I love this!

Full blog post here.

5. You feel mild guilt over not identifying with one of your cultures (i.e. you hate the food).

6. You feel awkward during get-togethers with one side of the family because you look nothing like your other family members.

7. Men (or women) use your questionable ethnicity as a means to hit on you.

9. You can’t understand your grandparents’ language.

10. There is an undeniable clashing of cultures whenever the two sides of your family meet.

11. Your grandparents initially disapproved of your parents’ union.

12. Similar to a “gay-dar,” you’ve developed a “multiracial-radar.”

15. You’ve lied about your ethnicity in the past just for the hell of it, or to avoid conversation.

16. Your last name doesn’t really look like it belongs to you.

17. You’ve been criticized for not being [insert ethnicity here] enough, or speaking [insert language here] well enough.

For anyone who doesn’t know what this days means to women in Canada.

Today, I just read the list of the women who were killed at École Polytechnique on this day in 1989. Rather than their ages, this list was of their birth years.

They were my contemporaries. I don’t know why I never realized this until today. They would be in their 40s today.

My age.

In 1989 I was studying for my undergraduate degree at York University. I was in school part time and working full time.

I’d like to share a story of something that happened to me while studying and commuting to York once or twice a week.

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So I’ve been away for a while. Lotsa shit’s gone down in the world since I last posted here. Let’s hit some of the highlights shall we?

Bullshit racist Hallowe’en costumes

Victoria’s Secret, a multiply-offensive offender

Racist apps

Canada’s racist immigration laws continue I’m continually amused/enraged by the corporate media’s use of scare quotes around the word racist, as if the word is going to burn the fingers of the person typing, without the protection of the quotation marks.

March against racism targets Jason Kenney

And just so you all don’t think I’m relentlessly crabby all the time, here’s some rocking kick-ass links to cool and groovy stuff. Fyi, there’s some links to Hari Kondabolu and W Kamau Bell because I LOVE THEM!

Decolonizing Media (Media Democracy Day)

Happy “Too Asian”: Celebrating Activism Against Racism in Media

Hari Kondabolu “White Guilt vs Racism”

W Kamau Bell: The War on Women, Gay Marriage, Obama, Romney, Religion and Atheists (2012)

Note from Maysie: I wrote this a week ago and posted it on Facebook. While this is a departure from what I usually post here on my blog I figured, what the hell. Plus I was inspired by this wonderful piece by Black Girl Dangerous: 10 Thing Us Queers (And the Rest of Y’all) Can Do Today to Grow a Little . Read it.

…………….

This poem/manifesto/screed is dedicated to all my heartmates. You know who you are.

I’m not laid back, easy-going or chill. I will demand a lot of you if you’re going to be in my life as a friend, a political comrade, an ally, or a lover.

I require emotional honesty. I expect truth, kindness, humour, love, ferocity and silliness.

I will dig into my issues, I will be vulnerable, I will tell you my weaknesses/ challenges, I will describe my process, my personal and political struggles. And I will listen when you do the same.

I desire intelligence, critical thinking, tenacity and a true heart of compassion and anger, because all of these energize me and sustain me.

I’m a fighter, a righter of wrongs, a short, plump community-based grassroots super-hero. Nothing can stop me. But I can’t do it by myself.

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So, full disclosure, I’m a vociferous advice column reader. I used to have an online advice column, but really, I’ve enjoyed reading the mainstream (Ann Landers et al) and non-mainstream (Dan Savage) for many years.

A few years ago I wrote about a Miss Manners column that blew my mind with how (mostly) wonderfully she answered a question from a reader about being asked the “where are you from?” question.

Today, while innocently reading Carolyn Hax’s advice column “Ask Carolyn” I came across this letter:

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