tread lightly

[image description: a picture of a hand holding up a white flyer. At the top, in large font, it reads: “how to be a white of nonblack ally at a rally”. What follows is a list in smaller font: “1. Amplify black voices. Don’t lead chants. Make space for black folk to lead chants. 2. Don’t post photos/videos/iglive with protestors faces. Protestors will face repercussions if they are identified, so blur faces and only document encounters with law enforcement. 3. Be a physical barrier. Use your body and you privilege to create a barrier between black propel and the police. Police are less likely to harm you. 4. Don’t provoke or antagonize the police. Black folks will face much harsher retaliation than you from police. 5. Don’t police or tone down black protesters. 6. If someone is getting arrested, ask their name and birthdate. Share this info with organizers so they can be bailed out. 7. Stay on message. Don’t use a Black lives matter protest to push another agenda or cause. 8. Donate at massbailout.org. End description.]

Sylvia Plath was right

About what?

“Being born a woman is an awful tragedy. Yes, my consuming desire to mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, bar room regulars—to be a part of a scene, anonymous, listening, recording —all is spoiled by the fact that I am a girl, a female always in danger of assault and battery. My consuming interest in men and their lives is often misconstrued as a desire to seduce them, or as an invitation to intimacy. Yet, God, I want to talk to everybody I can as deeply as I can. I want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to walk freely at night.”