It’s rough always trying to combat sexism and gender norms. As a black woman, and especially one who grew up in a majority white town, I’ve done the same thing in terms of racism. It made me feel isolated a lot of the time, and I wish I had a more open relationship with my parents so I could have talked to them about…

Woman here as well. I lived in the Netherlands - it’s legal, sure, it’s also filled with women who were coerced and trafficked and kidnapped into being prosititutes, mostly immigrants. And even for the local Dutch prostitutes who may just be putting themselves through school, it’s generally not something they list on…

Well, ARE you Eastern European? There may be more behind that question than you expected. Unlike the 1920s, when their racial categories distinguished between “Slavic” and “White”, these days we can join the Ku Klux Klan! That may have been the community outreach guy breaking you the good news via sexual harassment.

It’s irrelevant what term you would use. You can call it whatever you want for your own purposes. But, for the purposes of this discussion (in which we are specifically talking about Zoe Saldana portraying Nina Simone on the big screen) it should be obvious what we mean when we use the terms “light-skinned” and…

This is the homage Nina Simone would have expected.

OH MY GOD THIS IS VERY ACCURATE

gail@gailsheehy.com

Somehow I am not surprised! It must have been really affirming though that the crew didn’t immediately assume you were one of the conspiracy theorist people...

I have so many questions!

I think it’s somewhere between #NotAllMen and MRAs. Willfully ignoring the existence of oppression to, like you say, redirect the conversation to focus on you, ignoring the reality that no one in this country is coming for straight white men.

Different approaches don’t make someone racist. Crossing out a message of black activism and refusing to understand it when it has been clearly explained many times (not that it should even need to be) probably does.

How many times do people need to be told that the inherent implication behind black lives matter IS all lives matter?!?!

Me too! And then I wondered how much she got paid. Is there a special Gail Sheehy pool of money? Did she do it on the cheap because she likes Jezebel and wants to encourage other writers to submit these kinds of pieces here? I HAVE QUESTIONS!

I kept looking to see if this was... I don’t know, copied from somewhere else or something. Momentarily flummoxed, but delighted in the end.

I think I injured my neck when I saw the byline, my head snapped so hard. That’s pretty fucking cool.

Took the words out of my mouth. V. Surprised to see this here and not in NYTimes Magazine.

Gail Sheehy is writing for Jezebel now?! Great heavens, that’s a helluva coup. Wonderful, informative piece, thank you for it.

Oat Cloture - When the ag bill gets through the Senate

I once left a mark on my sister’s arm from pinching that lasted two weeks. Didn’t bruise, just skin indentation. My best work.