LinkedIn Update 19 October 2023

October 19, 2023

Hi everyone,

I haven’t yet settled on a cadence for these updates, but given that there’s been a lot happening, I thought it was time for another one.

  • I had some epiphanies about this newsletter, including the fact that if everyone who follows me on LinkedIn subscribed here, there would be enough momentum so I could publish mostly here and only occasionally there - and reach ALL the people who are interested in my work and my content, not just those that LinkedIn deigns to let past their gatekeeping algorithm.

  • I celebrated publishing 400 posts on SARN, where the most popular recent post was this open letter to a friend who’d offered support after a racist incident.

  • There was a post on why the Barbados launch of my book will be super simple.

And then there was this, about Palestine and Israel:

I've been trying to gather my words for days but they remain stubbornly ungathered. So here's where I am:

I've felt ill-informed and have been trying to fill my knowledge gaps without resorting to biased media outlets.

So I've been listening to and learning from my Muslim and Jewish friends, and will continue to do so.

Here are the things I know and hold to:

There is no excuse for genocide.

There is no excuse for killing innocent civilians.

There is no excuse for apartheid.

Oppression is wrong.

Occupation is wrong.

And nothing good ever came from colonialism or imperialism.

As a Black woman, watching people spew vitriol on other Global Majority people awakens all kinds of trauma, both generational and from my own experience. The inhumanity of killing innocents is also traumatic.

I will not celebrate anyone's death. And I will not countenance Islamophobia or antisemitism. (Immediate block and report if anyone does that on my post.)

That is all for now.

P.S. I've been following Rahimeh Ramezany 🧕🏻 and Emily O. Weltman, M. Ed. (among many others) as part of questioning all the things and getting better informed.

Their posts have a wealth of information, so they're a good place to start if you've been in a similar space.

We also posted a statement on Mission Equality’s social media, which has just gone out in our newsletter.

This post from Abi Adamson is also worth reading.

What with everything, it’s been a heavy few weeks, and that doesn’t look like changing any time soon. Hope you are all finding moments of peace and rest where you can.

Thanks for being here,

Sharon