WORD NERDS: this is NOT your nanay's blog

"A riot is the language of the unheard." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

I call the San Francisco Bay Area my Home. It's the center of my world, actually. But I know that I am lucky enough to have my family and I sleep and wake in safety provided by barriers of borders. At the same time, I know the cost of those imagined borders and how they are used to violently exclude. Now, the whole world is looking at my home. And I'm staring back and thinking about how similar the printed images on newspapers are; they're practically mirrored.


New Year's Day was my mother's birthday. It's also the same day that 22-year-old Oscar Grant was shot in the back by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer. Also, bombing still continued in Gaza that day, showing no signs of change or letting up for the new year.

What happens when political, racial, and emotional lines are crossed? What creates disaster? What do you do with populations are waiting in unrest? Are tools for anger also tools for change? The world has been screaming for change, have we been listening? Current events and the like are no longer a matter of local versus global because there are battles to be fought both home and abroad.

Please educate yourselves and your community about these events. Try using Bay Area websites for more information on the Oakland Riots, the death of Oscar Grant and how you can help. Also try to look for international online resources for more information about the attack on the Gaza Strip by Israel.