Let's make it a little more international in here, yeah?
Recent Substack posts that made me think about the Diaspora, or questioned the status quo
Happy Tuesday, Everyone!
Things are bit chaotic over here at casa Prone to Hyperbole as we pack and prep for an awesome trip to the South of Spain and then Dubai, all while trying to stay on top of the kids’ routines and work - Sadly, they still have to go to school and eat and sleep and do their extra-curriculars. Sadly, we aren’t off until Friday, so there’s, you know, showing up at the office and doing our jobs. All of this has left precious little creative energy or time for writing, and I struggled a bit as I thought of what to bring you this week. In the end, I decided to share a short round-up of the best pieces I’ve read on here that widened my perspective as a citizen of the world.
My thinking
Substack is a primarily American and English space, where most of the writing is then centred on a North American or European experience. And when I say North American or European, a lot of the default culture in those spaces is white and/or English, rather than ethnic (Sidebar: the word ethnic, when not used in its purely academic sense, makes me feel a bit icky. But I can’t find a better word for what I’m trying to describe, so I fall back on it. I guess when I say ethnic, I’m trying to say “not part of the default white culture that we’re all swimming in whether we choose to be or not”). While I love this platform, I find myself missing the more global, BIPOC community that existed on Twitter-X-Whatever-it’s-called, and actively trying to rebuild that over here. It’s slow-going. I started a Notes thread to connect with other BIPOC creatives but there’s so few of us that we’re hard to find, and I’m sure the list could be longer. Add yourself below if this applies to you!
Meanwhile, every time I read a piece by a new BIPOC creative, I get super excited and want to amplify, so that’s what I’m doing this week! Sharing the pieces that spoke to me recently that have either a BIPOC or international flavour in some way or another.
Do you have Passport Privilege?
At the top of the list is this infuriating, unflinching piece by
, discussing something those of us with North American or European passports probably never think about. Case in point, I only considered whether I might need a visa for my trip about 3 days ago, and 5 minutes on Google reassured me that I was set. This is not the case for many. Do yourself a favour and read this piece.History is Coming for Us and It’s Going to Hurt
wrote this thought-provoking piece, which touched on a concept I’ve been pondering for a few years now - “history moves in cycles, and my fear is that America has been inordinately lucky during this recent cycle of history. My assertion is that our luck with history is due to run out.”I fear the same thing that David does, and can’t help but spend a lot of time worrying about it, as a citizen of Canada, America’s little brother. If you want to get anxious about geopolitics — without reading about a specific geopolitical event — I would recommend this piece right here.
It’s Where I’m From
wrote this beautiful piece about her relationship with her hometown of New Orleans. I always love pieces about home, and spend so much time thinking about it and how it shapes us. This piece explores New Orleans’ profoundly Black identity and Ambata’s relationship with it. 
Learning to Live with Chaos
I discovered
’s brilliant newsletter, the Cairo Dispatch, only a couple of weeks ago, and it’s been an absolute delight! Samantha is an American living in Cairo, the capital of my parents’ home country of Egypt, from which they immigrated to Canada. My visits to Egypt as a child were always both spectacular and overwhelming, and I could never quite put into words why. Samantha’s first post, below, articulates so well what makes this ancient city both thrum with life and shock the senses of any non-Cairene.
Thanks so so much for including me in this list of excellent, thought provoking articles. I’ve gulped up every one of these articles. The perspectives teach me a lot. That is what I most crave: new, unique and often voices that are excluded from mainstream media. I’m really happy I’ve found your work. Now, every time I open Substack, I’m excited about the content I will find - especially coming from you, the authors you mention here and other international authors I recently met. Thanks so much for writing this article.
Thanks for the mention and the recs for more good writing to check out!