So here we are, already in June, with each month either accelerated beyond comprehension or dragging along. I can’t decide which one May was. Fast, maybe?

At any rate, it is increasingly harder to post links that aren’t a rallying cry for a full-bore revolution. Should I post links that continue to illuminate, or should I trust that the three people who regularly read this blog already know and endeavor to provide some sort of psychic relief?

It seems irresponsible to just post about food, but my god. It is unrelenting out there in the interwebs and on the social media. Several times in the past couple weeks my face has gone tingly and my arms have been numb. This is my nervous system reacting to what I am not able to process. I don’t know how much I can legitimately read to pass on.

So we’ll start here: by taking one small action. If you are unsure of where to start in the fight for justice and equality for black folks, do one small thing. I, personally, started with educating myself. I read White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo and Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon To White America by Michael Eric Dyson (no more Amazon links on this blog; please go support your local bookseller), then KWeeks and I had many conversations about what we learned. Tears We Cannot Stop offers actual suggestions of things to do to make a difference as a white person, and I started to put those into action in my own life. The steps might be small, but they are in the right direction.

And for just a wee bit of entertainment to elaborate on another complicated issue that seems irrevocably tangled with everything else, here is Candy Shop – an animated short that interchangeably swaps almost 3,000 prescription drugs and syringes for similarly-shaped candies, all laid down on top of a groovy percussion track.

Finally, I offer a conversation with Ibram X. Kendi, author of the now-impossible to find book How To Be An Anti-racist. This conversation happened back in June 2019 and offers some insight into what (white) people can do to be more than just “not racist.”

Mapping Police Violence.

Goddamnit. I can’t post this week’s links without talking about George Floyd and Breanna Taylor. The death of George Floyd is now under investigation by the FBI, but we all know how that will most likely play out, even with a horrific video being widely circulated by the media. And as for the latter? Many Kentucky papers are shifting the focus to Taylor’s boyfriend, most likely to ease themselves out of the spotlight for killing Breanna Taylor.

In 2015, 104 unarmed black people were killed by police in the U.S., and only four of those cases resulted in convictions of the officers involved (at the time of the picture above, the officer who killed Walter Scott was still on trial. Michael Slager, the officer who shot Walter Scott, was convicted and given 20 years in prison – two years later.).

In 2019? There were only 27 days in which the police did not kill someone, and 33% of victims were black, despite making up only 13% of the population of the U.S.

The United States must stop killing black people. White people must take action and join in the fight. If you are silent, you are complacent. NONE OF US IS FREE UNTIL ALL OF US ARE FREE.

Regular links below. If it feels wrong to keep reading, I am totally fine with that. Do what you need to do – if the links below help, take what you need.

So since we’ve rolled through baking sourdough bread and moved on to cookies, I propose we venture forth into biscotti territory. Last week, I made this biscotti recipe of mine using white chocolate chips, but the original deconstructed Nutella biscotti is, if I may say, fucking delicious. It is impossible to screw up and can be made in a variety of flavors. It only gets better as the days go by, but it never lasts long enough for me to see how long it lasts. Go make some. Pro tip: if you don’t have almond flour, make your own in a high-speed blender or food processor. This recipe does not require a fine almond flour.

Since it’s your business, check out this New York Times article on Tabitha Brown, the vegan TikTok star with a soothing voice and delicious food. You won’t really understand the hype without hearing the voice, so check her out on Instagram and TikTok – vegan or no, she is v comforting in these times.

Next, I have been trying to figure out ways to completely break up with Amazon. They are no good for anyone, and we all know it, BUT THEY’RE SO DAMN CONVENIENT. And then I read this: “The Max Borges Agency polled 1,108 people from the ages of 18 to 34 who’d bought tech products on Amazon in the last year. An astounding 44 percent said they’d rather give up sex than quit Amazon for a year, and 77 percent would choose Amazon over alcohol for a year.” Yikes. It’s really, really time to limit or eliminate purchasing on Amazon. See the full article here.

And finally, by the time you read this, a vaccination for COVID-19 may be heading to human trials, potentially ready by the fall. If this is true, it is the fastest a vaccination has ever been prepared in the history of such things. The next challenge becomes preparing billions of doses for all of humanity, and the inevitable cash grab by various pharmaceutical companies looking to profit. Isn’t saving millions of lives payment enough?

That’s it for this week. Perhaps as we turn the calendar to June (!!) we are turning a corner with coronavirus, quarantine, and humanity. I suppose we’ll see.

Be kind to each other. Wash your hands. Wear a mask.