Moving Beyond Ableism: Verbal Diversity on Proud Stutter
For as long as I remember, having a stutter was not something to be proud of. Simple things – making friends, scheduling appointments, ordering food on the phone – was a hundred times harder when the syllables of my own name clung stubbornly to my tonsils.
Research Review: Against White Feminism
Against White Feminism had been on our reading list for a while, and it did not disappoint. It is commonly understood that mainstream feminism has never been for everyone – feminism has traditionally been designed and centered around the experiences of cis-gendered, able-bodied white women, which leaves out the experiences of those who do not fit within those narrow confines.
Equity at Work: Resources for Creating Meaningful Cultural Change
At The Melanin Collective, we believe that people in power have the responsibility to do the difficult work to look inwards in order to facilitate meaningful organizational change.
Workers are not destroying progressive movements
As two longtime nonprofit practitioners, we have experienced our fair share of neglect and abuse within advocacy organizations. Between us both, we have suffered traumatic workplace brain injuries, been placed on probation for asking leaders for help, and have had leaders throw objects at us in meetings—all in progressive institutions that hide behind the velveteen curtains of their justice-oriented missions.
Research Review: Complaints and Reproducing Institutional Harm
As equity practitioners, it is easy to take for granted how much of our work is just navigating complaints; not the substance of the complaint itself, but the shifts we encourage (sometimes pointedly) clients to make in what information they have chosen to listen to and act on in the past – and why.
The Nonprofit Boss Who Had a “Special Hatred for Women of Color”
When Kaitlyn Ramirez Borysiewicz decided to take a job at a reproductive health nonprofit in Washington, DC, she was spurred by social injustice, devastated by the escalating hatred and racism of the 2016 election cycle that swept a white supremacist pseudo-Christian into the Oval Office, and determined to do some good.
Are Your Values Centered in the Workplace? Listen to Your Gut
Our bodies are kind of amazing. They can tell us all sorts of things about ourselves before we even know it. Heart rate, blood pressure, pain – these are all little messages our bodies create as nifty response mechanisms. It would only make sense that we stop and listen to them once and awhile. Because, as it happens, our bodies are also well-suited to tell us whether we’re safe or not and it comes down to our lovely gastrointestinal systems.
Nonprofits Must Listen With Their Ears, Not With Their Eyes
About a year ago, I sat in a corner of a conference room for a staff meeting at the health nonprofit organization where I then worked. There was nothing in the air to suggest this would be the tipping point for me—we had spent two hours discussing legislative and regulatory happenings, asking if any state partners needed assistance, with staff offering to email so-and-so to navigate the latest federal bureaucratic impasse. I was, as usual, quiet.