Grandma Knows Best
 

What happens when institutions recognize the problem only after the person who raised it can no longer benefit from the solution? Through Roslyn Thomas-Long, Jason Arday, Sandra Bland and my own experience, I consider institutional disposability, belated recognition, and the terrible distance between being welcomed and being considered worth fighting for.

A six-page visual essay on Black women, labour, academia and the costly games that ask somebody to stay down so somebody else can rise.

Authority came to the door expecting to look down. Then I opened it. Hey, little Sis. As you grow into the tall Black woman you are becoming, I want you to know this: you are not responsible for making authority feel tall. If those who carry it experience shrinkage in your frame's presence, that is not yours to repair. Their ego is theirs to repair. This morning, I was waiting for the superintendent to come to my apartment and assess the work needed to make my unit habitable.

Allyship is not proved by making room for Black people to speak, but by what happens after the truth has been heard. By Carla Rodney Back in 2022, I shared a short passage from the City of Toronto’s Black Mental Health page. It distinguished advocacy from allyship. Advocacy, it said, is standing up for people who cannot stand up for themselves; allyship is making room and space for people to stand up for themselves. At the time, something about that distinction stood out to m

What if Dorothy Roberts’s scholarship formed the foundation of an entire course? This imagined syllabus brings together her work on race, medicine, family policing, reproduction and abolition.

My withdrawal from a PhD at U of T wasn’t sudden. It followed months of small denials,shifting rules, delayed responses, and inconsistent policies that formed a pattern of institutional betrayal. Leaving was self-preservation and a call for accountability, for me and for others facing similar barriers. If you’re navigating disability, caregiving, or moving goalposts, you’re not alone. Find resources and community at Grandma Knows Best. Mental health matters, and boundaries ar

Did you know that there’s a cost to being “let in”? A cost to fitting in—one that few talk about, because passing is meant to look effortless. It’s packaged as belonging. It feels warmer than being shut out, shunned, or rejected. But behind that performance is constant calculation. The person who decides to pay the price to pass is always watching, always adjusting. And after a while, it becomes a kind of mental fuck (and yes, I said what I said). As Rod Michalko writes, “Th

Exploring what it means to reclaim feminism through lived experience. From stripping and house arrest to motherhood and higher education, these stories reflect the intersections of survival, justice, and power.

Why is it that when older women struggle, we are so easily overlooked? Why do our challenges seem to disappear into the background, seen as less urgent or important? As I faced eviction due to financial hardship, while grieving losses and navigating a global pandemic, I was left wondering why the University of Toronto—an institution I once trusted—saw my struggles as invisible. It felt as though I was expected to be endlessly resilient, pushing through obstacles without quest