Minority Women WIn Elections in Alabama

According to the Birmingham Times, nine black women were elected to become judges in Jefferson County, Alabama, a place with majority Democratic electorate.

Minority women won in other areas of the country also. Three women of color, Catherine Cortez Masto, Tammy Duckworth, and Kamala Harris, were elected to the US Senate. Stephanie Murphy and Pramila Jayapal were elected to the House, meaning there will be 38 women of color serving in Congress next year.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nine-black-women-judges-alabama_us_58261b26e4b060adb56e3f54?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003

Though School Shooters Tend to Be White, Children of Color Will Suffer From Guns in Schools

Sherrilyn Ifil, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) outlines in an article in Time that although the perpetrators of mass school shootings have been almost exclusively white, there’s little doubt that arming teachers will lead disproportionately to the killing — by teachers — of children of color.

"For the sake of other children on the verge of being pushed away, this moment should be a reckoning to think long and hard about what really works to help them, to keep all children safe. But to invest instead, as our president has insisted, in turning those teachers into armed guards patrolling our classrooms would be the final act of hostility and abandonment of our nation’s children. And we will know — from the outset — that the children who will be the foremost victims of this effort will be children of color."

http://time.com/5186040/sherrilyn-ifill-black-children-classroom/

Next Step After #MeToo – Barbara Kingsolver's Strong Advice

"‘Don’t say that to me, don’t do that to me. I hate it.’ I armed my daughters with these words to deal with harassment. Let’s no longer mollify powerful men."

Worth reading for everyone who even has a thought about the #MeToo movement, from Barbara Kingsolver.

"Let’s be clear: no woman asks to live in a rape culture: we all want it over, yesterday. Mixed signals about female autonomy won’t help bring it down, and neither will asking nicely. Nothing changes until truly powerful offenders start to fall. Feminine instincts for sweetness and apology have no skin in this game...Watching the election of a predator-in-chief seems to have popped the lid off the can. We’ve found a voice, and now is a good time to use it, in a tone that will not be mistaken for flirtation."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/16/metoo-women-daughters-harassment-powerful-men?CMP=share_btn_fb

Lower Groups Pay for Parental Leave, Wealthy Take More Assets

Some conservative lawmakers, along with first daughter Ivanka Trump, are contemplating a scheme to use Social Security funds to help new parents take paid time off from work. People who take parental leave, according to them, would agree to delay social security benefits.

While the wealthy and corporations continue to take much more than their share of the benefits of government compared to what they pay, the average person might have to bear the brunt of having a country that catches up with most of the rest of the world with parental leave.

Shihka Dalmia explains why what may look like a good idea on the surface, is actually not.

Afterall, if hierarchy-conservative lawmakers are supporting a bill, we know that the top of the hierarchy will eventually benefit.

http://theweek.com/articles/758129/conservative-scheme-pay-parental-leave-by-robbing-social-security

White Men With Guns – Keep Women and Non-Whites Down

Nathan Wuertenberg states in his Washington Post article that guns have been a mechanism to keep non-white-males down for centuries, even by passing laws to keep guns out of their hands.

He says that it shouldn't surprise us that mass shootings have increased as the power of women and non-whites has increased.

Their 'right to bear arms' was the right of white men to exercise authority over black men and women by violent means if necessary, and their right to a “well regulated Militia” was the right to do so in large groups.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/03/09/gun-rights-are-about-keeping-white-men-on-top/?utm_term=.0e3d1b752024

"Boys Are Broken, and I Want To Help"

Michael Black, in an op-ed in the New York Times, states that "America’s boys are broken. And it’s killing us."

"The brokenness of the country’s boys stands in contrast to its girls, who still face an abundance of obstacles but go into the world increasingly well equipped to take them on."

Black says that girls in today's society benefit from decades of conversation about the complexities of womanhood. However, boys have been left behind as no commensurate movement has emerged to help them express what it means to "be a man."

Black ends by saying, "I would like men to use feminism as an inspiration, in the same way that feminists used the civil rights movement as theirs. I’m not advocating a quick fix. There isn’t one. But we have to start the conversation. Boys are broken, and I want to help."


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/opinion/boys-violence-shootings-guns.html?smid=fb-share

Are We At the Beginning of A Me-Too-Type Movement With Guns?

With Donald Trump in office and the do-nothing Republicans standing out like a point-to beacon in support of assault rifles in everyone's hands, are we going to actually do something about all the guns available to mostly angry male mass shooters in this country?

First National Bank of Omaha said Thursday it won’t renew a contract with the National Rifle Association to offer an NRA-branded Visa credit card. It has been receiving complaints from customers amid an intensifying national debate on gun control.

If we can identify the gun supporters as those who also support so many more hierarchies, maybe the root of their desires to power over everyone else will surface.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/02/22/first-national-bank-omaha-drop-nra-branded-visa-card/365555002/