Say NoThanks to #Thankstaking
Tomorrow many families across the United States will sit down at a table to celebrate a holiday rooted in colonization and genocide. The history of the ongoing struggle for indigenous rights and self-determination has been co-opted and re-written by colonizers to make forced removal seem amicable. But the fable that is “Thanksgiving,” what many Indigenous leaders and activists call “Thankstaking,” was anything but friendly and good-natured.
Anti-Blackness and Colonization: There is No Decolonization Without Uplifting Black Lives
As a black woman of Turtle Island I am asking EVERYONE to STOP speaking of “Decolonization” without explicitly naming and confronting Anti-blackness. Anti-blackness is deeply, unshakably inherent to colonization — as much as land theft, rape, genocide, white supremacy, hierarchy.
“Pretty Good”: The American Alpine Club’s Continued Exclusion, Exploitation, and Tokenization of Black and Indigenous Communities and How White People Rationalize It Away
At the most recent Craggin’ Classic in Payahüünadü (so-called Bishop, CA), Indigenous Women Hike, Legendary Skies Enterprises, and Climb the Gap were invited to the yearly event by The American Alpine Club with the expectation that each organization would be participating in some sort of panel discussion to speak about their org’s work and mission. But in the days following the event, Climb the Gap and Indigenous Women Hike reported on their Instagram stories that they felt disrespected, exploited, and tokenized.
Building Terra Incognita Media: Confronting Failure, Self-Sabotage, and Imposter Syndrome
Erin Monahan, founder of Terra Incognita Media, shares what it’s been like behind the scenes at Terra, what it has taken to build the platform you see today, and some exciting shifts that are going to happen as we enter 2020. She writes, “Some of the original people who answered my call for support ended up leaving because my vision changed. It went from a feminist/political climbing journal, as embarrassing as that is to admit, to the feminist response to the outdoor industry that is today. It’s nothing like it was at the beginning because the platform has evolved as I have evolved. I hope in ten years it’s nothing like it is today.”
Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day!
Fuck Columbus. This day is Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Our platform is dedicated to speaking the truth of this land’s history, not perpetuating the vile origin myth of “this land is your land, this land is my land.” The US resides on stolen land. We are unwavering in our solidarity with Indigenous peoples in the struggle for sovereignty.
The Privilege to Perform Queerness: When Straight People Step Outside of Cisheteronormativity They Gain Social Capital, But at What Cost?
This image and caption of Alex Honnold and Pattie Gonia posing together brings forward some questions: Who gets the privilege to perform queerness without consequence? When did the word “ally” become an identity or label? Has “allyship” lost it’s meaning? Is it no longer a verb that requires action?
The Binary is A White, Colonialist Fiction and It's Up to White Cishet Folks to Disrupt It
Our society is propelled and propped up by white supremacist fictions like the belief that genitals determine gender, that the only form of valid intimacy is between a cis man and a cis woman, and that marriage is the only time you are allowed to have sex. Unlearning these beliefs is crucial to mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual health.
The Ongoing Project of Settler Colonialism Ushered into the Future by Ellen Degeneres and White Feminism
Instead of playing it safe we need leaders who are going to speak the truth without hesitation because they know America was never something to have "faith in." America has never been great. It has always been an ongoing settler-colonial project to this day.
Action Items For the Start of Autumn
Do you feel like you’re not doing “enough”? Well, that is white supremacy culture making you feel like you have to be constantly productive. And if you do nothing, like really do nothing for more than five minutes, you’re just a sack of lazy potatoes. But this is absolute bullshit. Resting when you need to rest. Take mental and emotional health days if/when you can.
Kick Kurbo and Fatphobia to the Curb
Children (and adults too!) need to feel empowered to decide for themselves what their version of healthy looks like.
When Natural Disasters Strike, What Happens to People in Prisons?
From Hurricane Harvey, to Hurricane Florence, and now with Hurricane Dorian, it is clear our government does care about incarcerated people, an already vulnerable population, made even more vulnerable in these times of natural crises.
What Keeps Black Womxn from Getting the Money They Deserve? Institutional Racism and Sexism, and... Excuses.
According to the April 2019 report by the National Partnership for Women and Families, “Black women in the United States who work full-time, year-round are typically paid 61 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men,” a fact pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau 2018. Race, gender, class, and ability, are just a few major factors that impact Black womxn’s ability to get paid what they deserve. It’s not just a matter of learning how to negotiate a pay raise.
Mauna a Wākea
The Kānaka Maoli do not consent to the building of the Thirty Meter Telescope on our sacred mauna, Mauna a Wākea, or Mauna Kea. In the Kānaka culture, natural things like plants, rivers, oceans, animals, and mountains are viewed as ancestors because it is said that when we die, we embody things in our ʻāina (land). Mauna a Wākea is sacred for this reason, it is said to be our Kūpuna, our ancestor.
RACES, RAÍCES AND RACISM: Anti-Mexican Sentiment and Ultrarunning
Trump’s anti-Mexican rhetoric has emboldened California’s racists, and on June 8th, I encountered a small army of them at San Diego 100, an ultramarathon held near the Mexico-United States border. A one-hundred-mile race that cuts through Mount Laguna Recreational Area, the Pacific Crest, Noble Canyon, and Lake Cuyumaca Trails, the SD 100 operates under permit on the Cleveland National Forest. While the race’s website claims that the SD 100 is “an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender,” volunteers working for the event contradicted this mission.
How the White Body-Positive and Self-Love Movement Hinges on Anti-Blackness and How We Can Stop It
Is it Really Self-love if it’s Anti-Black?
Can we get to self-acceptance and self-love if we have been indoctrinated into an anti-fat and anti-Black mentality? Am I really “body-positive” if I am anti-fat and anti-Black? If I’m not working against these oppressive forces in my psyche then I am definitely not anywhere near “body-positive.” Are your favorite white “body-positive” influencers talking about the fact that we have historically demonized and dehumanized fat Black womxn and femmes?
#SayHerName: June is About Uplifting, Honoring, and Protecting Black, Trans Womxn
Dana Martin. Jazzaline Ware. Ashanti Carmon. Claire Legato. Muhlaysia Booker. Michelle Washington. Paris Cameron. Johana Medina. Chynal LIndsey. Chanel Scurlock. TeTe Gulley. Zoe Spears.
These Black trans womxn have been killed since the beginning of 2019.
A Message to Corporations like Planet Granite: Free Belay Lessons Won't Cut It, We Need Anti-Police Brutality Advocacy in Honor of Pride
This is a call to action for my fellow white people of the gym, the white people in management, the white people who work there: interrogate your inherent racism, transphobia, homophobia and work against it. Say those words out loud and discuss them. They are not dirty words. They are lived realities. Action that is performative, like a free one day belay lesson during Pride month, is only serving to uphold the current status quo. Planet Granite will look like an “ally,” will get some pats on the back, call it “baby steps,” and then go back to business as usual. It is not good enough.
Bleeding While Non-Binary
Everyone benefits from a world and a culture that upholds body sovereignty. One that says: you get to decide who you are. No one else but you.
The St. Louis Arch: A “Spiritual” Project Born Out of White Supremacist Impulses
The farmed landscape blurred as we sped down the highway, our thoughts never lingering on the fact that we are colonizers traveling to Osage, Miami, and Očeti Šakówiŋ (Sioux) territories about to move into a house that sits on land that is not ours.