Autumn 🍂 is trouble (@[email protected])

I signed up to gmail years ago because it was accessible, functional, advantageous, and came highly recommended by peers and adults in my hometown. As I used it, I became comfortable in its convenience and familiarity. It worked well and was widely recognised as the standard. Any misgivings I had about google's increasing popularity paled in comparison to the daunting prospect of changing such a central aspect of my public identity. Over time, I learned enough about google to recognise that willingly benefitting from their prestige constituted tacit support of their malicious behaviour. Accordingly, I found a new email provider and laboriously updated accounts to use my new address. I still haven't deleted my gmail accounts. They forward to my new email and I send no messages from them. But I'm so accustomed to the privilege and convenience google's ecosystem offers that I'm unsure how to get by without it. I know very little about alternatives because I've never *had* to know about them. Adopting a better option is slow going, and it will be years before I can fully extricate myself from the power and access afforded by google's ecosystem. I may never succeed. Until then, I will spruik ethical alternatives, educate about google's evils, and offer empathy to people mired in the same trap. And take advice from anyone willing to offer it and qualified to do so. ... This post is about racism and xenophobia.