I'm Nabil. He/him. Agender Afroboricua. Lesbian abuelo. A good Muslim boy.
One of the things I enjoyed about being a Black girl with obnoxiously long hair and nails was that it forced me to just slow down. It forced me to take my time, to ask for assistance. I was so used to sucking it up and always being the helper that I didn’t know how to ask for help. I was always on the move. I was always ready to help others. Having long hair and nails made me unable to do a lot of things I normally did for other people. It put me in a position of needing to be cared for, of needing people to be patient with me rather than the other way around.
Thomas Shields Clarke, Fernbrook, ca. 1910, Photographic autochrome, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Archives, Photo by Barbara Katus / Brian van Camerik
because what is freedom if it’s not getting fired from your job for doing something legal on your own time? what better indicator that right-libertarian ‘liberty’ is nothing but the freedom of bosses to control the lives of workers.
