Pinned

I don’t want to know about your Asian wife

Or your Asian friend or Japanese girlfriend or your study abroad in China.

Prefacing with: I do not want to hear about your shock. I don’t want to hear about your apologies. Express that to your white friends. I don’t want to hear about how you or your friends aren’t like this. I fucking guarantee you know someone like this.

I haven’t been…

Mental health tip: Keep a kudos document

Today, I want to share a tip that I read about and have kept for several years now. It’s easy, it’s passive, and has great mental health benefits when you need them. Think of it as a power booster in your mental health self-care toolkit.

A kudos document is an…

Meditation & chasing the creative flow

I don’t like meditation. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I hate it but I know I don’t like it. And before you start with well-meaning suggestions and tips, I need to say that I have tried the apps, the guided meditations, the “sit in silence somewhere” basics…

Please just let me be mediocre

I would like the opportunity to be mediocre.

I would like to be able to fail and not suffer any consequences.

Like, be average and underwhelming and just middling in work performance. This is a sentiment that I have generally felt for at least the last half-decade. If it were…

Baking my way to cultural acceptance

Below is an excerpt from a work in progress.

Cultural guilt is:

knowing names of ingredients only by sight and a taste description (“that crunchy cucumber thing”)
someone else naming a dish that you grew up eating but never knew the name of
recognizing when something is in a language…

On SCA’s Dubai Decision & Deferred Candidate Policy

A copy of this email was sent to the SCA Board on November 13

Hi SCA Board,

I’m writing to express my extreme frustration, dissatisfaction, and disappointment at your recent announcement regarding hosting a world event in Dubai.

This email is three-fold:
1) The decision itself
2) The communication of the decision
3) US biases

1) The decision itself

There is a severe lack of transparency on how…

Get Woke on Power

Script of my Tamper Tantrum NYC talk

In September, I spoke at Tamper Tantrum NYC about power dynamics, using anonymized, solicited stories to illustrate my points. This is my script (remember, it was written to be read aloud, not on paper). This is not an exact word-for-word of my talk, since I only used notes, not the…

Diversity is not a trend

Diversity is not a trend. It’s not an idea that you can pick up at the moment and put down whenever you want. It’s not a hot topic, because that implies that it will go away.

Diversity is not something you give lip service to,
encouraging it,
discussing it,
and at…

Tell me your story about how power dynamics have affected your coffee career

I am speaking at Tamper Tantrum’s first US appearance in September. My topic will be about power dynamics: understanding them and identifying various solutions to ease them.

I’m interested in hearing your stories about how power dynamics have affected you in your professional coffee career.

Power dynamics are in play in a myriad of ways: manager<>barista, client<>consultant, barista<>customer, just to name a few. …

Sexism & racism in the coffee industry is real. It’s time to take action.

Previously titled: “Follow up to gender and racial equity in the coffee industry”

Tl;dr: Most people actively read & sympathized with my previous article, but others ignored the premise. I examine the common responses. Some asked for more action items & those are included, too.

On gender and racial equity in the coffee industry

Intersectionality is a word I learned only recently. It puts a label on what I feel a little too often when I’m out and…

medium.com

The piece linked above was my very first personal essay on intersectional feminism that had any sort of…