There are plenty of topics I'm not especially well-versed in, but the fact that I didn't know what "Juneteenth" was until yesterday, when I noticed it on my iPhone calendar and decided to Google it, seems inexcusable. Juneteeth - which is today - isn't just (just?!) a "black holiday," it's a celebration of our national determination - and ongoing commitment - to emancipation and equality, and to giving a voice to those who have spent decades, if not centuries, being silenced. Perhaps more than ever, it deserves the national spotlight.
I'm reprinting Jamelle Bouie's explanation of the significance of Juneteenth in full below. Required reading, guys.
The Black American Holiday Everyone Should Celebrate but Doesn’t
Juneteenth isn’t just a celebration of emancipation, it’s a celebration of our commitment to make it real.
Officially, the Emancipation Proclamation freed “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State” where the residents were “in rebellion against the United States.” In practice, it applied only to those slaves who lived near Union lines, where they could make an easy escape or take advantage of the Northern advance.
Me, If I Were A Sweatshirt
Sweatshirt | Custom Slides | Duvet | Cat not for sale
Tell me this isn't actually the best sweatshirt you've ever seen. Go on. See, you can't do it! Because it's is, in fact, the best sweatshirt you've ever seen.
Presents For Dads
I would call this a "Father's Day Gift Guide," except Father's Day is in like two seconds and I totally failed to get it up in a respectable window of time.
So let's just call it a fun list of presents for dad-type people, K? Like for birthdays! And...birthdays!
...Hanukkahs?
Links & Love & Stuff
Currently wearing daily: my mom's vintage 1980s gold earrings (these are similar but expensive, and these are similar and super-cheap) and Cristina V's Balinese-inspired wood and gold beaded necklace, which can be doubled over, as shown, or worn super long.
I am already stressed out about how much TV my children are going to watch this summer, because Mom has to work and camp is only for three weeks and such is life. Which is to say: although these rules are actually quite excellent, there is no way I will be able to enforce them, and I already feel guilty about it. (5 Technology Rules I Enforce Every Summer to Make Sure My Kids Stay Outside, via PopSugar.)
Finally read Lena Dunham's article on why she decided to have a hysterectomy at 31, and it is moving and important. We need to have more honest, open conversations like this about fertility and reproduction and the many, many roads women take when it comes to choosing whether or not (or how) to explore the idea of motherhood. (In Her Own Words: Lena Dunham, via Vogue.)
Kendrick’s Father’s Day Gift Picks from eBay’s New Akron, Ohio Shop
(by Kendrick.)
I had nothing to do with the new eBay shop featuring small Akron, Ohio-based business. I promise! I know I work for eBay, but I had literally nothing to do with this. I just thought it was awesome, and thought Ramshackle Glam people might think so, too.
So. I look on eBay one day, because I work there, and because I have a bad habit of buying things on eBay (thereby gradually refunding my employer for my salary), and I see something about my hometown (technically I'm from North Canton, but nobody knows where that is, so I just say "near Akron"). And seeing something online about my hometown is weird, because people don't usually talk about Akron all that much.
