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April 30, 2025

April was … not great. It began with burying my beloved grandfather, Michelangelo Bianco. He lived the American Dream — an Italian immigrant who built his family, home, and career from the ground up; literally, tilling the soil himself to build his home and cultivate his garden to feed his family. Even though he lived a long life, his death has unmoored me.

Two weeks later, I was shockingly “let go” by the abusive and retaliatory executive director of PACS, who made a unilateral decision — without consulting anyone, like a true dictator (and one handpicked to serve in her position by a billionaire, just like Trump!) — to “eliminate” my position. Eliminating a position is a common strategy at Stanford when there are no justifiable grounds for firing someone. The excuse was “budget,” despite the fact that she has failed to be transparent about the budget for over a year (which is why our former EIC hastily quit four months into the job), despite the fact that we hired an unnecessary marketing coordinator (to assist someone who the ED pushed out earlier in the year) two months ago, despite the fact we are still waiting for a multimillion-dollar contract to come through from the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and despite the fact that the budget year isn’t over and I was literally working on the summer issue cover story at the very moment she terminated my position, effective immediately.

As my manager warned me in the fall, she was “gunning for [me],” and she finally made her move. Oddly enough, it was the very day my latest space piece was published at MSNBC — remember, the very first time I was taken to HR at Stanford was for my first space piece for MSNBC. My white feminist boss accused me of “character assassination” of Elon Musk: “Now he’ll never donate to the Clayman Institute for Gender Research.” LOL. I mean, it’s all poetic, right? I have to laugh at this point.

I am still in shock and am heartbroken, to say the least. I appreciate all the kindness and support that so many of you have given me in the past couple of weeks. And, despite a lot of white women advising to remain silent, I am refusing to do so. Workplace abuse needs to be made visible. We already live in a society run by a fascist who is cracking down on speech. I refused to be silenced or remain silent. Genocide and apartheid are unequivocally WRONG. Free Palestine and all political prisoners!

Because I am without an income, the month ended with a move back to the east coast — Silicon Valley is truly a terrible place, filled with terrible, inauthentic people who blindly worship technology. Good riddance.

I will, funnily enough, be back at Stanford to give my annual “Feminisms After Beauvoir” lecture. I love being in the classroom — to wit, my book talk at USC was wonderful and the students and faculty were engaged and energizing. Thank you to everyone at USC for making my talk happen and for building a space of freedom!

While bruised and a little broken, you all know I am a fighter. Don’t count me out, because this Leo is going to come roaring back — stronger than ever.

~ Marcie