in some ways, the following post is a departure—an aside, if you will—from this blog's usual content matter, while in other ways it's entirely not. either way, i'd like to take a moment to share a random snippet of my dealings with reverse culture shock as a repatriated Black American...
since returning to the US from Japan back in March, i haven't been on social media, YouTube, or this blog as much as i'd have liked. the international move itself aside, i've had my hands full juggling emotional / compassion fatigue...
as an AFAB non-binary person with zero interest in "passing" as male, i never thought that i'd still be on HRT nearly 2 years after having started… and yet here we are.
having socially ‘transitioned’ my name years ago, it feels amazing to finally have my name reflected correctly on legal documents, identification, etc. not only that, “X” as a gender marker has recently become a possibility for me…!except, you know. not really. because everything always has to be complicated for me. always. and America is fucking ridiculous.in this video, i talk about my personal experience with socially changing my name, the process & timeline of legally changing my name in Nevada / Washingon state, and go on a tangentially relevant rant about why i personally detest the term “deadname”.for those interested in looking into legally changing your name and/or gender marker, check out these amazing resources:https://transgenderlawcenter.org/https://transequality.org/documents legal ‘transition’ as a non-binary person in America is a joke, but i managed to not be overly bitter about it in the video somehow. just know that there was and is much internal screaming regardless.…
whether we want it to be or not, #BlackHair is often Political, especially in its’ natural, unstraightened state. combine this with #Blackness itself...
after having lived abroad in Japan and Australia for 11 years, i've finally moved back to America, turning a long distance relationship into a.... not... long distance relationship...
it's only been a week since i left Japan, and yet being in America for even that short a time makes Japan feel like forever ago... and i not so low key hate that.
over 11 years after first leaving America for Japan, the time has come for me to finally try my hand at life back in the States…
i have never been a fan of History. from as early as elementary school, i learned that when people said "History" they really only meant theirs and not mine. by junior high school it was clear that my own history—that is, the history of people who are Black and American like me, in so far as U.S. History textbooks were concerned...
NYTimes Opinion: “Trump and Putin: A Love Story” This is a three-part series of short satirical video cartoons called “Trump Bites” by Bill Plympton, a two-time Oscar-nominated animator. In Episode Two of “Trump Bites,” above, Mr. Trump’s not-so-secret admiration for President Vladimir Putin of Russia plays out in a teenager’s bedroom, where the fantasies of this forbidden romance come to life. “Trump Bites” is a series of three short video cartoons that combine real Donald Trump audio clips with hand-drawn fantasy animations by Mr. Plympton. The video cartoons riff on Mr. Trump’s absurd utterances to illustrate the president’s tumultuous inner life of paranoia, narcissism and xenophobia [ … ] lying in bed at 1:08am on a Tuesday, scrolling through my Twitter feed, this animation portraying the “forbidden romance” between Trump and Valdimir Putin in which the same-gender status of the ought-be rivals is the entirety of the ‘sick’, ‘edgy’ punchline…
