Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
When Saturday Night Live announced that it was hiring its first ever Latina cast member last week, it was landmark moment in the history of the show. Mexican-American comedian Melissa Villaseñor, 28, is part of a minority that is sorely represented when it comes to the likes of mainstream comedy. Yet her recruiting already has…
It wasn’t a particularly fashionable choice when I wore these shirts in public – the shirts he left were usually his oldest and most worn-in ones; they were softer and they smelled like him but they didn’t look great. They also didn’t fit in the way “boyfriend” clothes are supposed to. Most men are actually…
As the nation reels from a series of high-profile fatal shootings of black men by police officers, many have decried the lack of readily available data on how racial bias factors into American policing. But while it’s true that there is no adequate federal database of fatal police shootings (F.B.I. director James Comey has described…
I have watched many cities burn over the past two years. I cried over Ferguson. I cried over Baltimore. But there’s nothing like seeing your hometown on social media with a hashtag. I don’t want to talk about my family and friends. Worrying about them keeps me up at night. I don’t want to talk…
The disturbing trend of unsolicited advice started soon after I walked into a Long Island City police station. There, I told officers about the man on the 7 train who felt entitled to reach up my dress, and cup his hand around my vagina during rush hour. “What were you wearing that day?” the officer…
My day started with a video. A grainy scene shot on a school bus by a child with a phone; it captured a few seconds of some jolly middle-schoolers from Maryland chanting, en masse: “1,2,3,4, how many niggers are in my store?” Voices brimming with hilarity and excitement, they no doubt repeated that phrase over…
Sheik in Smash 4 The Super Smash Bros. community is having a conversation about sexual assault, whether they want to or not. Last week, that discussion came to a head when a female competitive Smash player published a guide attempting to educate the community around the famous Nintendo fighting game about consent. Now, the Smash…
A crowd of about 100 protesters, many carrying signs, gathered Wednesday along Burhans Boulevard across from the Hagerstown Police Department after a video was posted on social media showing what appears to be a handcuffed girl being pepper sprayed in the back of a police cruiser. Police closed down a southbound lane of Burhans Boulevard…
The Hagerstown Police Department released late Wednesday night two body-worn camera videos from officers who were on the scene after the accident involving a 15-year-old bicyclist striking a car on Sunday. According to a news release from the City of Hagerstown, staff worked for several hours on Wednesday to process the video in an effort…
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled against a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Catastrophe Management Solutions, effectively ruling that refusing to hire someone because of their dreadlocks is legal. The lawsuit was filed by the EEOC on behalf of Chastity Jones, whose job offer was rescinded by Catastrophe…