SatRday recap
Last weekend, I attended the excellent SatRday conference here at the UCLA campus. I heard some excellent talks, and also presented a lightening talk.
Around the web (week of 25 March) (feat. photos from Antelope Valley)
Reading
- The climate movement needs more people like me by Irsa Hirsi on The Grist
When I joined my high school’s environmental club, I was the only black kid at most meetings, and usually the only person of color. The club consisted of a group of white students talking about their camping trips. I knew that I would never fit in. It was difficult to look like their token and attend their meetings, but I kept going because I wanted to change that.
Around the web (week of 17 March)
Reading
- The Trouble With Biden, by Jamelle Bouie for the NY Times.
Consider the message this would send. For decades Biden gave liberal cover to white backlash. He wasn’t an incidental opponent of busing; he was a leader who helped derail integration. He didn’t just vote for punitive legislation on crime and drugs; he wrote it. His political persona is still informed by that past, even if he were to repudiate those positions now. Biden could lead Democrats to victory over Trump, but his political style might affirm the assumptions behind Trumpism. The outward signs of our political dysfunction would be gone, but the disease would still remain.