#a.t. mcwilliams

[shewhotellsstories]

thank you simone biles

for teaching us that winning isn’t just about doing well—it’s about being well. and that giving yourself grace doesn’t mean giving up. and that mental health issues are health issues. and that black health matters because black lives matter—words some only learned after breonna taylor was killed in her sleep. want to know why we’re tired? because it took a black woman dying as she rested to wake up a nation. that’s why your rest is radical, simone. that’s why your rest is resistance and restoration and restitution for life in a country that cages us like canaries, clips our feathers then asks why we don’t want to fly. america never learned why the caged bird sings. how would it know why it flies? if it did, perhaps it would’ve known how high you would soar, and that your wings deserve rest even if you’re better than the rest. 

-a.t. mcwilliams

#simone biles #black women matter #tokyo olympics #black lives matter #misogynoir #breonna taylor #a.t. mcwilliams #mental health #america #poetry

[shewhotellsstories]

february is black history month

so is march and april and may and june

and july and august and september and october

and november and december and january

because every month is black history month

because every day is black history day

because every hour is black history hour

because every minute and second and moment spent celebrating

your country means celebrating the history of the people who built it

—a people worth celebrating all year.

-a.t. mcwilliams

#black history month #a.t. mcwilliams #poetry #firm reminders

[shewhotellsstories]

We stand with Asian Americans

because racism is like

wind—sometimes silent and unseen, sometimes

violent enough to make a storm. 

But when we stand together, no storm can 

knock us off our feet. 

As long as we stand up for each other, 

we will never fall. 

-a.t. mcwilliams

#a.t. mcwilliams #stop asian hate #stop aapi hate #black lives matter #white supremacy #racism #hate crimes

[shewhotellsstories]

celebrating women

means celebrating black women––including those who made america, and those who’ve made america see itself.  whether they were leading millions to march for Black lives, or standing up their ground at Stonewall, or turning empathy into empowerment with every #metoo tweet, Black women have made a country that refused to see them reckon with its own reflection until it righted its wrongs. maybe that’s why we say Black women are magic––only magic could turn movements into mirrors. 

-a.t. mcwilliams 

#international women's day #black women #women's history month #tarana burke #marsha p johnson #poetry #a.t. mcwilliams

[shewhotellsstories]

all of bell hooks’ words begin with 

love, that is to say, they were born from love—just like people, even those living on the margins of her page. maybe that’s why bell taught us that america’s margins were not an ending, but a beginning. or why she called the oppressed corners of her country spaces of radical possibility, where those most marginalized could make the impossible possible—like how her words could move masses without a single touch. just like clouds before a storm, or leaves gathering in a gust, or liberty bells—the kind of sing freedom as they swing, as if we were just a country of bell ringers, proudly pulling bell rope, drawing strength from

                          bell hooks. 

#bell hooks #a.t. mcwilliams #poetry #feminism #activism #intersectional feminism

[shewhotellsstories]

i never learned that columbus day

was born from america’s oldest lie, the kind that rots the teeth it’s told through until they become tombstones—twelve million total, one for every life stolen from the people who first called this stolen land home. 

instead, i was taught that columbus was a courageous crusader, not a cowardly conquerer, or a criminal colonizer, or a terrorist who smiled as he stormed our stolen shores until a graveyard grew between his grinning gums. perhaps he grinned because he knew that, for centuries, teachers would turn textbooks into his godless gospel, that history just a story, told by the winners sinners.

-a.t. mcwilliams

#fuck christopher columbus #indigenous peoples day #columbus day #racism #genocide #history #a.t. mcwilliams #white supermacy

[shewhotellsstories]

if you forgot that 45 was elected

5 years ago today, it might be because forgetting the pain of 

the past is easy when you can’t see its scars—the ones he left in

unscabbed streaks, as if his hate could turn his decisions into daggers,

allowing his words to leave wounds still worn by every child he caged, 

and family he separated, and person whose loved one fell sick enough to say their last words.

so don’t forget: words last. and the scars you cannot see take the longest to heal.

-a.t. mcwilliams

#and yet the evil orange man is still just a symptom of everything wrong with america #fuck donald trump #a.t. mcwilliams #election 2016

[shewhotellsstories]

don’t call it a protest 

if it doesn’t seek to shed light on injustice, but instead, seeks to shed blood. call it terrorism. call it insurrection. call it sedition. call it a riot. call it a powder keg with hatred as its fuse—the kind that catches fire when prejudice is confused for patriotism, and burns brightest when the president lights the match.

-a.t. mcwilliams

#fuck donald trump #america #racism #black lives matter #white supremacy #poetry #a.t. mcwilliams #sigh #facism #donald trump

[shewhotellsstories]

a new president

doesn’t mean a new america, 

just as changing leaves don’t mean new roots. 

but today we celebrate a new season—new sun and rain to feed the nation’s 

soil, left infertile for four years. a new chance to watch our country grow. 

-a.t. mcwilliams

#america #fuck donald trump #inauguration day #poetry #a.t. mcwilliams

[shewhotellsstories]

black history 

should be celebrated every day—not for one month.  you can’t measure black joy, black hope, black dreams, black love, and black life in twenty-eight days, or tell the story of a people who were property before they president, a people worth celebrating all year. 

-a.t. mcwilliams

#a.t. mcwilliams #poetry #black history month #black lives matter #black history

[shewhotellsstories]

2020

was the year we saw america with perfect vision. but it wasn’t our nation’s light that filled our retinas to their rims.

it was its darkness—a collection of shadows cast by bad men with power—clouding our corneas, allowing only enough light to see everything we lost: homes and hope. jobs and joy. lives. so many lives, lost because bad men chose power over people.

but every new year brings new light—enough light to drive out the bad men’s darkness. enough light to help a lost country find itself. enough light to remind us how bright  amerca’s future can be.

                                                                                       -a.t. mcwilliams

#2020 #covid 19 #Happy New Year #poetry #quotes #2021 #a.t. mcwilliams #fuck donald trump #politics #hope

[shewhotellsstories]

I posted 4,911 times in 2021

836 posts created (17%)

4075 posts reblogged (83%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 4.9 posts.

I added 2,817 tags in 2021

#cool fanart - 967 posts

#cool art - 291 posts

#atla - 277 posts

#katara - 246 posts

#shadow and bone - 245 posts

#cute animals - 174 posts

#lol - 162 posts

#lin beifong - 158 posts

#asked and answered - 149 posts

#dick grayson - 148 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#like sometimes i've thought is it really baiting if the writers said multiple times it's not gonna happen but you really want it to happen

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

I just read that Bonnie is excluded from the musical episode. As if she and her family didn’t bleed countless times for that ungrateful town.

Julie Plec totally took the time to reflect and grow after her “black women can fix everything for everyone” Twitter meltdown. 🙄

901 notes • Posted 2021-02-05 03:37:37 GMT

#4

There are many things to love about Leverage, but most of all I just love the “fuck the high-road” energy. Yes, one of the messages is that there is always hope for redemption. But in a sea of “revenge makes you just as bad” stories it was so satisfying to watch the team take down those rich monsters who didn’t care who they hurt. 

1179 notes • Posted 2021-07-10 03:23:12 GMT

#3

thank you simone biles

for teaching us that winning isn’t just about doing well—it’s about being well. and that giving yourself grace doesn’t mean giving up. and that mental health issues are health issues. and that black health matters because black lives matter—words some only learned after breonna taylor was killed in her sleep. want to know why we’re tired? because it took a black woman dying as she rested to wake up a nation. that’s why your rest is radical, simone. that’s why your rest is resistance and restoration and restitution for life in a country that cages us like canaries, clips our feathers then asks why we don’t want to fly. america never learned why the caged bird sings. how would it know why it flies? if it did, perhaps it would’ve known how high you would soar, and that your wings deserve rest even if you’re better than the rest. 

-a.t. mcwilliams

1404 notes • Posted 2021-07-28 21:34:02 GMT

#2

Deep sigh. How is Diana managing to be the superior parent from beyond the grave? The bar was so low Charles. How does one simply not care about their family members’ safety? Stripping a baby of security when there are racist threats being made is a very special kind of cruel. And I get that these kinds of things tend to defy logic, but how do you learn nothing in twenty years? Harry and Meghan deserved better. 

2740 notes • Posted 2021-03-08 03:38:51 GMT

#1

12689 notes • Posted 2021-03-08 04:49:48 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #2021 #what a journey