Happy Friday!
The actor and rapper Riz Ahmed—who you might recognize from The Night Of, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Girls, or the hip hop duo the Swet Shop Boys—addressed the British Parliament last week about the importance of showing a multitude of faces in TV and movies. Talking about onscreen diversity, Ahmed re-framed the topic—one that admittedly can make some eyes glaze over—and addressed the question of why the arts matter at all. (That said, I could watch this man read a phone book. If you’re not familiar, beware that Ahmed’s rap videos are addictive.)
Ahmed told the members of Parliament that what he, as an actor and a creator, shared with them was a hand in shaping culture—and with that, a responsibility to represent a broad swath of people.
“What people are looking for is a message that they belong, that they’re part of something,” said Ahmed. “That they are seen and heard and that despite—or perhaps because of—the uniqueness of their experience, that they are valued. They want to feel represented. That’s really what we do. That’s what we have in common. That’s the game we’re in. We’re here to represent.”
The conversation around “diversity,” he said, is flawed, because it sounds optional. “We’re talking about representation, not diversity,” he said. “Representation is not an added extra, it’s not a frill. It’s absolutely fundamental to what people expect from culture and from politics.”
Culture forms and reflects our identity—and people can’t see themselves in it, it’s not working. You can watch Ahmed’s 20-minute talk here.
The woman helping Giphy represent. In a delightful episode of the podcast #AIATLA (which stands for “Am I allowed to like anything?”), host Darian Symoné Harvin interviewed Jasmyn Lawson, the culture editor at Giphy—the public repository, search engine, and creator of animated images like those you often see in this newsletter.
Like novels, movies, and TV shows, GIFs are pieces of culture—and like emoji, we frequently use them to communicate an emotion. So it’s gratifying to find one in which we feel uniquely reflected.
Lawson (above) talked about making sure those GIFs represent the internet’s vast diversity of users, and are well tagged for searching. She wants women of color to see themselves represented in GIFs beyond the trinity of Beyoncé, Nicki, and Rihanna (though both women admitted they’d be pretty good communicating exclusively via Beyoncé GIFs).
#AIATLA’s mission is to discuss the culture that makes Harvin feel inspired—and how the people behind it stay optimistic. I look forward to digging in more.
Real talk: Caramelizing onions does not take 10 minutes. This week Gizmodo editor Tom Scocca resurfaced his heroic effort to expose the truth that caramelizing onions takes a hell of a lot longer than most recipes (and Google) would have you believe.
But I’m here to tell you that you can skip all that stirring in the skillet altogether! Food52’s forthcoming book, Mighty Salads, has a better idea: “roasted onion half-moons—neither stiffly raw nor caramelized to oblivion.” (Disclosure: Food52 sent me one to review—a book, not an onion.)
Inspired by this kale salad, I cut a yellow onion into 1/4-inch “half moons,” and roasted it with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil and some salt and pepper at 350°F for 45-50 minutes. When the onions were done and cool, I tossed some into a pile of arugula, dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. I topped it with a handful of sliced dates (ripe pear is also great) and some shaved parmesan. And I still had sweet, browned onions to stash away for future salads and sandwiches.
Gratitude as a discipline. Just as I’d gotten used to the idea of gratitude as an action—as in, something you do, not just something you feel—Hillary Clinton has taken the next step, arguing that it’s actually a “discipline,” as in, something you have to practice, whatever the weather.
Radiant and wearing what I think we can all agree is a pretty fun shirt, Clinton accepted an award from the organization Girls Inc. on International Women’s Day, and revealed one of the secrets to her strength: “To exercise the mental discipline to be grateful in the face of setbacks, I have found, is one of the great experiences that give you that resilience and the opportunity to see your life, to see your community and the world much more broadly, and to keep going.”
I’ve always admired my 99-year-old grandmother’s staunch optimism, and it strikes me that finding gratitude in difficult times is one way to cultivate it. We spent the day that Clinton lost the US election together, and she didn’t only focus on the strides made for women in her lifetime, she focused on the two generations of women surrounding her, and an afternoon punctuated with sweet potato fries, chocolate babka, and hot tea. When it came to an end, she even called it “a perfect day.” I was grateful for her perspective.
Have a great weekend!
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Do you love your co-working space? I would love to hear about it! Please reply and tell me why (or why not). I tried one out this week that had music from the wonderful LA-based station, KCRW, piping through the speakers. Since then, I’ve been tuning into KCRW’s Eclectic24 channel, an online mix that pulls songs from all of KCRW’s DJs. If you’re feeling a song—whether it’s by Jidenna, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, or Dolly Parton—you can find it on the live-updating playlist and save it to your Spotify for later.