¡El Playlist! becomes ¡El TBR!
Volume 23: this week we're trying something different
I know you’re here for podcasts, and ¡El Playlist! will return to its regularly scheduled content next week. Since it’s good to try new things once in a while, today is for highlighting a different kind of long-form content: written essays.
TBR = to be read
Substack has a recommendation system but I want to highlight a couple specific publications on the platform that this week gave me that extra fire 🔥🔥🔥
These are also under the LVMC Recommendations section on the front page. Before we dive in though, please click through to this poll:
Self-Love Sundays Poll
Don’t forget to vote in the Self-Love Sundays poll. Voting closes on Saturday!
Anthony’s Substack
I started following fellow Puerto Rican and incredible storyteller Anthony Milián on TikTok a while ago. While his content includes a lot of history of PR and Afro-Latines in general, he also covers current events.
In response to the mercurial and ban-happy algorithms, this week Anthony launched his Substack and kicked it off with a literal fire. Two pieces to contemplate:
This post is a video essay. It’s a struggle for me to understand how people don’t get that Latines can ALSO be Black (or white, for that matter), but here we are. Thank you Anthony for doing the work to educate us all:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Probably the most famous individual to come out of my alma mater, multi-hyphenate extraordinaire Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also writes on Substack.
Each post includes a quote and Kareem’s measured musings on politics and all the other stuff that makes up our collective brainwashing. His most recent post is a perfect pairing to this week’s episode (also linked below) because even though the Orange Clown is the well-deserved butt of many of Kareem’s jabs (lest we forget who instituted the Muslim ban and threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans), this week he takes the cake pretending to be discriminated against. Why is the white man always trying to paint himself as the victim?
If you watched HBO’s Winning Time, Kareem’s takedown is pretty remarkable. It’s for paid subscribers but the free version has enough meat for even the nominally curious:
DM Your Questions
In this week’s New Episode post, I mentioned we’re taking questions about what happened in Puerto Rico. Well now you can DM your questions directly instead of emailing me.
Hit that button and you can add to the list of questions already received, such as:
What were the biggest culture shocks?
Why did you move there in the first place?
Would you go back?
Add your own questions by emailing me OR pushing that big orange button!
How to Listen to This Week’s Episode
In case you missed it, this week’s episode includes talk of the Orange Clown’s Muslim ban, as well as the sins of the administrations before his (yes, including Obama’s):
Listen to Repercussions of Media Bias on Arabs, Muslims, & the Childfree with Professor Evelyn Alsultany on your favorite podcasting app or on Apple:
💻Or “listen” on YouTube: