Roxanna Asgarian

Reclaiming Safety for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse - upEND Movement Drawing on the wisdom of survivors, Asgarian posits powerful questions that challenge us to respond more humanely to child sexual harm in ways that prioritize youth agency, center healing, and hold…

"Conservative politicians lean on tropes about 'groomers' and 'pedophiles' that drum up support from a wide swath of Americans... And the laws are getting increasingly punitive.” #ReclaimingSafety @strawburriez.bsky.social buff.ly/esqjYKI

"In this compelling deep dive into the havoc and trauma wreaked by misogyny, Weinman deftly uses Oregon's first marital rape case to explore the failures of our criminal legal system and to trace the harm caused by a society that-then, as now-refuses to see women as people deserving of equal rights." -ROXANNA ASGARIAN, AUTHOR OF WE WERE ONCE A FAMILY

From @strawburriez.bsky.social:

"A book for this moment, a kind of cri de coeur. Reading these deeply reported tales left me shaking with anger." —ALEX KOTLOWITZ, author of There Are No Children Here and An American Summer

"A tour de force of investigative journalism that makes the harms of private equity not just legible but visceral." -BRIAN GOLDSTONE, author of There Is No Place for Us

"Show[s] how a hyper-focus on profit is making life harder for everyone and destroying wide swaths of American life... A crucial read." -ROXANNA ASGARIAN, author of We Were Once a Family

The full blurbs, which are too long for alt text but available at https://bookshop.org/p/books/bad-company-private-equity-and-the-death-of-the-american-dream-megan-greenwell

(2/2) I have had these blurbs for months and still feel bowled over every time I see them! I can't imagine a better gift. @brian-goldstone.bsky.social @strawburriez.bsky.social

Thank you. Peaches and Dontay had their rights terminated. 😔

Quote from Roxanna Asgarian about my book: "Beautifully depicts the tenacity and heart of several vulnerable families struggling to survive in a system that refuses to help them."

My deepest thanks to @strawburriez.bsky.social

Is there a Calendly type app that syncs to your iPhone calendar? Cause this is killing me

TX Lawmakers Consider 'ICWA for All' Bill Affecting Child Removals An unusual bill now before the Texas Legislature would tighten conditions for CPS workers to pull kids from their parents’ homes. 

An unusual bill now before the Texas Legislature would tighten conditions for CPS workers to pull kids from their parents’ homes. 

The Survivors of Child Sex Abuse Who Don’t Want Their Abusers Punished We assume that victims will find closure when the people who hurt them are imprisoned. But many say that to heal, they need something else entirely.

We assume that victims will find closure when the people who hurt them are imprisoned. But many say that to heal, they need something else entirely. @strawburriez.bsky.social

It’s even worse that this is not a story of one bad man and one bad mom. This is a systemic and generational response to CSA. It’s overwhelming to think about the ripple effects of not only this violence, but also the societal coverup.

Imagine what it does for your identity to have everyone in your life just refuse to see this terrible thing that happened to you. To blame you for it, dismiss your pain, and even make you feel like you are hurting them. It just feels so needlessly cruel, so inhumane.

It truly feels hallucinatory, in a way, how jarringly similar themes come up around people who’ve experienced child sexual abuse, and how we have constructed this false reality that all these symptoms, this pain, this grief, just springs out of nowhere, that it’s just “troubled souls” or whatever.

Alice Munro’s Passive Voice The celebrated writer’s partner sexually abused her daughter Andrea. The abuse transformed Munro’s fiction, but she left it to Andrea to confront the true story.

Finally got the chance to sit with this one. It’s extremely well done, of course, as all Rachel Aviv’s work is, but it hit pretty deep because I’ve been thinking really deeply about these themes all year. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

You made it a book club choice! So you can say whatever you want 😆

Naw I’m kiddin I’ve just heard that a time or two 😆

Thank you! 🙏🏼

lol this criticism bugs me but I do have a very straightforward paperback cover option for people who don’t take font size and typeface cues when they’re reading! 🙂

this was a book club one and it is not an easy read emotionally but I really recommend it!!!

When Families Need Housing, Georgia Will Pay for Foster Care Rather Than Provide Assistance In more than 700 cases over five years, Georgia reported inadequate housing as the sole reason for taking a child into foster care, a WABE and ProPublica analysis found. Advocates say it would be chea...

In Georgia, a mom facing eviction reached out to DFCS for help. They offered her nothing. Soon the agency took her kids away because of "inadequate housing."

The state then paid *$6,200 a month* to house her kids in foster care.

One of the most important and infuriating stories I read this year:

The Real Tragedy of Beth March - The Paris Review Carmen Maria Machado on the alchemy by which a strange, bright, angry young woman becomes an ambitionless, anodyne, doomed character.

Since I have actual scarlet fever right now, I found this great essay on the real Beth March by Carmen Maria Machado. www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/08...

If You’re Pregnant, Here’s What You Should Know About the Medical Procedures That Could Save Your Life Women experiencing pregnancy loss in states with abortion bans told us they wished they had known what to expect and how to advocate for themselves. We created this guide for anyone who finds…

NEW: Women experiencing pregnancy loss in states with abortion bans told us they wished they had known what to expect and how to advocate for themselves.

We created this guide for anyone who finds themselves in the same position. ⤵️

🫶🏻

***CONTENT WARNING: The featured article includes descriptions of child sexual abuse.***

A recent article by @strawburriez.bsky.social highlights the stories of survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) who seek safety & justice outside of punitive systems. 🧵

Thank you, Liliana!

The Survivors of Child Sex Abuse Who Don’t Want Their Abusers Punished We assume that victims will find closure when the people who hurt them are imprisoned. But many say that to heal, they need something else entirely.

This is such vital, illuminating work on an deeply complicated & challenging issue. Reported and written with admirable care by @strawburriez.bsky.social:

There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America a book by Brian Goldstone Through the unforgettable stories of five Atlanta families, this landmark work of journalism exposes a new and troubling trend--the dramatic rise of the "working homeless" in cities across America The...

If you’re interested in reading more—and in pushing back against the flood of lies about homelessness that will dominate headlines over the next four years—the book is available for pre-order here:

He gives me the creeps

Let this sink in: there’s not a single state, city, or county in America where someone with a disability who receives SSI can afford a one-bedroom apartment.

SSI payments are capped at $943 a month nationwide.

The average monthly rent is $1,399—or an astounding *148%* of an SSI recipient’s income.

The Survivors of Child Sex Abuse Who Don’t Want Their Abusers Punished We assume that victims will find closure when the people who hurt them are imprisoned. But many say that to heal, they need something else entirely.

“A little puppy knows that it can’t get kicked out of its pack or it will die—coyotes know that, baby deer know that,” said Staci K. Haines, author of “The Politics of Trauma.” “That’s a deep, profound, instinctual knowing.” newrepublic.com/article/1883...

There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone (3/25) When the author of my favorite nonfiction book of 2023, Roxanna Asgarian, flags a book as a must read, I will most certainly be reading it. There Is No Place for Us follows five families in Atlanta who are part of the rising trend of "working homeless". This book uncovers why there are more and more people in the working class who can't find homes, especially in large cities, and what it all means.

thank you so much, @strawburriez.bsky.social