#5SmartReads - February 2, 2022

Hitha on a resilient Lunar New Year, common ground on election reform, and how to survive pandemic life

February 02, 2022

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!

Happy (belated) Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year to all who celebrate!

It’s an especially bittersweet one, given the rise in hate crimes and attacks against Asian-Americans in the United States. But Amanda Ngyuen’s sentiment perfectly captures the mood - joy is the most radical form of rebellion.

“It's the Year of the Water Tiger, which in the Chinese zodiac means that this year is going to be filled with adventure and enthusiasm but also moments that restore our strength and bravery and vitality, A lot of what excites me about this year is the hard work that's to come."

May we all speak up and fight AAPI hatred (and the hate and attacks to the religious and ethnic groups that have faced it since the British established colonies on these shores).

Struggling right now? You’re not alone.

This essay is filled with nuggets from some very smart people on how to survive on all fronts - health, work, kids, schedules.

I particularly liked my friend Upsana’s reminder that “you time is your most valuable asset. If you don’t respect it, then why should anyone else?”

What’s one tip shared here that you think could work for you? Let me know in the comments over on the #5SmartReads website!

Having written about who gets to write history yesterday, I could not be more thrilled to have found Capital B. Their mission: bringing high-quality, original reporting to Black audiences across the country. 

Capital B is not the first media company with this mission, as Lauren Williams and Akoto Ofori-Atta write in this piece. They’re building on the work of Freedom’s Journal (the first Black newspaper in the United States), and building alongside other nonprofit news organization (which I honestly think is the future of the media landscape).

I could not be more excited to read what they write, and I encourage you to join me in becoming a paid member and supporting their vitally important work.

“Be twice as good, and you’ll only get half as far” is more than a line from Scandal. It’s the reality of so many Black women living in the Western world.

But what is good? Who set the standards for excellence that they were raised with?

“Being excellent meant ascribing to a certain set of rules — British ones, passed on to him through literal colonization — and achieving tangible, braggable things like newspaper clippings he could send back home to his siblings, trophies we could put on a mantle, papers with A+s written in red, and professions he could say with pride: doctor, lawyer, engineer. “

Kathleen Newman-Bremang unpacks this standard down to its roots, and offers a different path for exhausted Black women. - one that embraces their multitudes while dropping the pressure to be the first.

I’m not alone in feeling disappointed that voting rights reform (which many current Republican senators and Joe Manchin voted for back when the Voting Rights Act was last authorized by Congress) failed in the Senate.

But it hasn’t stopped me from hoping that we can get something done, and the Bipartisan Policy Center has a proposal that may satisfy both parties (audits and cybersecurity standards and training, in-person early voting and no-excuse absentee voting).

The brilliant part of this proposal - tying federal funding to each state, based on if they meet some of these minimum standards.

I could see the same group of bipartisan senators that lead on the infrastructure bill lead something like this.

The question is how soon? And will that be soon enough to secure the midterm elections?

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