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Learning, Unlearning, & Relearning with Nuance & Narratives

Writing, grounded in Disability Justice.

What Is White Guilt?

White guilt describes the guilt brought upon by "the recognition of unearned and unfair racial privileges, the acknowledgment of personal racist attitudes or behavior, and/or the sense of responsibility for others’ racist attitudes or behavior."

On one hand, this guilt can lead people to unlearn racist attitudes and fight against White supremacy. On the other hand, a person may disengage from the feelings of guilt and shame and become defensive.

The term white guilt is frequently used in the...

What Is Inclusion?

Inclusion is the practice of including and accommodating people who often face discrimination and exclusion due to race, gender, ability, sexuality, or identity. In light of the current racial climate, many settings are becoming increasingly aware of their lack of diversity and representation. Such organizations have failed to represent people of all backgrounds, genders, etc. This has left the most oppressed folx feeling undervalued, ignored, erased, etc.


Inclusion refers to "the act or prac

Being Friendly and Trustworthy is Most Important When it Comes to Choosing Teammates

For many individuals, working in teams is associated with experiences of othering. It may explain why a recently published study in the Journal of Management found that being friendly and trustworthy may be more valuable than skill competency when working on teams.

Through two studies with full-time first-year MBA students at a large American university, researchers found that individuals had been more likely to rely on social capital than human capital when forming teams.

Especially when many

How to Stop Crying

Despite the fact that most people have been crying regularly since birth, it can still feel extremely uncomfortable. While babies tend to cry easily, there is no shortage of social expectations causing this behavior to become less acceptable as people age. For this reason, you may find yourself working hard to avoid crying when you feel the urge to do so.

If you find yourself crying more than usual, you may feel embarrassed, which may even prompt more tears. While crying can be a healthy emotio

BIPOC LGBTQIA+ communities deserve care for eating disorders

Thanks to Project HEAL, an organization that addresses systemic health care and financial barriers to eating disorder treatment, Da’Shaun Harrison was finally diagnosed with an eating disorder last year. But they have long struggled with disordered eating. As a Black trans person, Harrison lives with the impacts of oppression.

“Growing up as someone who was socialized as a Black boy, who was always fat, doctors never even considered [an eating disorder],” said Harrison, a theorist and author of

Staging medicine as a neurologist and playwright — Medicinal Media

Ariel Landrum, MA, LMFT, a certified art therapist and the clinical director of Guidance Teletherapy, says, “Doctors are healthcare professionals that we rely on to keep us well. Performance art that humanizes doctors allows us to connect with them as individuals. When a doctor writes the narrative themselves, we can get a more accurate look at their struggles in their personal and professional lives. When we experience the narrative from a woman of color, we are immersed in the richness of the

How Awareness of Epigenetics and Generational Trauma Can Inform Therapy

The pandemic has become a source of collective trauma for many, leaving some wondering what the long-term impact may be even after it's over. The study of epigenetics may have the answer, as history shows that oppressed groups, for example, may pass down the impact of such trauma in their genes.

Epigenetics—in highly simplified terms—is the study of how genes may be affected by the experiences people have, which can then be passed down to future generations.

While it may be challenging to cons

Bodily Autonomy Is About More Than Abortion Access - Asparagus

For many, the phrase “bodily autonomy” brings abortion access to mind, especially since the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade—the 1973 supreme court decision that legalized abortion throughout the US. This latest court decision means that American states can regulate abortion within their borders.

But the concept of bodily autonomy also applies to trans rights, disability justice, mental health, and even what a person can wear on their body. That’s a wide range of topics, so let’s unpack how thes

How Challenging Internalized Ableism Helps Ground My Freelance Work – Disabled Writers

Coming to understand myself as disabled has been a far from linear journey, much like other realizations that have been particularly meaningful in my life. In some ways, that process occurred alongside the reckoning of my identity as an artist, during the height of the quarantine measures for COVID-19. While I have struggled with back pain for at least a decade, sleep issues following white supremacist workplace harassment in 2016, and migraines since my teens, it took the closure of my chiropra

The Sexiest Erotica You Can Find on the Internet, For Free

All too often, erotica evokes references to Fifty Shades of Grey. While this may be enough for some, for others, it leaves much to be desired. Fortunately, there is a whole wide world of erotica to appeal to whatever idea, fantasy, or kink you’d like to explore. And if the erotica you want doesn’t yet exist, you can always create it yourself! You can read, write, or listen to erotica. You can even draw it out in a graphic novel. The possibilities go on and on.

What erotica you like, and how you

What Does Anti-Oppressive Therapy Look Like? - Asparagus

Three years ago, Dev Ramsawakh waited months to see a psychiatrist, then was repeatedly misgendered at the appointment by both the doctor and a white social worker. This came after they had already tolerated being told to try yoga by that social worker, without any consideration for how someone of South Asian descent may have cultural and religious ties to those practices.

“Following that incident, I was really deterred from accessing mental health services, I struggled with feeling confident i

Ukrainian Youth "Will Not be the Same" - Asparagus

On February 24, 2022, a social worker who works with youth and resides in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine, was drinking a cup of tea and making his way to catch a train to Kyiv. Suddenly, his city was hit with a Russian missile targeting a nearby airfield.

Since then, he has not left his home because of the threat of military violence, but continues to support youth via messaging service Telegram and the video-conference platform Zoom. He worries about how traumatizing this Russian invasion will be for t

54 Sexting Ideas You Wouldn't Have Thought Of

Sexting, whether you’re sending sensual messages or sending photos of yourself, can be a fun way to get in the mood and create anticipation. Sexting is a creative form of digital play that can aid in promoting sexual satisfaction in relationships — it can be fun, funny, sexy, steamy, and hot all at once, but, as with most sexual activities, it doesn’t always come naturally. If you are new to sexting (or feel awkward about — it happens and it’s totally okay to feel that way!), it can feel like co

5 Top Podcast Recommendations for Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

Due to the hard work of author and activist Bebe Moore Campbell, the U.S. House of Representatives first recognized July as National Minority Mental Health Month in 2008. With the lived experience of supporting her daughter’s navigation of mental health services, Campbell witnessed the systemic gaps in mental health access and drew attention to the unique mental health needs of Black folks in the United States, and by extension Black, Indigenous and people of color, too. Especially during a glob

Asthma and the LGBTQ+ Community: How to Ensure You’re Getting the Care You Need

Unfortunately, people who are part of marginalized groups, including LGBTQ+ communities, struggle to receive suitable medical attention. Asthma requires regular care by a provider, so finding the right doctor who makes you feel comfortable and safe to discuss what’s bothering you, your individual preferences and needs, and your LGBTQ+ identity is key to managing your condition.

Here, a few patient and expert tips to ensure you’re getting the asthma care you need and deserve.

When it comes to a

Forget Your Love Language, Do You Know Your Route to Safety?

Routes to Safety is a trauma-informed model for building stronger connections within our relationships.

For many, the love languages is what first comes to mind when we think about a lens for understanding our relationships. Are you more words of affirmation or quality time? It’s an extremely common conversation since it outlines different examples of what some may need from their partners in relationships. It’s been easy to grasp when trying to build a better connection.

Thankfully for us dur

How to Navigate Your Own Privilege

Having privilege means that you possess an unearned advantage in society through some aspect of your identity, in comparison to folx who lack that attribute. These dynamics tend to reflect larger power differentials in society as folx who are members of a dominant group possess privilege over those whose identity marginalizes them by comparison.

While it can be uncomfortable to recognize that you have unearned advantages over other folx through no fault of theirs, working through your discomfor

Making Space for Justice: The Realities of “Universal” Human Rights

Originally published in TEACH Magazine, 40 Years of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Special Issue, 2022

Many students in our country may have realized from a young age that they are treated differently than their peers or other fellow Canadians. They know it’s not right, but don’t have the vocabulary or forum to express this. Then they come to school and learn about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a document stating that every person in Canada “is equal before and under the law”

Unions need to better integrate temporary workers into advocacy

While Sheila Crabbe supports workers’ efforts to unionize, she, like many who primarily work in “temporary” roles, found that unions don’t always provide the same benefits and protection that permanent workers in unions often have. As a Black woman working within the Minneapolis school system, the precariousness of this position was made clear when she was let go from her job amid a mental health crisis after five years of employment.

“There are great educators of color that continue to be feel

Analyzing the Impacts of Machismo on Hispanic/Latinx Mental Health

Machismo is excessive manliness or hypermasculinity, according to Richard Jimenez, PhD, an expert in healthcare disparities and faculty member at Walden University.

Cultures impacted by colonization tend to contribute to oppression on the basis of binary gender. It's important for those who are not members of the Hispanic and/or Latinx communities to learn more about how machismo is part of the culture, and how patriarchy can harm all genders in a given community.

Jimenez explains that machism

Reel Representation: Sexual Health and Sex Positivity

My niece was about eight years old when she described herself as “wavy.” For her, this meant that while all of her crushes to date had been boys, she knew she wasn’t straight because she prefers the company of girls. Having only started to self-identify as Queer in my thirties, I was surprised by this precious Black child’s ability to claim an identity for herself despite the pressures that heteronormativity and organized religion often place. Her self-assuredness is likely due in part to her ge
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