Informed – Page 44 – Confluence Daily

Reading Time: 4 minutes I can’t imagine how miserable Melania Trump is right now. Even Michelle Obama referred to living in the White House as being in a very nice prison. However, Michelle Obama was there because she loved her husband. There was a strong sense they made decisions about their lives together and there were in it together with all of us. Melania isn’t in this with anyone. She’s in that prison alone and it’s probably a nightmare.

Which is exactly how many of us feel right now.
This has to be a nightmare and we just want to wake up. But we can’t, and neither can Melania.

June 1, 2018 Confluence

Culture Confusion, Masculinity, and the #Metoo Movement

Reading Time: 5 minutes To face your humanity means to come in contact with your own frailty and failure. It means to accept that you are broken and that you have tender places. It means to accept that you do not have all the answers. And you do not have to.

You see, precious reader, violence always begets violence. I think, as a community, we are also responsible for putting men on this pedestal that they are supposed to live up to. And they can’t. They are just human. It is violent to ask a person to be more than human.

Informed

May 31, 2018 Confluence

Kim Kardashian West Takes a Stand on Something That Matters and the Internet Goes Insane

Reading Time: 4 minutes Here’s the thing: It’s not a theory, it’s a fact. Black people and White people in the U.S. are not sentenced the same for similar crimes, especially when it comes to drug-related offenses. There is no one more vulnerable to the criminal justice system than a black woman without resources.

Alice Johnson’s story isn’t about prison reform. It’s about sentencing reform and it’s long overdue. The fact that it took a meeting of the likes of Kim Kardashian West and Donald Trump to put this story in the media headlines is a clear demonstration of how far we have to go when it comes to even an awareness about sentencing inequity let alone reform.

Informed

May 30, 2018 Confluence

The success of nonviolent civil resistance: Erica Chenoweth at TEDxBoulder

Reading Time: < 1 minute Between 1900-2006, campaigns of nonviolent civil resistance were twice as successful as violent campaigns. Erica will talk about her research on the impressive historical record of civil resistance in the 20th century and discuss the promise of unarmed struggle in the 21st century. She will focus on the so-called “3.5% rule”—the notion that no government can withstand a challenge of 3.5% of its population without either accommodating the movement or (in extreme cases) disintegrating. In addition to explaining why nonviolent resistance has been so effective, she will also share some lessons learned about why it sometimes fails.

Informed

May 29, 2018 Confluence

Model Feminist?

Reading Time: 5 minutes I’ve long had a contradictory relationship with the beauty industry. On one hand, I think physical beauty is meaningless, revealing nothing other than our genes, our talent with makeup, and/or the skill of our plastic surgeon. Having a fit body does require work, however, no amount of working out can give a person long legs. On the other hand, humans are hard-wired to respond to whatever beauty standard currently prevails (and beauty is cultural and dynamic, though the internet has made the standards more and more similar, if my brief exposure to last year’s Miss Universe pageant is any indication). But on yet another hand (work with me here), I can’t say I’m immune to such things, as a longtime admirer of the male form and subscriber to both Vogue and Elle. Which have excellent articles, but are mainly about pretty people in pretty clothes.

Informed

May 28, 2018 Confluence

PLEASE STOP SHARING THAT STORY ABOUT 1500 KIDS MISSING

Reading Time: 5 minutes So those kids are released and then they are no longer ORRs responsibility or problem. THIS IS A GOOD THING.

One analogy I heard from my dear friend who I won’t tag without her permission, is that ORR is basically a jailer. Do you want the jail keeping track of where every former inmate is?

Informed

May 25, 2018 Confluence

Meera Vijayann – Find Your Voice Against Gender Violence

Reading Time: < 1 minute This talk begins with a personal story of sexual violence that may be difficult to listen to. But that’s the point, says citizen journalist Meera Vijayann: Speaking out on tough, taboo topics is the spark for change. Vijayann uses digital media to speak honestly about her experience of gender violence in her home country of India — and calls on others to speak out too.

Informed

May 23, 2018 Confluence

Meghan Markle’s Blackness: The Lot of Black People Hasn’t Changed Just Because a Woman With African Heritage Has Joined the British Royal Family

Reading Time: 4 minutes The lot of black people hasn’t suddenly changed just because a woman with African heritage has joined the British royal family, any more than the election of Barack Obama—whose family is decidedly regal—made everything all better. It was clear that a number of white guests didn’t quite know how to react to the inclusion of black culture. And yet, as much as I tried to stay indifferent, I got chills. I even choked up a bit. But why?

Informed

May 23, 2018 Confluence

The 5th Stryker Brigade Proves the Language of Dehumanization Isn’t a Just a Historical Issue

Reading Time: 6 minutes Words matter because they carry meaning and sometimes that meaning isn’t clear to everyone. We hear the words “dog whistle” politics more and more frequently for a reason. Figuratively, a ‘dog whistle’ is a coded message communicated through words or phrases commonly understood by a particular group of people, but not by others.

Some of us hear the word animal in the context Trump used it and we are alarmed. Others hear it as a rallying cry. There is no clearer dog whistle for racists than the language of dehumanization. When the President of the United States of America blows a dog whistle like that, people hear it and it has consequences.

Informed

May 21, 2018 Confluence

EXCLUSIVE: Stormy Daniels Gives Confluence Daily an In-Person 1 Question Interview (After She Took Off Her Clothes)

Reading Time: 7 minutes Trump is brash. He’s unpredictable. He’s dangerous. Donald Trump is the face of an abuser and for women who’ve been abused, his presidency is a daily reminder of that abuse. This is a man who bragged by saying, “grab ’em by the pussy” and was elected anyway.

Stormy Daniels didn’t say no in that five-star hotel room that night in 2006. However, at some point, she decided not to be his victim anymore and she’s been saying no ever since. This is a special kind of personal for Stormy Daniels. Her life is on full display in the headlines every single day. The history books won’t tell her story. The tabloids will. She’s paying a price for all of us most will never understand. I will die with a smile on my face if it’s a pornstar that takes this President down. As it’s playing out now it’s not hard to imagine that could happen. Karma can be a bitch.