Pisgah Legal Services in Asheville says a "perfect storm" for evictions is brewing, between the pandemic worsening, winter approaching and relief programs running out at year's end.(Photo: mphillips007, Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Todays batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:

Question: To what organizations or social service agencies can I contribute in order to help individuals and families who cannot pay the rent or meet their mortgage payments? I am lucky.I can continue to live on my pensions and Social Security. How can I pass it on?

My answer: I have sent you my address by personal message.

Real answer: First of all, I commend this reader for her altruistic nature and genuinely wanting to help others. Lord knows, we need as much of that sentiment in our country these days as possible.

More: COVID-19: Asheville commits $900K to help stop evictions, help with rent, homeless aid

Secondly, the need is tremendous, so her query is timely.

Pisgah Legal Services in Asheville works with a lot of folks struggling to pay the rent, and Executive Director Jim Barrett said a lot of folks are struggling.

Pisgah Legal continues to receive on average 1,000 calls each week, and the majority of those calls are related to urgent housing needs, Barrett said via email. "Furthermore, we are seeing more and more utility disconnects as households are unable to meet Duke Energy-required repayment plans and pay rising monthly utility bills due to colder weather.

As we reported in October, evictions in Buncombe County reached theirhighest point since the beginning of the pandemic, with 42 in September.The pandemic and subsequent economic downturn has increased the need for rental help substantially.

Pisgah Legal Services CEO Jim Barrett speaks at the memorial service for Minnie Jones, the longtime Asheville activist who died in February, at Nazareth First Baptist Missionary Church, Tuesday, March 17, 2015. (Photo: Katie Bailey/bkbailey@citizen-times.com)

"From July-September we opened 487 housing-related cases, compared to 295 during the same period in 2019, Barrett said. "And from the beginning of 2020 to September we closed 225 cases related to unemployment, compared to 14 during the same time last year.

More: Pisgah Legal overwhelmed: Thousands seek help with evictions, job loss, domestic violence

While North Carolina is still operating under an eviction moratorium, Barrett says not every tenant is protected. The moratorium order only halts evictions for those unable to pay their rent but doesn't extend to lease violations or the expiration of a renter's lease term.

It can get more complicated, Barrett said, because "tenants who qualify for the moratorium may not know that they must first try to find assistance, then fill out the CDCform affidavit to avail themselves of the moratorium." Also,enforcement of the moratorium is difficult, and Barrett says some people are being evicted who should be protected by it. Further, some households that qualify for the winter moratorium in utility disconnects (because of age or disability)are also unaware of that right and don'task for it.

This may seem obvious, but keeping people housed helps keep everyone safe, in part because it's healthier for the housed, partly because it keeps them from having to live in congregate settings such as homeless shelters. Barrett pointed to arecent University of Pennsylvania study that estimated that for every 70 evictions, one COVID-19 death could result.

Our front-line staff and volunteers are reporting more frustration and panic from folks across Western North Carolina who are contacting us for help, and with good reason," Barrett said.

He noted that the the federal stimulus money is gone, winter is coming, utility usage rises in cold months, and the eviction moratorium and COVID-related unemployment benefits end on Dec. 31.

"And when the moratorium does end, renters will still need to pay any back rent that has accrued," Barrett said. "For many, that will be a hefty bill they will not be able to meet.

He calls it a "perfect storm" of events, and Barrett wants folks to urge elected state officials to tap into "rainy day" funds to help people in need.

We need to act now to secure more resources and work with state, federal and local governments to keep people housed so that the situation doesnt become significantly worse," Barrett said. "We certainly appreciate any and all community donations to make this work possible."

Evie White, communications director at Pisgah Legal, compiled this list of organizations to which you can donate to help with rent and housing issues:

Buncombe County

ABCCM: Utility Assistance, Rent Assistance Main location: 828-259-5300; http://www.abccm.org.

Eblen Charities: Utility Assistance, Rent Assistance 828-255-3066; http://www.eblencharities.org.

Pisgah Legal Services: 828-210-3444; http://www.pisgahlegal.org/give.

Salvation Army of Buncombe County: Utility Assistance, Rent Assistance 828-253-4723; http://www.salvationarmycarolinas.org/commands/asheville.

OnTrack WNC: Financial Counseling 828-255-5166; https://ontrackwnc.org/.

Self-Help Credit Union: Small Business Lending 828-676-2196; http://www.self-help.org.

Homeward Bound: 828-258-1695; https://homewardboundwnc.org/.

Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministries: (828) 669-9404; http://www.svcmblackmountain.org/.

Henderson County

Thrive: 828.697.1581; https://thrive4health.org/.

Salvation Army of Hendersonville County - 828-693-4181; http://www.salvationarmycarolinas.org/Hendersonville/home.

Watauga, Avery, Mitchell, Yancey counties

WAMY Community Action 828-264-2421; https://www.wamycommunityaction.org/.

This is the opinion of John Boyle. To submit a question, contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com.

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Answer Man: How bad is the rent crisis? How can I help? - Citizen Times

Editors note: Many events are canceled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We recommend contacting the event host before attending to check.

Chico Seed Orchard: 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Visitors not allowed after dark. One-mile walking trail through botanical area in Edgar Slough. One restroom, no drinking water. Keep dogs leashed. 2741 Cramer Lane. Monday-Friday. No holidays.

Gray Lodge Wildlife Area: Sunrise to sunset. 9,100 acres of fields, riparian areas, ponds and waterways. Exhibits, self-guided nature trail, fishing, hunting; shelter for 300+ species of resident and migrant birds, mammals. 3207 Rutherford Road, Gridley. 846-7500.

Museum of Northern California Art (monca): Virtual only today. Exhibit, Selfie 2020. Juried exhibition about self after the first 10 months of 2020 and COVID. Over 40 unique works of art portray artists perspectives and visual history of life during COVID. 530-487-7272. http://www.monca.org. contact@monca.org.

Chico Art Center: All virtual. The Art of Remembrance: El Dio de los Muertos. Art and altar exhibition. Open Studios Art Tour: Art and crafts online; learn about creative processes. Search for artists who offer in-person visits, purchase tour guides ($15) in Chico and Oroville at chicoartcenter.com. ChicoOSAT.com, 895-8726. Questions, (530) 895-8726 or Debra Simpson at chicoartcenter@att.net . Gallery/exhibition questions, Cameron Kelly, ckelly@chicoartcenter.com or call (415) 823-4418.

Valene L. Smith Museum of Anthropology: Virtual. Unbroken Traditions: Basket-weavers of the Meadows-Bakers Family in Northern California. Also activities and online learning for families, K-12 learners and college students in the tour. csuchico.edu/anthmuseum/virtual-learning/virtual-exhibits. 898-5397.

Janet Turner Print Museum: Virtual. Celebrating artist Wayne Thiebaud, who turned 100 on Nov. 15. Examines the artistry of Thiebaud and his circle, including Richard Diebenkorn and Roy DeForest. http://www.csuchico.edu/turner/exhibitions/celebrating-wayne-thiebaud. 898-4476.

Gateway Science Museum: Virtual. Mission Aerospace, temporary exhibition that explores the history of flight, navigation and NASAs vision for the future. Wildflowers, Watercolor & Wonder, the Edward Stuhl Collection. Ocean Commotion in the Discovery Room. Chico. 898-4121. csuchico.edu/gateway.

Faith Lutheran Church: 1 p.m. COVID-19 Phone Prayer Group. To join, email billaugros@gmail.com.

Online choir for those experiencing Parkinsons Disease: 1-2:30 p.m. No singing experience necessary. Free online choir for people with Parkinsons Disease. Sessions by board-certified music therapists Erin Haley and Pam Sacha. Contact Pam, pamsachs1@gmail.com, for more information and to join online.

Vitalant Blood Drive: 8:15 a.m.-2 p.m. blood donation, 6:45 a.m.-1 p.m. platelet donation. 555 Rio Lindo Ave. Call 877-258-4825 or 893-5433 to confirm todays hours.

Catalyst Domestic Violence Services: To talk to a crisis counselor, call the 24-hour crisis/referral line, 1-800-895-8476. Temporary restraining order help for victims of domestic violence available free. Call 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday for appointments, individual counseling 343-7711.

Al-Anon (Alateens welcome): 6:30-7:30 p.m. Monday Night Study AFG. Email alanon.nc.d3@gmail.com for a Zoom invitation. zoomus. zoom.us. 342-5756. northerncaliforniaal-anon.org. Weekly.

Iversen Wellness & Recovery Center and Med Clinic: All meetings via Zoom. 9 a.m. Morning Meditation & Conversations; 10 a.m. 12-Step; 11 a.m. Why Not Try?; Noon Grief and Loss; 1 p.m. Wellness videos; 2 p.m. Processing Group; 3 p.m. Music Group. Dial-in at 408-638-0968. Password 8793311. Meeting ID: 441-359-7014. Must be 18 or older. Monday through Friday. Call the Center, 879-3311, to talk to a Peer Assistant (11 a.m.-2 p.m.) by phone or Video Chat via Zoom with meeting ID: 482-729-8075, Password 8793311. Virtual Peer Listening Room, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. daily. Wellness, 879-3311; Med Clinic, 879-3974; iversen@nvcss.org or nvcss.org/programs/iversen. 492 Rio Lindo Ave. Weekly.

HIV and Hepatitis C Testing: Through Stonewall Alliance by appointment. 358 E. Sixth St. Donations accepted. Information, 893-3336, email center@stonewallchico.org or visit stonewallchico.com.

Northern Valley Talk Line: 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Provides non-crisis peer to peer telephone service to the community seven days a week. 1-855-582-5554. Works in partnership with Butte County Department of Behavioral Health and Tehama County Health Service Agency.

Narcotics Anonymous: Noon, Chico NA, Zoom ID: 765 517 9374. Password: Gbana2020. Phone: 1-669-900-9128 765 517 9374#. 6 p.m. Chico Free to be Me LGBT. Zoom ID: 208 907 6618. Password: gbana. Call-in information unknown. 6 p.m. CNA, South Park Drive, Sycamore Fields at One Mile. Bring chairs or blankets. 7 p.m. Paradise Monday Night Speaker Zoom ID: 728 110215#. Password: gbana. Call in: 1-699-900-6833 728110215#. 24 hour meeting hotline 1-877-669-1669. Visit Greater Butte Area Narcotics Anonymous online for complete listings, calendar updates. 24-hour hotline: 1-877-669-1669.

Alcoholics Anonymous: Fellowship of Butte, Glenn and Southern Tehama counties hold meetings on Zoom. Visit aabutte-glenn.org/ or call 530-342-5756 for more information/updates. Four specific meetings plus four every-day meetings today.

Mental Health Peer Support: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Peer support specialists available for video chat, self-help support groups and resources. Butte County Department of Behavioral Health. Join by phone, computer or other device. Zoom ID: 809274979. Phone: 720-707-2699 or 346-248-7799.

Recovery International: 1, 4 and 5 p.m. Focus on symptoms, not diagnoses, of mental health and nervous disorders; stress, tension, anxiety, panic, mood disorders, fatigue, anger. Register: 1-619-383-2084 or email Debbie@recoveryinternational.org. Temporary phone meetings available if community meetings are closed. Weekly.

Submit calendar listings, corrections or updates by email calendar@chicoer.com, fax 342-3617 or mail Enterprise-Record, P.O. Box 9, Chico, CA, 95927. Meetings via Zoom or other platforms may be listed.

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Whats happening Monday in the north valley - Chico Enterprise-Record

Express News Service

HYDERABAD:With the mantra women drivers for women commuters, a non-profit startup in Hyderabad is training women from marginalised sections to drive vehicles. Dhairya Foundation, which was founded last year, aims to increase the participation of women from lower income groups in the workforce.

Speaking to Express, the co-founder of the venture, Prasanna Dommu, said: Though the pandemic has thrown a spanner in our work, we have trained four women to drive auto-rickshaws till now. Most of these women want to ferry schoolchildren in their autos within five km radius of their houses. In this way, they can reach their homes quickly to fulfil their family duties. An auto driver can earn upto Rs 20,000 per month, which is much more than what they earn as domestic helps. The training is provided free of cost.

But teaching women how to drive comes with its set of social ramifications. During our registration drive, we noticed that the husbands and in-laws of most of the women were not comfortable with the idea of the women driving and becoming self-reliant. They want women to stick to the traditional jobs of cleaning and even tailoring. Many of the men, who are also drivers, did not want their wives to earn as much as they do, says Prasanna.

The startup, incubated at WE Hub, was founded by Prasanna and Tindu Nikhat. These two women, who used to work in the same company, bonded over their passion to create something which would have a social impact. Having experienced the safety risks women have to face in the absence of women drivers, they realised that training women to be drivers could have overreaching effects on how women perceive public spaces.

Millions of women in India are from economically-weak backgrounds and survive on a day-to-day basis with no steady source of income. Most of these women are illiterate or have only rudimentary education, which forces them to depend on unsteady jobs like domestic help, daily labour, factory workers, etc. to earn a livelihood. Many of them, especially those who are single (widowed, never married or abandoned), subsist on incentives and loans extended by self-help groups, which though a major source of support, do not often equip these women with skills that translate into income generation in the long run.

"Lack of awareness and basic skills limit such women from utilising their potential and abilities to become financially independent, says Prasanna, who has 15 years of experience of working in diverse industries such as infrastructure, food, FMCG and IT. Currently, the startup is focussing on holding a crowdfunding campaign to enable the four trained women buy the auto-rickshaws they are driving. They are also training women to drive bikes, so that they can be recruited by e-commerce companies as delivery executives.

Kakoli Mukherjee kakoli_mukherjee@newindianexpress.com @KakoliMukherje2

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Driving their way to self-reliance - The New Indian Express

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

A THERAPIST ONCE ASKED me if Id felt lonely or excluded growing up. This was our first (and, as it turns out, last) session together. Having apparently displayed the hallmarks of early under-socialization within 20 minutes of us meeting, I answered something like, I was one of the only Asian kids at a very white school, I guess before he cut me off. I meant independently of that, he clarified, gazing up from his legal pad toward me, as if I wasnt thinking hard enough. In the moment I actually tried to answer his question, to explain myself and my existence independently of race. But when our time ran out, and I emerged from his dark basement office into the crisp afternoon sun, I realized that his sort of questioning had a lot to do with why Id sought out therapy in the first place.

That memory recently resurfaced after reading Cathy Park Hongs Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, which opens with her mental breakdown and subsequent pursuit of a specifically Korean American therapist so I wouldnt have to explain myself as much, Hong adds, which struck a chord, as did the sentiment that shes struggled to prove herself into existence for as long as she can remember. At a reading in Brooklyn, for example, a white man informs Hong that minorities cant be racist against each other, and that Asians the next in line to be white. (Reading the scene, my eyes roll all the way into the back of my skull.) Likewise, Hong balks at finding herself in the familiar predicament of not just educating a white person about race, but also testifying to the ontological legitimacy of her experience as an Asian American woman, knowing that her adversary has all of Western history, politics, literature, and mass culture on their side. I understood Hongs preference for a Korean American therapist as an attempt to rectify this imbalance, to find a witness who in their cultural affinity, would likely validate rather than question, dismiss, or effectively gaslight her version of reality. Lacking a witness, Hongs self-judgment is impaired and her self-doubt intensified. What she believes is an unprovoked decline thus unfolds as the by-product of this unrelenting pattern, like a lifelong affliction flaring up: having internalized the white gaze through a lifetimes conditioning, Hongs compulsive self-loathing becomes aggravated by racist gaslighting that insists these symptoms originate with her alone.

Published earlier this year, Hongs Asian American Reckoning aptly arrived within a moment of widespread reckoning with the legacy of colonialism. The white, mainstream perception of what constitutes racism is necessarily evolving toward a systemic understanding and as a result, attention is redirecting toward symptoms and sites of racism that were previously overlooked. In this context, a growing body of literature by women of color illustrates the influence of both race and gender on mental health outcomes, taking second-wave feminisms axiom the personal is political to probe the space between intensely private suffering and the public, politicized self. Put another way, such texts demonstrate how racism, once internalized, manifests in the private and interior life as depression, anxiety, or other mental disorders, which arent just suffered but often analyzed on an individual basis. Western culture prefers to conceptualize mental illnesses in terms of chemical imbalance, which disregards the way in which mental health is often highly situational not solely contingent upon individual biologies or specific traumas, but both caused and exacerbated by broader social contexts. This paradigm has historically plagued women of color, who are more likely to encounter the effects of discrimination yet less likely to attain effective mental health care, a confluence of factors that not only prolongs but augments their suffering.

To this dialogue, Hong adds the term minor feelings to describe the racialized range of negative affective qualities that are built from the sediments of everyday racial experience, rather than from acute incidents of racism alone. In borrowing from Sianne Ngais ugly feelings, Hong notes that its difficult to even recognize let alone reckon with minor feelings, since they closely resemble the somewhat ubiquitous symptoms of surviving late capitalism: both entail ongoing rather than acute experiences of irritability, hopelessness, and exhaustion, within conditions that individuals are praised for (or rather, forced into) enduring, rather than encouraged to question or subvert. In Hongs minor feelings, I heard echoes of the racial melancholia described by professor David Eng and psychotherapist Shinhee Han in their book on the subject, which they co-authored after noticing, in their respective roles at Columbia University, the wave of depression experienced by Asian American students. As with Hongs minor feelings, Eng and Han distinguish racial melancholia from the grief which arises following identifiable loss; what they observed was a more amorphous form of permanent mourning, as Hua Hsu put it in The New Yorker: a form was produced or exacerbated by racial contexts, and that involved the additional stress of pinpointing an identifiable root of a seemingly causeless condition.

In each of these cases, semantic nuance provides not just common language, but equal grounds for a more equitable and effective patient-therapist relationship. This is particularly pertinent for BIPOC patients, whose cultural backgrounds often foster skepticism of, if not aversion to, mental health-care services: apart from the prohibitive cost of treatment, recent census data reveals that 86 percent of US psychologists are white, [1]a demographic that increases the likelihood of social inequities amplifying the preexisting power asymmetry that inherently exists between patient and clinician. Tuscarora writer Alicia Elliott explores this dynamic in her debut essay collection A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, which begins during her first therapy session with a white, male therapist. The scenario bears an unsettling resemblance to residential schools: Elliott likens her therapists role in curing her depression to the priests and nuns who cured her ancestors of being Indian. You need to give me something here, demands Elliotts therapist, when shes unable to identify the specific cause of her depression, in the process replicating the colonial power inequity that has contributed to her despondency. As in Hongs case, Elliotts onus is one of ontological proof: shes berated for not saying the right words to explain herself and her situation, an act of self-translation dictated by the colonizers lexicon and limited legibility.

Lost in cultural translation, Elliott underscores the inherent incompatibility between Indigenous experience and the mental health-care system; beyond the sticks-and-stones brutality of occupation, colonialisms erasures are felt through the words or rather, lack thereof, that contribute to the mistreatment of Indigenous patients. Mainstream frameworks preclude the influence of social factors upon mental health outcomes, which compounds the crucial lexical gaps within Indigenous languages: the books title, for example, comes from the closest Mohawk equivalent for depression, which groups together both reactive depression and endogenous depression, the latter recalling Hongs minor feelings and the racial melancholia described by Eng and Han. If we had more terms and definitions backing up our understanding of depression, Elliott writes, would we have been better equipped to deal with it when its effects began tearing our communities apart? In other words, what gets lost with generality is the agency to understand and effectively treat variants of depression. This, alongside related factors, drives disproportionate suicide rates: a rare occurrence in Six Nations communities pre-colonization, suicide is now the leading cause of death for Native people under 44. Concretizing this loss, Elliott likens the Canadian government to an abusive father, its occupation of Native land to attending an Indigenous funeral every day, maybe even two funerals, for five to ten years. These analogies convey traumas as intimate as they are inescapable, ones that reverberate through communities and, in the process, generate aftershocks within individual and interior lives.

Failed by therapy, Elliott resorts to self-diagnosis through the Depression Inventory in a self-help book and notes that her symptoms of guilt, hopelessness, and self-criticism basically double as a checklist for the effects of colonialism on our people. Making this parallel, Elliott implies that colonialism and depression arent just inextricably linked but in many ways interchangeable aspects of Indigenous experience. In Racial Melancholia, Cheng suggests this relationship between racism and melancholia can go both ways; that [o]ne isnt melancholy simply because of the experience of racism, but rather, that melancholy and its dynamics of loss and recovery can eventually become foundations for racial identity. Put differently, Chengs projection elucidates what Id loosely call a psycho-postcolonial reading: if the sociologist would interpret Elliotts depression as representative of larger a demographic, a psycho-postcolonial reading could complement this view, taking the interior space as a vital vehicle through which both internal and broader cultural insights are gleaned, a space through which identity is both refracted and possibly reconstructed.

Phrased another way, the act of self-reconstruction is that of self-narrativization; an act more difficult but for that reason necessary for women of color, who risk being subsumed by the master narratives of society. In that spirit, Margo Jeffersons Negroland grapples with questions of self-narrativization as theyre informed by growing up in Chicagos Black elite during the 1950s and 1960s. Negroland, as Jefferson calls it, exists like a third space or borderland between whites and Blacks, a place defined in both physical and attitudinal terms, one that sustains and is sustained by a pernicious cultural narrative: that racial equality is contingent upon Blacks proving their likeness to whites. Though hers was a community of relative privilege and plenty, Jefferson contrasts the tonal range of white entitlement with the conditional privilege of Blacks, which was confined within strict lanes of social decorum since Blacks, intimating and internalizing the double-standard set by whites, demanded perfect mastery of comportments rituals from Jefferson. In this way, the premise of class ascension equated to another type of confinement, since notions of Black freedom precluded the freedom to fail. With external failure out of the question, Jefferson writes, internal discord seemed the only protest mode, a way to reclaim the self that had been claustrophobically crowded out by social codes. In Jeffersons case, this internal discord escalates into suicidal ideation.

If the notion of death allures Jefferson with the promise of freedom, then its concrete realization bears the prescriptiveness of her life: on one hand, she feels the obligation to give the other girls of Negroland a death they can live up to, yet on the other, any rebellion is fundamentally denied the privilege of freely yielding to depression, of flaunting neurosis as a mark of social and psychic complexity, as is glorified in the literature of white female suffering and resistance. If Black subjectivity, in other words, must be earned, then the complexity of emotional turmoil at least as it is enjoyed and narrativized by white women is almost completely out of the question. Where white female vulnerability is valorized and Black female strength expected, Jefferson finds idols in Adrienne Kennedy, Nella Larsen, and Ntozake Shange, writers who carved out their own space between these two narrative poles, managing to adapt [their] solo life, Jefferson writes, to a group obbligato. The alternative is to risk defaulting to white narratives, none more enticing than the fantasies fabricated from white ideals. Jefferson chides her childhood self for being cheerily sure, for example, that washing her hair would turn it blonde; the adult Jefferson reprimands herself for submitting to the illusion, recoils from its implications. No one escapes her time and place, she writes, like an incantation, talking herself down with the words of her therapist: A fantasy is a construction, she continues, before finding some slight reprieve in a Chekovian moment, and the realization that the generations that come after will not have to endure these shaming constructions, the ugly stories that wove in and out of her life, threatening to end it.

In unraveling her story on the page, allowing and in fact challenging it to be necessarily messy, Jefferson leaves a record in this archive of ugly stories and shaming constructions that, by its sheer existence, proves the possibility of alternative narratives. Which is not to say that Jefferson finds her own narrative exceptional, or even satisfactory. The human psyche is pathetic, she maintains, to the very end, adding on her memoirs final page that there are days when I still want to dismantle this constructed self of mine. Its not clear, here, which constructed self Jefferson is alluding to: the constructed self of her text, or the one she constructs, and reconstructs, in a collaborative effort with her psychotherapist each week. Possibly neither, though maybe the distinctions are somewhat redundant in this case. With the words of her therapist recurring intermittently throughout her memoir, Jefferson maintains the spaces of therapy and of literature as complementary sites of active narrativization, each informing the other. In real life, in literature, and on-screen, its still relatively rare to observe women of color in therapy; Jeffersons memoir crucially normalizes this practice. Beyond its representational value, however, involving therapy as a type of genre importantly gestures toward questions of narrativization: how might women of color, through acts of self-construction, effectively narrativize their own suffering within a culture that has historically resisted such stories?

Hong pursues this project more explicitly. She parses the conventions of contemporary American literature in her essay Stand Up, an analysis of Richard Pryors comedy and relatedly, the evolution of her self-expression through a brief stint in comedy. By inviting stand-up and other nontraditional forms to inform her literature, Hong loosens the authority of conventional literary forms as theyre espoused by institutions of narrativization not only the hallowed halls of MFA programs and award committees, but also the stories that are written and revered by white men (though these categories, of course, share great overlap). In a later essay on The End of White Innocence, Hong contrasts enduring archetypes of nostalgic and wholesome white childhood with popular minority literatures, which often proceed through a bildungsroman of survival and self-determination. These proclivities, bordering on propaganda, furnish a certain politics: one that, in its obsession with self-sufficiency, bolsters the model minority myth and subsequently undermines a structural understanding of racism; one that is sympathetic to the missteps of white men, even at the expense of already marginalized people; one that recognizes racism or racial trauma solely in its spectacle-like, Hollywood-worthy form. No wonder Hong describes her experiences as specifically untelegenic, Elliott similarly noting her story isnt the normal, charming, made-for-TV type of dysfunctional. In art, as in life, the white gaze remains trained on the most visible, acute, or sensational incidents of racism above the waterline, ones that offer neat conclusions and as a bonus, self-congratulatory story lines. As a result, the everyday grievances of racial minorities call them minor feelings, racial melancholia, or endogenous depression disappear under the surface, literally out of sight and, accordingly, out of public mind.

In the process, women of color continue to be compromised, their lives dismantled if not by disorder then by degrees: Elliott, for example, prefers faking intimacy in new friendships to explaining herself anew; Jefferson identifies with Nella Larsens heroines, who stumble into suicide less by intention and more by misadventure or miscalculation, through avoiding stringent self-reflection; Hong feels consistently ghosted, inherently skeptical of the version of reality which she sees and hears. Though if dismantling occurs incrementally, so too can the process of self-reconstruction: by writing intimately, with stringent self-reflection, and through the eyes and ears of a specific subjectivity that society continues to deny. In these ways, Hong, Elliott, and Jefferson crucially construct both selves and self-witnesses, entities both of and outside themselves.

Kim Hew-Low is a writer based in New York City. She is currently pursuing an MFA in nonfiction writing at Columbia University.

[1] According to 2015 census data.

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This Constructed Self of Mine: On the Narrative Possibilities of Racial Melancholia - lareviewofbooks

When employees and employers have mutual trust and support, resilience is inevitable, and both ... [+] benefit.

Dont tell me the skys the limit when there are footprints on the moon.Paul Brandt

Its not accidental that some companies have higher employee engagement, morale and productivity and lower absenteeism, burnout and turnover. What are they doing that separates them from organizations lagging behind? They make employee resilience and well-being top priority. But theres an irony to this story. By putting employee self-care at the top of the list, top-notch companies automatically boost the organizations bottom line.

A Winning Frame Of Mind

Michele Sullivan, former President of the Caterpillar Foundation, was born with a rare form of dwarfism that created many challenges in her daily life. She is the epitome of a resilient corporate leader, having once told me: For you, having a door held may be a very nice gesture from a stranger. For me, it is a requirement to enter most buildings that do not have automatic doors. It requires me to ask for a lot of help, and once I finally learned to embrace that reality, the universe answered back with thunderous support. Where I had once seen obstacles, I changed my perspective and viewed them instead as advantages. I now call this the Looking Up philosophy, and it is how I live my life each day.

Michele is so caught up in looking at the advantages that they eclipse her losses. Shes a challenged woman living a rich life, simply because of her perspective. Few of us have Micheles challenge and still have difficulty coping. Compare Micheles perspective to that of Ralph, who came barreling into my office during tax season, slinging his backpack onto the sofa and spurting curse words. When I asked him what was the matter, he groaned that he had to pay a half million dollars in taxes. When I asked how much he made for the year, he offhandedly mumbled, Oh, five or six million. Ralph was so caught up in his loss that it eclipsed his gaina rich man living an impoverished life.

Some career people are born with pit-bull determination, less affected by stressful situations and more resilient to change. Others are more vulnerable to the arrows of everyday pressures. But regardless of where you fall, you can cultivate a winning frame of mind also known as a growth mindsetthe belief that defeat happens for you, not to you. If you have a growth mindset, you consider success and failure a package deallike a hand and glove, milk and cookies, flip sides of the same cointwins, not enemies. Its an understanding that avoidance of failure morphs into avoidance of success. In order to attain what you want, you recognize you must be willing to accept what you dont want. Instead of giving up, you welcome obstacles, setbacks and disappointmentsno matter how painful, frustrating, big or smallas opportunities to grow and learn instead of as defeat.

You think of defeat as a personal trainer when hopelessness sets in after a setback: an impossible deadline, a lousy review from your boss, a missed promotion or the rumble of your own self-doubt. You tell yourself you want to give up, but you dont really want to quit. You just want the hurt and disappointment to stop, understandably so. At the time that might feel like the only option, but it isnt. Perhaps you havent actually failed. Chances are, failure is what you call it when you dont meet career expectations, things dont turn out the way you planned or youre simply traversing a valley that everyone goes through before reaching the mountain of success. Failure is heartbreaking, but it can also be an impetus to keep going when you possess the following traits:

10 Habits of Resilient Employees

1. Grow thick skin and expect rejection and setbacks. Commit yourself in advance to facing the many smack downs you will encounter like all successful people before you.

2. Ditch the desire for comfort and step into growth pains. Be willing to go to the edge of your emotional pain so you can be fully present with what lays beyond the barrier.

3. Be willing to postpone immediate gratification in the short term for the fulfillment of your goals in the long term.

4. Cultivate spring back sustainability. Think of yourself as an elastic band that bends and stretches to a certain point before you spring back higher than you fall.

5. Refer to previous experience. Reflect on past obstacles youve overcome in your climb. Point to lessons learned and your personal resources and underscore ways you have grown stronger through past hard knocks.

6. Identify self-doubts that have cramped your work style or crippled you from growing fully. Harness theminstead of running from themand channel them into useful skills so they dont paralyze you.

7. Stay off the roller coaster. Manage the ups-and-downs of your life by treating highs and lows equally. Celebrate the highs but dont take them any more seriously than the lows, and dont take smack downs any more seriously than upswings.

8. Eschew the what-the-hell effect. This attitude only adds insult to injury. Face letdowns by taking the towel you want to throw in and use it to wipe the sweat off your face then ask, what you can learn that will help you grow.

9. Practice positive self-talk and optimism. Avoid negative put-downs and criticisms. Instead of bludgeoning yourself after a setback, give yourself positive affirmations and encouragement to get back in the saddle.

10. Catch yourself when you fall. After a setback or discouraging situation, your motivation bounces back quicker when you support yourself with compassion. Instead of kicking yourself when youre down, be on your own side, wish yourself well, and be your number one cheerleader as you progress on your career trajectory.

Exemplary Companies Support Workforce Resilience

In order to achieve your career goals and move the company in the right direction, resilient workers need the support of upper management. When an employers support is absent, workers feel like theyre on an island on their own. Truth be told, they are. Several 2020 surveys show that the American workforce feels unappreciated and ignored from higher-ups and gratitude and appreciation is what they want to improve their engagement, performance and mental health. Although resilience is each workers individual responsibility, its difficult to accomplishno matter how resilient, motivated and devoted to the jobif the employer isnt on board with their well-being. But when companies put policies in place that foster workplace resilience, everybody benefits. So what does resilient leadership look like?

In a resilient workplace, company higher-ups make employee mental and physical health a priority.They have a clear vision for workers and display strong, confident leadership. They give meaningful and balanced feedback and dole out appreciation and gratitude like throwing doubloons at a Mardi Gras parade. Resilient companies prioritize self-care and understand it goes hand in hand with job performance. They listen to employees and show empathy, factoring worker concerns into their decision making. They are committed to creating psychological safety and open communication, and they set the stage by example. When resilient leaders are wrong, dont have an answer or make a mistake, they admit it instead of covering it up, and they encourage employees to do the same. This type of honesty builds mutual trust and provides psychological safety, giving employees autonomy to make decisions and think outside the box without fear of reprisal.

Once you have the support of a successful workplace in your hip pocket, the rest is up to your growth mindset. You start to accept failure as an essential stepping-stone to career success, you give yourself permission to make the mistakes necessary to get where you want to go. The more you accept failure, the more opportunities you have to accept success and bounce back higher than you fall. And every time you failinstead of giving upyou do what every successful career climber before you did: take the towel you want to throw in, wipe the sweat off your brow and plot your next forward move.

Link:
10 Habits Of Resilient Employees And How Company Leaders Can Support Them - Forbes

It is easy to get to the breaking point. The constant stresses brought on by Covid-19, compounded by the constant exposure to bad news and negative stories is enough to wear on anyone to the point you feel like you are over it.

But there may be something you can do to manage the newfound stresses and find the balance you are looking for.

During Local Profiles Women in Business Summit, presented by Baylor Scott & White Health, Dr. Kenleigh McMinn, a clinical psychologist with Baylor Scott & White Medical Psychology Consultants, shared four self-care techniques that have been shown to reduce stress and increase well-being.

When it comes to sleep, Dr. McMinn points out that both quantity and quality matter.

Its one thing to say I got 10 hours of sleep last night, but if you were tossing and turning that isnt good quality, Dr. McMinn says. And you might not be as rested if you got 6 or 7 hours of good quality sleep.

So how do you increase the quality of your sleep? Dr. McMinn suggests improving your sleep hygiene:

consistently sleep/wake at the same time

sleep in a dark, quiet, cool room

find relaxing bedtime routines

limit screen time before bed as well as caffeine and alcohol

dont watch the clock if you are struggling to sleep.

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During the presentation Dr. McMinn also points out one of the biggest benefits to physical activity may actually be its affect on your mental health.

In addition to helping balance your weight, she says that moving at least 150 minutes a week (as recommended by the American Heart Association), can lead to better sleep, memory balance and lowers risk of depression.

It could be 30 minutes 5 days a week, longer stretches of 60 minutes, or it could be 5-15 minutes at a time whatever you need to do to try to get it in, Dr. McMinn says.

Dr. McMinn adds that even a quick walk can affect stress levels and productivity, a benefit that is amplified by being outdoors around trees or greenery.

We know exercise is good for us, she says. We just have to make time for it

Mindfulness has become a popular word in pop psychology, but its popularity may be warranted. Dr McMinn notes in her presentation the practice has led to reduced stress, improved focus and memory, and decreases in emotional reactivity.

Some may have a preconceived notion that mindfulness has to be an intensive, formal meditation practice, but it is easy to get started. Dr. McMinn suggests using mindfulness apps like Calm, Smiling Mind, or Headspace and using them whenever you have a free moment.

Put it where your most commonly used app usually sits, she says. This will help you fill the minutes you might have spent mindlessly scrolling with a mindfulness exercise instead.

Even if there are some things going wrong in the world, there is plenty to be grateful for, Dr. McMinn says. So make the effort to show your gratitude at home and work.

Dr. McMinn recommends starting with the simple exercise of writing down one to three things you are grateful for on a sheet of paper at home. Then at work, you can show your gratitude by sending a quick letter or email to someone you appreciate by noting the situation, describing the behavior, and sharing the impact it had on you.

The exercises help retrain your brain to focus more on positives than negatives, she says.

Women in Business Wednesdays is an email series brought to you by Baylor Scott & White Health, an advertiser with Local Profile.

Read the original here:
At Home Learning, Covid-19, and Working from Home: Managing Stress of 2020 and Beyond - Local Profile

After 15 years of sharing space in Pierson with the Farmworker Association of Florida, a credit union that helps underserved communities finally has moved its office to DeLand.

Self-Help Credit Union opened Nov. 12 at 1104 S. Woodland Blvd., where a number of other businesses including a different credit union have operated over the years.

Self-Help bought the property in April 2019 for $395,000, but it took longer than anticipated to get the property ready to open for business, Adelcio Lugo, a regional manager for the credit union, told The West Volusia Beacon.

It took a little while to get the permits and approvals, and then to get the renovations started and done, Lugo said, adding that the new location will better serve its clientele, which for the most part lives in the DeLand area.

Lots of people live and work in DeLand, so being in DeLand gives us the opportunity to continue to grow, he said.

The new branch is managed by Marcia Pardo, a DeLand resident who oversees two other employees, Lugo said.

THE WOMAN IN CHARGE Marcia Pardo is the manager of the new Self-Help Credit Union branch in DeLand. Pardo was assistant manager when the branch operated in Pierson but was promoted when the DeLand office opened.

Self-Help C.U. is a Community Development Financial Institution, a designation by the U.S. Treasury Department for private-sector financial institutions that focus primarily on personal lending and business-development efforts in poorer local communities requiring revitalization.

Lugo said as a CDFI, Self-Help is a nonprofit organization whose goal is for people to help themselves and other people.

We are not here to compete with other credit unions, he said. We serve a different market of low- and moderate-income working families who are often left behind by other financial institutions. Our credit union is very attuned to the community and a sense of helping each other.

Founded in Durham, North Carolina, in 1980, Self-Help is a nonprofit community-development lender, real estate developer and credit union that serves communities traditionally underserved by conventional markets in California, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin, according to a news release.

There are five other Self-Help branches in Florida one in Apopka and four in Jacksonville.

Self-Help Credit Union helps drive economic development and strengthen communities by providing responsible financial services; lending to individuals, small businesses and nonprofits; developing real estate; and promoting fair financial practices across the nation, the news release adds.

Self-Help offers a full range of financial products and services, including personal, vehicle, mortgage and business loans. Self-Help also offers a dynamic online and mobile banking system.

The DeLand branch opens at 10 a.m. every weekday, and closes at 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

For more information on how to join, go to http://www.self-help.org or call 386-749-1718, a number that is being transferred from Pierson, Lugo said.

View original post here:
Credit union moves to DeLand | Business | beacononlinenews.com - The West Volusia Beacon

HarborOne Bank broke ground on its new Middleboro branch location at 2 West Grove Street on Thursday, November 19 for a move that comes after 20 years in its previous location.

The new Middleboro branch location will feature a design and services that make for a more convenient and efficient way to bank for our customers, said James Blake, CEO of HarborOne Bank. This state-of-the-art branch will help us better serve both business and consumer clients while maintaining the same experienced team of bankers that are focused on helping customers meet their short and long term financial goals.

The new branch will feature comprehensive retail and consumer banking services, a full suite of small business and commercial banking products and services, and an array of credit and lending products for both commercial and personal banking needs. The existing team of highly trained finance relationship experts will continue to execute HarborOnes unique partnership approach to fulfilling all customer needs from loans and lines of credit to checking and savings accounts.

The HarborOne model centers on building strong relationships between experienced consumer and business banking professionals and clients looking to reach and exceed financial goals. The bank also provides new technologies that allow a seamless self-service banking experience, which consumers have come to appreciate throughout the pandemic, and which provides all facets of electronic banking.

HarborOne Bank, headquartered in Massachusetts, has $4.43 billion in assets. It serves the financial needs of consumers, businesses, and municipalities throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island through a network of 25 full-service branches, one limited service branch, and commercial loan offices in Providence and Boston. HarborOne has been included in Forbes Best in State Banks list for three consecutive years.

The Bank also provides a range of educational services through HarborOne U, with classes on small business, financial literacy and personal enrichment at two campuses located adjacent to our Brockton and Mansfield locations. HarborOne Mortgage, LLC, a subsidiary of HarborOne Bank, is a full-service mortgage lender with more than 30 offices in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, and New Jersey and is also licensed to lend in four additional states

See the original post here:
HarborOne Bank breaks ground at new West Grove Street location - SouthCoastToday.com

Work/life balance can be a tight-wire act, but following certain tips can keep you on kilter during ... [+] the holidays.

As the prolonged pandemic continues to batter the American economy, it has produced a high level of stress and burnout. MindEdge Learning and the HR Certification Institute (HRCI) conducted a national survey of 757 HR Professionals between September 15 and October 2, 2020. Three quarters of the respondents (75%) reported an increase in their employees burnout due to stress from Covid-19, and 53% reported that their companies have introduced new benefits to help employees deal with stress or plan to do so in the near future.

In another study, Skynova surveyed over 1,150 employed Americans, including 400 managers and found that nearly 1 in 3 employees dont feel encouraged to take work breaks while working from home with nearly 1 in 4 employees stating they can never take a break. Nearly 1 in 6 managers surveyed don't encourage their team to take breaks while working from home. Overall, respondents who skip lunch are over two times more likely to say they're stressed out and twice as likely to report feeling burned out

Balancing work and home life have become more complex due to Covid-19, especially where school-age children are involved. If pandemic life has made it necessary for you to stress yourself out to get everything done, you could be one of millions who considers this strategy to be an essential survival tool in a culture that expects you to do it all and do it well. On the one hand, there is pressure to do more at work, take on extra responsibilities or even adjust to unfamiliar roles due to company pivots or cutbacks. On the flip side, family pressures and responsibilities and your own self-care dont automatically disappear. Balancing work and personal life can be tricky but certainly not impossible. Knowing where to start is key, and for all of us it begins with self-care.

What Is Self-Care?

If youre in the habit of putting your needs at the bottom of the list to meet work or personal demands, you cant be the best version of you.Self-care prepares you to give more to others. When you put yourself first, theres more of you to go around. I sat down with environmental activist Erin Brockovich and asked her how she mitigates stress and burnout with all she continues to accomplish. As a single mom with no job in 1993, she used her pit-bull determination to help residents of Hinkley, California win a massive arbitration against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Her efforts were extolled in the biographical film, Erin Brockovich, in which actress Julia Roberts won an Oscar dramatizing Brockovichs true story. The regimen Brockovich uses to recharge her own busy life is a great example of self-care:

The busyness of life can take our spirit from us, but it can be renewed. When Im quiet, I remember to breathe and be mindful. I think of the simple things and go outdoors and connect with the environment where I can think and hear myself whether its sitting at the ocean or swinging in my backyard on a late summers night. Or just stopping to appreciate (ahh) the smell of rain. Or feeling a breeze across my face. I start looking at the formation of the clouds, enjoy the sun on my face, or the grandeur of a tall tree, how old it is and wonder what it knows. You get to that place where youre just being, and feel total renewal. Thats my recharge so I can go out the next day and go at it again.

Get Off Autopilot

The human body has a mind of its own, tensing and tightening in reaction to the daily work grind. Your body is hard wired to think for you so you can survive while managing the big picture of your lifelike paying bills, managing your portfolio, carpooling the kids or burning the midnight oil to meet a deadline. Its called muscle memory, and we couldnt function without it.

Remember when you first learned to ride a bike or drive a car? If you were like most people, you had to think of each step: adjust the seat, put on your seat belt, start the motor, release the handbrake, put it in gear and so forth. If we did this every time we went somewhere, wed be exhausted before we started our workday. Thank goodness for autopilot. Your body constantly responds to lifes stressors while youre busy with career pursuits. But as much as autopilot helps us function, theres a downside. Its easy to turn everything over to autopilot. When we get caught in our daily routines and lose sight of the big picture, our lives start to feel off-kilter.

If you dont listen and take care of your body, it will grab your attention by speaking to you in a stern voice: headaches, indigestion, body aches and pains or muscle spasms. When we live on autopilot for long stretches and bring work-related stress into personal time, we lose touch with our bodies and minds and the friends and family we love most.

Present-Moment Awareness

Present-moment awareness or mindfulness can help us live a more balanced life. In the past when I had a deadline, my shoulders unwittingly hunched up to my ears in reaction to the pressure. After I became aware of it, I started to make a concerted effort to keep those muscles relaxed. When we start to become better acquainted with our bodies, listen to them and take care of them, we notice a huge drop in our stress levels.

Creating balance is much like driving a car when the gas and brakes work together. These 10 tips can help you develop a self-care plan and maintain work/life balance during the holidays:

In addition to these 10 tips, make sure you realize youve hit your breaking point long before stress-warning signs set in. Instead of pushing past them, cushion your workday to soften stress blows. Avoid putting yourself under unrealistic deadlines. Spread job tasks over reasonable time frames. Build time cushions between Zoom meetings. Try leaving for your workstation (even if youre working remotely) 10 or 15 minutes earlier so you wont start your day in a hurry. Ease into your workday instead of catapulting into it. Unplug at the end of the day and set boundaries to protect your personal and private time. If a colleague asks you to do something when youre already overloaded, learn to say no.

In order to apply your creative instincts at work, you need a clear and calm mind to consider limitless possibilities and think outside the box. Think of work/life balance as the Olympics. Your physical and mental endurance hinges on being in good shape. Prepare yourself by taking care of your physical health outside of work. Prime yourself with good nutrition, vigorous exercise and ample sleep. When you carve out time to recharge and replenish, you give yourself the space to think outside the box in entirely new ways. The payoff is you become a more balanced person, family member and productive worker and thrive amidst holiday stress.

Continued here:
10 Tips To Find Balance And Thrive In Your Career During The Holidays - Forbes

Bigorexia, also known as muscle dysmorphia, is a health condition that can cause you to think constantly about building muscle on your body.

Bigorexia shares some of the same symptoms as other disorders like anorexia nervosa and is a type of body dysmorphic disorder.

Bigorexia appears to be on the rise, especially among young adults. Lets take a look at the symptoms, risk factors, coping strategies, and treatments available for muscle dysmorphia.

Bigorexia is defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) as a body dysmorphic disorder that triggers a preoccupation with the idea that your body is too small or not muscular enough.

When you have bigorexia, you are fixated on the thought that there is something wrong with the way that your body looks. That can influence your behavior.

Muscle dysmorphia can look like many things, including:

When left untreated, bigorexia can escalate and lead to:

Other mental health conditions, such as disordered eating and obsessive-compulsive disorder, may also play a role in this condition.

There is still some debate in the medical community on whether bigorexia should be classified simply as a body dysmorphic disorder, or if it has more in common with eating disorders or addiction.

Bigorexia is primarily a psychological condition, though it can appear in physical ways.

Someone with bigorexia might experience some of the following symptoms:

Many symptoms of bigorexia may feel relatively normal. But when you are pushing your body to achieve fitness goals that always seem out of reach, there may be more going on than simply wanting to be in good shape.

Its not always clear who will experience bigorexia.

As the Mayo Clinic points out, certain life experiences and underlying psychological factors may make you more likely to have body dysmorphia.

Both women and men can have muscle dysmorphia. Negative experiences during childhood, such as bullying or teasing about your size, may play a role in having this condition.

A 2019 study of over 14,000 young people found that 22 percent of males and 5 percent of females reported having disordered eating patterns linked to working out and getting more muscular.

The same study also found that having other mental health conditions can put you at higher risk for bigorexia. People into bodybuilding, certain sports, or wrestling communities are also more likely to have this condition.

If you have bigorexia, you may be looking for ways to control your symptoms.

While there are some things that you can do at home, you may need to seek a professional mental health provider to treat your condition.

You can start treating muscle dysmorphia today by making changes, including:

You may also want to start your treatment by calling or starting an online chat with the National Eating Disorder Helpline.

You may also want to speak to a mental health professional about your symptoms, especially if muscle dysmorphia is impacting your relationships and causing you to consider self-harm.

These treatments may include:

If you have muscle dysmorphia along with other mental health conditions, your provider may recommend a medication like a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) to help stabilize your moods during treatment.

Living with bigorexia means finding coping strategies that work.

These strategies can help you with your symptoms and give you a sense of control:

Youre far from alone in living with bigorexia, whether you or someone you know experiences these symptoms.

Its now estimated that 1 in 50 people have some type of body dysmorphia. A documentary called Bigorexia has shed light on the way that muscle dysmorphia impacts the professional bodybuilding community.

Talking to a friend, family member, or someone else you trust about your experiences with bigorexia can be a helpful first step in taking control back of your life from an obsession with looking a certain way.

If you are having thoughts of self-harm because of bigorexia or any mental health condition, reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or text HOME to 741741 to speak with a counselor today.

Muscle dysmorphia is a real health condition, and symptoms can be difficult to manage.

More people are becoming aware of body dysmorphia and related problems since public figures, including Jane Fonda, Elton John, Princess Diana, Lady Gaga, Zayn Malik, and Taylor Swift, have grown honest about having body image concerns.

As more people speak out about living with this condition, the stigma and myths around it can dissipate.

There is help and support for you if you are living with muscle dysmorphia. A mental health provider can get you started on a treatment plan, and self-care changes can get your symptoms under control.

Read more from the original source:
What Is Bigorexia? Definition, Symptoms, Coping & More - Healthline