Valinda

“The problem with 'happy' is a lot like the problem with Pluto. Several years ago, Pluto lost its designation as a planet, which caused a lot of uproar. But Pluto itself was never the problem. It's our definition of 'planet' that was the problem. 'Planet' comes from a Greek word, meaning 'wanderer,' and was used to describe bodies that move in the sky against a fixed background of stars. It was a vague way of describing a complex thing. Does a planet move in a fixed orbit around the sun? Does it clear a path within that orbit? Does it have moons? Does it have to be a certain size? These were questions that arose when we clarified our definition of 'planet.' THese were the smart questions that got Pluto downgraded. Pluto is no longer a planet because our definition of planet wasn't very good. I'm not 'happy' because our definition of happy isn't very good.”
― The Oatmeal

“This — not any particular piece of Vietnamese culture — is my inheritance, the inexplicable need and extraordinary ability to run when the shit hits the fan. My refugee reflex.”
― Thi Bui

“If, however, I understand racism as a system into which I was socialized, I can receive feedback on my problematic racial patterns as a helpful way to support my learning and growth. One of the greatest social fears for a white person is being told that something that we have said or done is racially problematic. Yet when someone lets us know that we have just done such a thing, rather than respond with gratitude and relief (after all, now that we are informed, we won’t do it again), we often respond with anger and denial.”
― Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

“To create a model, then, we make choices about what’s important enough to include, simplifying the world into a toy version that can be easily understood from which we can infer important facts and actions. We expect it to handle only one job and accept that it will occasionally act like a clueless machine, one with enormous blind spots.”
― Cathy O'Neil, Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy