Everyone’s giving statements, and it’s performative and embarrassing and not enough, but this is as close as I have to a brand so I guess I’ll give mine. I’ll keep it mercifully brief and hopefully free of virtue signaling: The pandemic is unprecedented but racism is not. I always believed it, sometimes saw it, and never did enough about it. Or put better:
I’m starting with my job — I work in tech, a predominantly white, male industry — and I’ll keep you updated here on what progress we’ve made on a company level. This isn’t a pat on the back situation, it’s the very least anyone can do and feels more real than yelling on the Internet.
All this says it better than I can:
All this says it better than I can with fiction aka realer than real:
What else? I really didn’t see the virus coming and in spite of what feels like everyone reading their anxiety as fact (is this what I look like all the time?), you probably didn’t either unless you’re Bill Gates or an epidemiologist. It’s very surreal. I’m doing mutual aid in my neighborhood, I’m getting sick of my own cooking, I’m trying not to despair at this massive, systemic institutional failure because there’s no time for that, and I’m writing about childhood favorites and sexy djinn and chain restaurants and bodies in fantasy:
Here’s some other things that have helped me through the last few months:
My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore?
Rediscovering Bill Withers (RIP) and this
Work in Progress is so good and funny
I really didn’t think I would like Dave and I really do
I think that’s all I’ve got. If you want to hear me read an essay about being a city kid and a city adult and what that means during COVID-19, tune into Tuesday Funk this Tuesday. I’ll be sending my portion of the donations comes to My Block, My Hood, My City. I’m reading alongside Daniel Kraus, Lily Be, Stuart Ross and Mikki Kendall. I know!
How are you doing? Please take care of yourself during this time of unforeseen plagues and necessary revolution.