US courts have only recently upheld what Rebecca Solnit calls, “a woman’s right to the property of her truth.” What does she mean? Women were legally excluded from basic rights. She couldn’t vote until 1920. If married, she couldn’t open her own bank account until 1974. The last state to exclude women jurors, Louisiana, lost its US Supreme Court case in 1975. Harvard did not admit women until 1977. Yes, you read those dates right.
A woman’s right to make private decisions about her own body, and whether she wants to be pregnant or not, won in 1973, remains a question in many states today. Without legal equity, economic equity can never be achieved. So why exactly should only females pay for maternity benefits in their insurance plans? And why are those proposing the ACA repeal the same rich white guys who want to make ending pregnancies impossible? There are more of these guys in Congress--see what the latest repeal and replace efforts do to women below:
www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/19/16328928/obamacare-repeal-cassidy-graham-health-care-women
Racist Masculinity Costs Dearly
Cassandra Merlin of Claremont NH, mother of 8-year-old Quincy (above), confides to Angela Helm at The Root the painful story of her children. Quincy was hung by their teenaged neighbors after racist taunts. Ayanna, his 11-year-old sister, witnessed it; the ringleader of the three teens lives two doors down. Ayanna is terrified, and yet at the time of this story, the police had not spoken to her as a witness. www.theroot.com/interview-mother-of-8-year-old-nearly-hung-in-nh-speak-1805654536
The Newsweek story on this was not clear: it included a rope and a picnic table—but left out the tree, so that it sounded as if the kid had been pushed off the table and gotten tangled in the rope. Kids do goofy, dangerous stuff. www.newsweek.com/hanging-boy-biracial-8-years-old-black-white-new-hampshire-lynching-claremont-664415 But no, Helm's story and pictures explain that there was a rope hanging from a tree, where a tire swing had been, and that Quincy hung there while the teens, including a girl, walked away. The boy's injuries required days in the hospital, though his injuries are not only physical and affect his family, the neighborhood, the town, and now the nation.
About a hundred people turned out for a vigil, though it was interrupted by a man driving past in a truck, who shouted, “All lives matter,” responding to “Black Lives Matter” signs in the crowd, according to NHPR. The man also yelled, “Stop making it about race.” readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/45792-the-hate-report-boy-8-victim-of-attempted-lynching-in-new-hampshire
Why is this an economic story? Because it is about race, and also about gender. Let us count the long-lasting costs of male violence, while pretending race and gender don't sort out US economic order. Notably, Cassandra is a single mom working as a bartender, living in a "rough" part of this white working-class town, with a younger child who also had to go to the hospital with a rare blood disorder. While in the hospital, a shooter came into Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital, which had into shut-down mode, causing more trauma, requiring more police. The town has an opioid crisis and high poverty rates, so little Quincy Merlin’s trauma is set in a sea of traumas and violence--with a racist masculinity unleashed by Washington's Trump-fest of bombast and bullying.
In what way did these teen boys know that their job is to police racism and enforce it? What purpose for those in power in Washington does such a racist masculinity serve? The state is a masculine construction, enforced by police, who minimized this event until Quincy’s mom went public. Paul Kivel, who work on issues of domestic violence, says identity is about discovering “What do I stand for?” “Who do I stand with?” In this case, you needn’t choose. Both poor Quincy and those pathetic teen bullies on the rough side of town are suffering from an uncaring economy that wages war, threatening cuts to health care, opioid treatment, and support to working families, while imposing austerity with low wages. We need to be waging life, not war.
There's a go-fund-me page set up for the family to help them leave the town that caused them so much pain. www.gofundme.com/helpquincyheal
The Woman who NEARLY won healthcare for all
She’s no household name, but Frances Perkins ought to be on everyone’s minds this year, as US Sen. Bernie Sanders introduces a Medicare for All bill. Who is Perkins? Only the first woman ever appointed to a presidential cabinet, joining Franklin Delano Roosevelt as Labor Secretary in 1933. It so happened that Perkins, raised by a strict Republican family and educated at Mt. Holyoke when few women went to college, in 1911 had witnessed a young woman jumping to her death at the Triangle shirtwaist fire. She became an eloquent advocate for common, working people.
Perkins took the cabinet position only under condition that FDR support her bold agenda that became The New Deal. It included a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, workers’ compensation and other labor protections, abolition of child labor, unemployment aid, a federal employment service, and Social Security pension insurance—all of which she won, and which we all take for granted. She also sought universal healthcare—the one big measure she lost.
Why? The American Medical Society threatened to kill Social Security unless the provision for healthcare insurance for all, originally included, was removed. She compromised to win what she could.
Her remarkable record of achievements earned her the naming of the Labor Department’s office building in Washington DC—but unlike confederate generals, no statue was raised to remind us that Frances was female and powerful in an un-bloody way.
Biographer Kirsten Downey says that Perkins’ ideas were essentially socialist ones, though she left the Socialist party in 1909 to become a Democrat. Unexpectedly, this year’s bill by Independent/Socialist Sanders is joined by Democratic Senators supporting it, notably Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, and the numbers are growing. Rachel Maddow considers it a marker of those considering running for President in 2020. Is there something new in the air? www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/warren-throws-support-behind-sanders-single-payer-plan
You can learn more about Perkins at the center dedicated to her history as architect of the New Deal. EconoGirlfriends, let’s make her a household name. francesperkinscenter.org/life-new/
Women, Investing, and Truth
We love finding Lenny Letter in our mailbox, its Point of View young and savvy and female. We admire the interview of Sallie Krawcheck by Laia Garcia , just out. It's titled "How to Invest Better: A Guide for Young Women." Young women need to know about the world of money. Krawcheck's advice is sage, and hers is the voice of experience.
Writes Garcia: "Sallie is a total powerhouse. Currently, she is the CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, a website that helps women invest and plan for their future. Before that, she worked as a CEO and CFO of a variety of investment firms. Most notably, she was ousted as CEO of Citigroup's wealth-management business because she thought Citi should reimburse its clients for money it lost due to bad investment decisions by the company. So, you know, she is legit."
Krawcheck says about the way investments on Wall Street work: "The research I did when I was at Smith Barney showed that neither men nor women understand. It just is what it is." She goes on to advise young women:
"What I would say to you is, number one, pay down the credit-card debt. Number two, pay down your high-interest-rate student-loan debt. Number three, get some cash and put it aside, at least one month of take-home pay. Number four, I want you to choose an amount that you can invest every month. I don't want you to start with your expenses and then decide how much you can invest, because the answer will be zero. I want you to have a target of maybe 10 percent of your salary. I want you to see if you can adjust your expenses."
These are wise admonishments, but easier said than done by most young women, particularly women of color or from working class backgrounds. And god help her, if she's a woman with dependent children, or a divorce in her past....? We love you, Sallie. But we don't agree that "It Just is what it is."
We need women like you to squawk loud about "it"--not leave out pesky details. Women's unequal pay, rampant everywhere including Wall Street, leaves her less surplus income to "adjust" and invest. And Sallie's being fired was not just about her financial ideas, but Wall Street EconoMan's integral sexism that rewards domination and punishes girly-morality. "it" wages war. We need an economy that wages life.
Read more of Laia's interview with Sallie here: www.lennyletter.com/life/interviews/a970/investment-guide-for-young-women/
