In the wake of both Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s heroic testimony and Sen. Susan Collins’s abhorrent cowardice, I’ve seen much of the same old rhetoric on the interwebs. Calls for men to round up their misogynist friends, suggestions for women to co-opt the anthem protest, pleading statuses a…
Sultana Khan is a social justice advocate who works in youth development. Previously, she worked as a national security correspondent and cultural commentator for Gawker Media.
A few months ago, I was having a cocktail by myself while I waited for a table at Izakaya Minato. I’d walked across the street to Hardshore Distilling and was happily sitting all by my lonesome, reading a book and enjoying some good people watching. I do this regularly — I love eating alone,…
In May, my godbrother, David, came to visit me in Portland for a few days. On his last night in town I made him manually tighten the screws on my dining room table. It was a job I could have done myself, but he’s handier than I am — also I didn’t want to do it. It made us both feel better to…
Those of us who work in the world of organizing, advocacy, health, or research often have access to terminology that others don’t. As the norms of cultural linguistics change, our best practices around inclusive language, or intentional recognition, evolve with the lived experiences of the p…
In the realm of allydom, choosing not to spend money at restaurants, venues, or shops that promote racism, sexism, nationalism, or any other -ism that speaks to you is an easy action. You simply don’t patronize the establishment in question. “Voting with your wallet,” a phrase I’ve truly loa…
Over the last few months, the Maine legislature has introduced several bills that have a seemingly progressive agenda. A bill banning conversion therapy, another requiring schools to create suicide prevention policies by next fall, and two separate bills banning female genital mutilation, on…
Over the last few months, the Maine legislature has introduced several bills that have a seemingly progressive agenda. A bill banning conversion therapy, another requiring schools to create suicide prevention policies by next fall, and two separate bills banning female genital mutilation, on…
A few months ago, I was asked to “judge” a local dance competition. For now, we’ll set aside the fact that my dancing ability and therefore judging ability is approximately equal to that of a drunk, sexually-frustrated toddler. The event sounded fun, and a friend of mine was also on the judg…
Yesterday it was 70 degrees and sunny in Washington D.C., where I am writing this missive. Today it’s raining, and tomorrow it’s likely to snow. Typical D.C. bullshit — the offer of a grand promise, the subsequent haggling when the promise is deemed too controversial or expensive, and then, …
I spent the final weeks of 2017 wondering if I could keep writing this column. At several points over the last year, it’s felt like a Herculean effort to continue publicly pondering the state of our world, and the ways in which we could and should be resisting the morally bankrupt oligarchy …
Roles of Engagement is a column concerning the actions and dimensions of allyship, looking at cultural events both locally and nationally. Sultana Khan (@YesAsInGenghis) is a Portland-based writer and can be reached at sultana.l.khan@gmail.com.
Roles of Engagement is a column concerning the actions and dimensions of allyship, looking at cultural events both locally and nationally. Sultana Khan (@YesAsInGenghis) is a Portland-based writer and has written for Gawker, Jalopnik, and Dispatch magazine. She can be reached at sultana.l.kh…
In February of 2016, I answered a robocall from white supremacists supporting Donald Trump at my mother’s house in Vermont. It was a shocking, gut-wrenching thing to hear the tinny voice of a white nationalist gripe about the dearth of “beautiful white children” in our school systems.If I’d …
By the time you read this, I’ll be in Alaska. Or maybe we’ll all be dead by then, reduced to ash thanks to a man who can’t bring himself to condemn Nazis, but can wage war via Twitter. At this point, I’d honestly just like some type of resolution. Are we going to be obliterated or not? I’m e…
I’m writing this column from the oppressive heat of Washington, D.C., so I hope you’ll excuse me if this comes off a little cranky. I was born here, at the private, non-profit Columbia Hospital for Women in 1985. Originally founded in 1866 as a charitable hospital for the desperate, pregnant…
About a decade ago, I made a conscious decision to try and be more kind. The choice came on the heels of a particularly nasty argument I’d had with a friend from college, one where my words were so thoughtlessly cruel even I had a hard time being around myself in the following days. In the m…