July 27, 2020 by admin

Beyond Instagram Activism

“Performative wokeness.” You know, the kind of “activism” white people do while scrolling Instagram late at night from bed. A bed we sleep in without a shred of fear that cops will bust through our front door and massacre us. “I stand with #.” Is to post to stand? If to post is not to stand, who “should” post? And when? And what? And if I don’t post, have I revealed myself to be someone who is on the sidelines? The discomfort here is good.

White people’s comfort is literally why we’re here. Millions and millions and millions of black and brown bodies and spirits have been sacrificed, are still daily sacrificed, “in service” of our comfort. It is one of the central premises of this country’s founding. As such, we must work steadfastly to de-prioritize white comfort. This is key to white people’s anti-racism work.

As for the question: but do we post? If a post feels hollow to you, it probably is. If it feels like it isn’t enough, that’s because it isn’t. Go ahead and post—and be ready to welcome the self and external criticism of your “performance.” Be prepared to listen, to learn, and to do much, much deeper and larger work than posting.

MEG SULLIVAN, from “Going Beyond Instagram Activism,” The Lilith Blog.

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July 27, 2020 by admin

“Is Now When I Should Panic?” •

Walk through adored cartoonist Roz Chast’s pandemic-related cartoons from The New Yorker and Instagram, accompanied by Chast herself. In a May 2020 conversation with Fran Rosenfeld, who curated the 2016 Museum of the City of New York exhibit “Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs,” Chast looks at some of her recent drawings. Chast likes making up fake books, like “Appendectomies Simple (do it yourself)”, “If I Say It’s a Casserole, It’s a Casserole” (a cookbook), “The Joy of Not Murderizing Each Other,” a relationship book à la The Joy of Sex. What is the pandemic like? “It’s like we all got old at the same time.” Have her characters been preparing for this Covid catastrophe for decades? “I was brought up to never be too happy,” says Chast. She discusses her 2017 book, Going Into Town, which was a love letter to all the things that make New York City what we now miss so much: the density, the restaurants. She is hoping that we get back to our “misanthropic complaining lives.” mcny.org/event/pastevent-now-when-i-should-panic-conversation-roz-chast

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