#5SmartReads - February 1, 2022

Hitha on the next SCOTUS nominee, the electric grid's newest threat, and the villages that raised us

A gentle reminder that you can join the conversation of the day’s reads by clicking the title above and add your thoughts in the comments! My goal for #5SmartReads has always been to start conversations and share our thoughts and perspectives. I hope to see you there!

A gentle reminder to examine who writes and publishes reporting on topics such as these. History is often written by the winners, and today’s reporting will become tomorrow’s history books.

Which is why I sought Essence’s reporting on this particular issue. Here’s what they have to say about it:

“The legislation also looks to protect white people and relieve them from feeling like they are responsible for America’s dark past with slavery or the annihilation of Native Americans.”

It is my hope that we embrace a both/and approach in our lives. White people in American history were responsible/complicit in horrible, systemic acts against Black and Indigenous people. Most White people today are not personally guilty of these atrocities.

But teaching a Whitewashed version of our country’s history to protect one group harms the groups that have been all too impacted by it.

Our history is deeply uncomfortable (and for so many American today, the present is as well). Sanitizing it does none of us any favors, but just makes things worse.

But in the effort to be better than we used to be, appointing a Black woman to the Supreme Court (especially since there are so many qualified candidates) would be a start. And here’s why:

“Enshrined in the constitution is the idea that all people are created equally, but our country needs a judiciary whose interpretation matches those ideas. Believing that integration was a waste of time or that women do not deserve body autonomy is inconsistent with most Americans’ beliefs.”

Allison Gaines’ essay is one of the best things I’ve read in quite a long time. Take the time to read it today.

All I have to add to is that I will only be satisfied “when there are 9 [Black women justices].” But let’s start with 1.

As if Mercury in retrograde, climate change, and the perilous state of the electric grid wasn’t enough. Domestic terrorism attacking the grid is yet another thing we need to worry about, and this reads like it’s a season summary of 24.

Mercifully, none of these attacks have come to pass as of yet. But it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to invest in emergency supplies or a generator if you own a house.

*breathes into a paper bag*

If I could go back in time and meet 8 year old Hitha, I’d take her to Taco Bell and tell her that the things she resents right now would be the memories she values the most as an adult.

I’d probably spare her the news that she does everything she vowed she wouldn’t as a mother, though.

For most of my childhood, my grandmothers or aunts or cousins and their kids lived with me and my parents. I would resent not being able to attend clubs after school, or having to share my bed with my ammamma, or my nanamma claiming a headache every time I wanted to watch Rainbow Brite (apparently Starlight gave her heart palpitations). I was perpetually annoyed at having to look after my cousin’s baby daughter after school when I was 8 (memories that are my most beloved now).

I bought into the nuclear family being the ideal. And like Purnima, I know better now. And I treasure every second I have with my parents and in-laws, and our family when they come for extended visits and holidays.

Time for a ‘obscure issues you should know about’ story.

Like oil leases. It’s an issue often driven by partisanship (leases more freely granted in Republican administrations, halted or re-evaluated under Democrat administrations).

I think pausing offshore oil leases for full environmental assessments is the prudent thing to do, and I hope we can move away from offshore drilling entirely in time.

But 15% of total energy production is not an insignificant number, especially with the increasing costs of oil and gas.

The answer? It’s complicated and I don’t know, but I do know that this issue is something we should all be a little more informed about.

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