Category: Politics
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Nithya Raman, Okra, and the Brown Woman’s Second Act
I wrote about Rini Sampath in April. Nithya Raman is the next part of the question. The first act has a script. The second act has none.
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What a Vote Earns Here
Five names I knew. Knew like people. Not names on a yard sign at the end of someone’s driveway. The primary is the ballot you make, before the ballot you have to choose from.
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Half of Us
The survey landed in February. One thousand Indian Americans, asked to describe their lives in this country. The Carnegie Endowment published the numbers, and I read them the way I read most things about us: looking for the part they got wrong, and the part they got right. One in two reported experiencing discrimination in…
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Subject to the Jurisdiction Thereof
The courtroom seats filled early this morning. The president sat in the gallery, a first, as if the question of who belongs required his physical presence to adjudicate. Outside, cameras. Inside, two hours of oral argument over five words in the Fourteenth Amendment: subject to the jurisdiction thereof. My three daughters were born in the…
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Emulsion: Hope. Grief. Despair.
My feet ache from running around with our new pup Felix. I am wearing a dress with no pockets so my phone lies on some table somewhere. I glance at the notifications on the screen. A democratic lawmaker in Minneapolis is shot and killed. My heart feels heavy. It has been feeling heavy for a…
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Superbowl LIX And Subversive Art
In the run up to the Super Bowl LIX, I spent hours on TikTok and Instagram watching reels about the makeup of the Eagles team. Given my political leanings and where I live, there was no question whom I was rooting for. Being a #Swiftie, I have been plugged into the Chiefs as well, notably…
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Democracy To Dystopia
The sun glinting off the packed snow on the sides is blinding me. The roads are a hazy white, a fine layer of salt ground to dust by the cars that ply on them incessantly. I am driving slowly. My mind is heavy. I am heading back home after dropping my youngest at her school…
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Dystopia: Delulu Is The Solulu
“Alexa, play rosie by Rosé.” I command the little blue orb in my bathroom as I step in to take the shower. I wash my hair letting the hot water hypnotize me as the music cascades in waves, dulling any thought I might have. I went to bed last night after binge-ing a comfort show.…
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Finding Solace: Writing Through Political Disappointment
Tuesday, November 12 reads the home screen of my phone. I feel sucker punched knowing it has been a week since the election and, we have already settled into a new normal. None of this is surprising yet, I feel a sense of loss I can’t articulate. In the wake of the election results becoming…
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Summer 2024: Rediscovering Joy
Tomorrow, the new school year starts in my corner of the woods. With it, comes the predictable change in routines. Waking early, packing lunches, the morning mania and the eventual quiet that is cherished. This summer has been unusual in many ways. We started the end of school with a trip to the beach that…