Engage – Page 23 – Confluence Daily

May 8, 2018 Confluence

What To Do With That Privilege Everyone is Telling You You’ve Got: An Essay on Privilege, Shame and Racism

Reading Time: 13 minutesGiven that racism holds our collective shame, each of us have an obligation to work towards healing it as we are all part of the collective. You have the obligation to engage in healing as healing is life-giving. If you are breathing, you have an obligation to life to regenerate life. You do not bring healing, growth, transformation, light to the situation by shaming, raging, name calling and yelling at those that don’t get it right. You will not always get it right and yelling at yourself does not bring growth, or life.

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May 7, 2018 Confluence

No, Michelle Obama Isn’t Running for Office. However, She Still May Be the Most Relevant Woman in Politics

Reading Time: < 1 minuteMichelle Obama took the stage at the United State of Women Summit last weekend and delivered an extremely vulnerable and powerful message. The media picked off the one thing we probably already knew – Michelle isn’t running for President. Former first lady Michelle Obama said Saturday that she isn’t interested in running for office, cautioning that “it doesn’t matter who runs” for the presidency until the U.S. becomes unified.

However, under that statement, Michelle Obama spent forty-plus minutes delivering truth and setting a stage for other women. This interview is worth listening to – every single minute of it.

Engage Weekly

May 5, 2018 Confluence

Why Royal Weddings Matter, Part 5 – A Whiter Shade of Pale: Meghan Markle and Bridal White

Reading Time: 3 minutesVogue magazine, which thinks Meghan “demonstrates a growing sense of ease and confidence with her fashion choices for royal engagements,” advises the soon-to-be royal bride about her wedding gown choice: “You can’t go wrong with the classics.” (It sounds as if “wearing white” is merely assumed. We, along with the British monarchy, have indeed come a long way!)

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May 3, 2018 Confluence

ONLINE HARASSMENT FIELD MANUAL

Reading Time: 2 minutesAs a society, we’ve always considered free speech as an absolute element of freedom of expression. It is a sacred idea that is an anchor in democracy. Generally, online harassment has been treated as an unfortunate but unavoidable byproduct of the darker side of free speech, no matter how dark or dangerous it gets.

The free speech organization PEN America is now challenging that assumption. It’s arguing that harassment is not an expression of free speech but a deterrent to it, that online harassment is antithetical to free speech because online harassment is designed to silence.

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May 2, 2018 Confluence

Take a Test That Will Show You Your Unconscious Biases – Because the More You Know the Better You Can Be

Reading Time: 2 minutesHarvard has created a test that takes a few minutes that is particularly accurate in identifying individual unconscious bias.

Everyone should take this test. It’s like getting a peek at the hard code of your brain’s computer. It might change the way you see yourself and others.

Engage Weekly

April 30, 2018 Confluence

I’m very attracted to my fiance, but I’m also attracted to women. What now??

Reading Time: 2 minutesAs a queer woman who married a man, my attraction to women never waned. Luckily, I was able to share my attraction to women with him and we were able to enjoy a fantasy realm that included watching FFM (female + female + male+) pornography, flirting with women in social settings, and eventually having a really fun threesome. I’d suggest you talk with your fiance if you feel comfortable in doing so. If you don’t, I would reconsider agreeing to be sexually monogamous with him until you die.

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April 26, 2018 Confluence

Understanding White Supremacy (And How to Defeat It)

Reading Time: < 1 minuteBefore we can truly eradicate White Supremacy, we need to understand its origin and how it works.

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April 20, 2018 Confluence

Women You Should Know: The Next Greatest Generation – An Interview With Madison Hayes and Sneha Kollu

Reading Time: 7 minutesAlyssa Alhadeff, 14. Scott Beigel, 35. Martin Duque, 14. Nicholas Dworet, 17. Aaron Feis, 37. Jaime Guttenberg, 14. Chris Hixon, 49. Luke Hoyer, 15. Cara Loughran, 14. Gina Montalto, 14. Joaquin Oliver, 17. Alaina Petty, 14. Meadow Pollack, 18. Helena Ramsay, 17. Alex Schachter, 14. Carmen Schentrup, 16. Peter Wang, 15

These are the victims of the shooting of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14th, 2018.

Since the February shooting, students across America have been standing up for themselves and their classmates by speaking out about the lack of change concerning school shootings in the last few decades.

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April 19, 2018 Confluence

The Starbucks Incident Demonstrates the Connection Between Privilege and the Police

Reading Time: 6 minutesI have to believe the majority of white people do not understand the relationship between privilege and the police. How can they? You can only see the world through your own eyes. If you’re not trying to understand another person’s experience, as in really making an effort, you won’t. And white people don’t like to talk about things like implicit bias and privilege.

However, when those Starbucks employees picked up the phone and 911 to report two black men loitering, they were legitimately putting the lives of those two black men at risk. Additionally, they were putting lives of everyone else in the store at risk.

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April 19, 2018 Confluence

The Soul of Starbucks

Reading Time: 2 minutesLet’s try something different. Let us try the communal concept of accountability and believing that Starbucks has not yet evolved into her highest expression of herself. Let us recognize our own responsibility as a community to hold her up to a higher standard and remind her of who she really is Let us be witnesses to her that she is capable of being better.