A person holds up a large mirror, covering their face and only showing their arms. Behind them and also reflecting in the mirror, a bright blue sky with several clouds are visible. The image is subtitled, "You cannot be what you cannot see?"

White narrative: You cannot be what you cannot see?

Can privilege and identity become superpowers for love and justice instead of weapons for hate and destruction? If I can’t wait for that story to be told, maybe I have to take the step of writing the first chapter.

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A valley in the mountains is brightened by the sun as it peeks behind the clouds. Vast forests are warmly glowing in the fading sunlight. The image is subtitled, "I am the wilderness: On trust and community."

“I am the wilderness”: On trust & community

There are seven elements to trust. Each element is a resource for being honest, authentic, and genuine. You can remember these seven elements as an acronym: “BRAVING”.

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A banner image with a white background. Text shown: CHAOSS D.E.I. Review. Supported by the Ford Foundation.

CHAOSS DEI Review: Midyear reflection

In February 2021, the CHAOSS Project initiated a review of its diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. This post summarizes the progress made by the review team in 2022 and looks ahead to Justin’s aspirations for 2023.

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Subtitled, "on Free Software, Red Hat, and Iran". The Azadi Tower in Tehran, Iran appears in the background.

On Free Software, Red Hat, and Iran

A story in which I visit the Fedora Council ticket tracker and advocate for Fedora contributors from Iran.

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A proposal for the end of accommodations. A man is looking out of a highrise apartment window.

A proposal for the end of accommodations

Language is powerful. Words are subtle building blocks to how we imagine the world around us. So, with the goal of pursuing more equitable language, I propose the end of accommodations.

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What is Freedom?

When I first saw the letter asking for Richard Stallman and the FSF Board of Directors resignations with merely five signatures, I knew I had to sign. Not because I knew it would be the popular thing to do. But because it was what was true in my heart. Only

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Your Software Freedom is not my Software Freedom: A reflection on Chadwick Boseman

Trigger warning: Grief, police violence, death. This blog post was first written on August 28th, 2020. Today is a sad day. Chadwick Boseman is dead. At 43 years old, he lost a terminal battle with stage IV colon cancer. As his great light dims, I am left to wonder what

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Hannah/Honor Loeb: A reflection on death and forgiveness

[tw – death, grief, gender discrimination] Grief is a strange emotion. One text message read early in the morning can send your day into a long walk down the beach of your own memories. Memories flood back, making us conscious that these lost moments of time were never really lost

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Maladjusted

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A person holding a newspaper in front of their face, with text overlaid on top: "Write more accessible Markdown with this simple trick"

Write more accessible Markdown images with this one simple trick

Sometimes the people we exclude are the ones we did not realize were there. Screen readers are an essential tool for blind and visually-impaired people to use software and browse the Internet. In open source projects and communities, Markdown is a lightweight markup language used to format text. It is

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