner literally kills and dismembers someone in your protection—and now everyone knows it for a fact—it says a lot (of the wrong things) when your response is still to shrug and say “it’s complicated.”

I went into labor 30 minutes after Donald Trump’s election night speech. I have the worries that any new mother would have about raising a child in the era of Trump, where ugliness is out in the open and civility no longer exists.

My son was born pink. Not mocha, like his daddy. I really wanted to birth a mini version of my husband so that I could project all the love and hugs I feel for the stoic man onto his son.

My husband is black. I’m not. The collective awakening, dam breaking and paradigm shifting happening in America after the killing of George Floyd has hit home for us. We’ve been heartened by the multiracial crowds demonstrating around the country and the world in recent weeks for black lives. As former president Barack Obama said: “You look at the protests and that was a far more representative cross-section of America out on the streets peacefully protesting.”

Stacey Abrams refuses to recede into the background. Abrams, who became a household name after running for governor of Georgia in 2018, is now openly gunning to become Joe Biden's VP pick. She recently released a new book, "Our Time is Now," which details her fight against voter suppression -- an issue that is all too pressing given the chaos that was on display in Georgia's primary election last week.