Hello, friends!
It’s certainly been a while since you’ve seen my ramblings in your inbox and, hopefully, you haven’t missed it too much. But if you’ve been loyally awaiting a new issue of The P Word for the past month, I really appreciate your enthusiasm!! Also, I apologize for my absence. I’ve been swamped with work (I’ll link some of my recent pieces throughout and toward the end of the newsletter!) which is great for a freelancer, of course. But it got to a point where I’ve had to prioritize my assignments and put aside the newsletter for a bit, something I’ve tried to avoid in the past no matter how hectic my work schedule got. Because who am I if not my mother’s daughter.
Anyway, I’m still kind of tied down with work this week but I’ve missed checking in with y’all so I thought I’d do a quick newsy update touching on some things that have happened in the past few weeks plus some recommended links. There’s also a little survey below I’d love for you to place your vote in to help decide on the topic for the next newsletter, which will hopefully come out by our regular bi-weekly schedule!
(And, no, I will NOT be digging into the drama around Will Smith and Chris Rock!!)
Soon-to-be-Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
A lot has happened since the last newsletter came out. Notably, of course, the confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is officially the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).
If you missed the hearings—which I don’t blame you for because it was four days of political grandstanding by Republicans that I could hardly stomach for even just a minute—you’ll be thrilled to know the laborious process should be wrapping up soon as Jackson is expected to be confirmed this week before the Senate adjourns for Easter break. That means in October, when the new SCOTUS term begins, we’ll have a Black woman on the court for the first time in history—amazing!! But did you know that this tired process of confirmation hearings for SCOTUS noms actually began after President Woodrow Wilson nominated Louis Brandeis, the high court’s first Jewish judge, in 1916? Given the (even more) pervasive antisemitism of the time, white Christian legislators and groups did all they could to torpedo Justice Brandeis’s nomination, giving way to the politically fraught—and incredibly racist and discriminatory—SCOTUS confirmation hearings process as we know it today.
1-year anniversary of the Atlanta spa shootings
March 16 marked the 1-year anniversary of the Atlanta spa shootings, when a lone gunman shot up three separate Asian-owned spa businesses, killing eight people—six of whom were women of Chinese and Korean descent. These women were mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters, and their families and communities are still grieving their deaths a year on.
The mass shootings in Atlanta are a terrible thing to remember but it was an important remembrance nonetheless as hate crimes against Asians continue across the U.S. While these attacks highlight the worst of American racism, one silver lining is they have ignited much-needed conversations around anti-Asian racism in this country, and how the attacks—which have disproportionately targeted Asian women—demonstrate how often racism and sexism intersect when it comes to anti-Asian violence. Hopefully, these conversations will eventually lead to fundamental changes. For now, community organizations focused on serving Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are picking up the slack in the absence of any meaningful government support—like the community groups in Atlanta that I spoke with for Prism, to talk about the aftermath of the mass shootings a year later.
The Russia-Ukraine war
Another crazy thing that’s happened since the last newsletter came out that I should mention is the literal war that broke out after Russia decided to forego pretenses and just… invade Ukraine. It’s been over a month since the invasion and it doesn’t look like the two states are even close to agreeing to a ceasefire—an estimated 3,455 civilian casualties have been recorded since the start of the war with another three million Ukrainians believed to have fled the country as refugees.
The latest news from the war front has been the sighting of an alleged mass grave site in the Ukrainian city of Bucha after Russian forces left the area. This could potentially strengthen Ukraine’s case to the International Criminal Court, an international tribune meant to enforce accountability on issues of abuse or violence in cases of conflict. If you’ve been confused about why determining crimes of humanity in the Russia-Ukraine war seems so challenging, this write-up I did for Vox on the legalities of “war crimes” and how it relates to Russia-Ukraine might help.
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TWEET OF THE WEEK: ON DIVINE LABOR SHORTAGES 👼
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A FEW THINGS TO CHECK OUT
🔥 The dark history of Guantánamo Bay prison and why it’s still open. | Vox
🔥 Meet the five presidential frontrunners competing to win France’s consequential elections. | Al Jazeera
🔥 April 1 is April Fool’s Day, but it will also now be remembered as the day Amazon workers in Staten Island voted to unionize, making it the first workers union under the retail giant in the entire country. Here’s how they did it. | The Verge
🔥 What it’s like to be nonbinary in the Philippines. | VICE Asia
🔥 The GOP’s efforts to take back government control through highly-polarized local elections have trickled down to an unlikely setting: traditionally nonpartisan school board elections. | ProPublica
🖊️ I had the chance to interview New York Assembly Member Eddie Gibbs, who made history this year as the first formerly incarcerated person elected to the State Assembly. | Village Voice
🖊️ I wrote about what’s behind the wave of extreme “anti-woke” bills passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures across the U.S. | Vox
Did you like this newsletter? Check out past editions of The P Word here.
Thanks for reading this newsletter! You may see some sporadic editions of the newsletter in the next few months again but just know it’s because your girl’s getting work done!! And isn’t some absence supposed to be good for a relationship or something like that? I probably made that up.
Anyway, please give this newsletter a “like” so I know you’re still into it.
See you again soon,
Natasha