BC SOCIETY
Saved by @jacobhtml

When she was a child, her dream was to be an artist. She would chew her lip, and grip her crayon far too tightly as she tried to stay within the lines.

“Be practical,” her father said.

“Enjoy art in your spare time. Work hard. Then, maybe someday.”

Maybe someday. 1/

 She puts on the vest that completes her uniform. At her last job she had a name badge, but not here.

Just the words “ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES” in block letters.

Her granddaughter once asked her if that meant she was saving the environment.

“Sort of, mija,” she laughed. 2/
She has been “Janitorial Staff,” “Hospital Housekeeping,” and “Cleaning Crew” over the years.

The job remains the same.

She gets the equipment ready on her cart. She is detail-oriented. Everything in its place.

The little walkie-talkie on her cart crackles to life. 3/
Her first assignment is a room cleaning.

It will be the first of many.

She is often under immense time pressure, as rooms must be cleaned before a new patient can use them.

It’s a time-consuming process, even though she has become extremely efficient at it.

Laborious. 4/
She makes her way into the elevator, maneuvering her equipment cart and the trash container on wheels.

There are two other people on the elevator. She says “good morning.”

One nods hello. The other doesn’t.

She’s learned not to expect thanks, but a hello would be nice. 5/
As she cleans rooms her thoughts are usually far away. Often she’s thinking about her family, worrying about their future.

Worrying about a thousand things, as only a mother does.

Praying beneath her breath for crises averted and hopes achieved.

But always... she sees. 6/
She sees an empty room, and imagines the patient. Were their crises averted? Were their hopes achieved?

Sometimes a room just had a Code Blue. Sometimes the aftermath is bloody.

There is a gravity in a place where a human being has recently died.

A palpable force. 7/
She is a religious woman, and she feels this is what must be left when a soul departs.

Some last lingering remnant of the trajectory of a human life.

Of an end, and a beginning.

As she wipes the floors, and changes the linens, and sanitizes the surfaces, she bears witness. 8/
Her walkie-talkie crackles to life throughout the day. From one room to another.

Someone spills coffee, and asks her to clean it up before walking away hurriedly, glued to their phone.

She sets up her sign, “Caution (Cuidado), Wet Floor (Piso Mojado).”

And she mops. 9/
She’s late for her next room cleaning. The coffee spill only delayed her a little bit, but she still gets an earful from an angry supervisor.

The patient is waiting! The room needs to be cleaned, now!

At least this one is a happier room.

The patient was discharged home. 10/
Some of the rooms she cleans are COVID-19 rooms. She is considered high risk and was vaccinated in the first wave. She has to wear special protective gear.

They tell her the solutions she uses will kill any remnants of the virus.

She makes sure she misses no spots. 11/
Later in the day she’s on the elevator again. The doors open, and a stretcher is pushed inside with a heavy black drape over it. She knows what it means and says a silent prayer.

The morgue attendant grins at her.

“We’re both cleanup crew, eh?”

She smiles faintly. 12/
She doesn’t think of herself as part of the cleanup crew.

She is someone else.

Each empty room is a canvas onto which the depth and breadth of the human experience are painted.

These empty rooms breathe.

They are saturated with suffering, and hope.

She bears witness. 13/
Towards the end of the day she is about to clean one last room on the COVID unit.

She overhears the patient’s family on a speakerphone, thanking the doctors and nurses. “You’re our heroes,” they say.

She makes sure her mask is on tight, sealed.

And she enters the empty room.

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I forgot to remark upon the presence of the very cute grandson, who was very small and gave not one shit about the yelling. I believe a sister or aunt was present and feeling very stressed. I wanted to hand her a Xanax or seven.

It was really hard to not jump in and say, "Sounds like you guys are going to have a fun meal tomorrow!" so they could unite in hatred against me, the outsider, and stop squabbling. Instead I exchanged glances with a nearby fellow lady patron, who also emotionally ate a cookie.

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Let folks have their many talents, interests and gifts. Life is far more fun with variety, loves.

A lot of folks have come to know me as an activist & I’m grateful that folks care to know me at all.

But I wasn’t born in 2014. I was a whole teacher, executive, policy person, speaker, arts and culture lover, reader, writer, woman of faith, fashion and more before 4 yrs ago 🤷🏾‍♀️

We rightfully complain that marginalized people are not allowed to be fully human.

But we internalize and transfer our oppression daily. It’s a smog. We all breathe it in & act it out.

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When I was sexually harassed by the director of the area I was working in, I was afraid to report it because I was worried that "getting him in trouble" would result in the subtle retaliation of missed leadership opportunities.

I wanted to continue working on the team I was on, because I'd gained a lot of very deep knowledge and expertise in that area, as well as reputation and camaraderie with the other folks working in that area. I didn't want to make the situation more "difficult."

To get promoted at Google, several need to happen: 1. you need opportunities for ownership and leadership above your current level (basically, opportunities to show you're working at the next level you're trying to get promoted to). The work you're "assigned" has a big impact.

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The original complaint against me was typical of the sort of thing directed at many female professional academics (and some male too). The strategies employed by my complainants are commonly used.

One of these is to perform vulnerability while behaving aggressively. Performing vulnerability is essential in order to trigger the university's awareness of its duties under the Equality Act, and establish an oppressor/victim dynamic to the case from the outset.

My complainants did this effectively. The complaint was initiated by a fellow PhD student, who joined forces with the SU. A student from the SU wrote the actual complaint. This is how it begins:


In all my dealings with @HuddersfieldUni I accepted that sometimes anonymous complaints were necessary - and that, sometimes, victimisation could be a concern. However, I have never victimised anyone. Nobody has ever argued that I have.
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Rob Ford
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Two things can be true at once:
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2. Another academic who himself uses threats of legal action to bully colleagues into silence is not a good faith champion of the free speech cause


I have kept quiet about Matthew's recent outpourings on here but as my estwhile co-author has now seen fit to portray me as an enabler of oppression I think I have a right to reply. So I will.

I consider Matthew to be a colleague and a friend, and we had a longstanding agreement not to engage in disputes on twitter. I disagree with much in the article @UOzkirimli wrote on his research in @openDemocracy but I strongly support his right to express such critical views

I therefore find it outrageous that Matthew saw fit to bully @openDemocracy with legal threats, seeking it seems to stifle criticism of his own work. Such behaviour is simply wrong, and completely inconsistent with an academic commitment to free speech.

I am not embroiling myself in the various other cases Matt lists because, unlike him, I think attention to the detail matters and I don't have time to research each of these cases in detail.
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