Failing at Diversity and Inclusion

“Where I wanted to talk about racism and sexism, they wanted to talk about unconscious bias. When I wanted to talk about women of color, they said, “women and minorities.” Questions were raised about my tone. Those conversations weren’t about acknowledging my humanity or my human rights. They were about the intersection of workforce concerns with national security considerations; they were about appearances; they were about educating white students; and they were about how diversity and inclusion played in the public eye.” The Rules of the Diversity and Inclusion Racket (by Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein for The Riveter)

Corrupt Trump Administration

“Harris, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which conducted Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, announced her call for a formal impeachment inquiry in an essay for Elle Magazine published Friday morning. The senator wrote that the government must investigate whether Kavanaugh lied under oath during his confirmation hearing last year. Three women accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault or misconduct last year during the justice’s Supreme Court confirmation process. One of the women, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, delivered an emotional testimony in front of the entire country about her accusation that Kavanaugh attempted to rape her when they were in high school. Just this month, two New York Times reporters surfaced another account of alleged sexual misconduct against him.” Kamala Harris Calls For Formal Impeachment Inquiry Into Brett Kavanaugh (by Alanna Vagianos for HuffPost)

“No restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, is safe for Mitch McConnell, it seems. Protesters followed the Senate Majority Leader to his dinner destination on Sunday night, blasting Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” and chanting “no justice, no peace.” McConnell and his group was forced to leave Italian restaurant Sarino mid-meal due to the disturbance, according to the Courier Journal. The episode follows a lunch in Louisville over the weekend after which McConnell was chased by protesters yelling “Vote him out!” “Abolish ICE!” and “Go home!” (McConnell is based in Louisville when he’s not in Washington, D.C.)” Mitch McConnell Heckled Out of Restaurant for Second Time in Two Days (by Daniela Galarza for Eater)

Climate Change

“Friday’s climate strike in New York City concluded with remarks from indigenous leaders, activists and organizers. Artemisa Xakriabá, a 19-year-old indigenous climate activist of the Xakriabá people, spoke about the increasing intensity of environmental destruction across Brazil and the interconnectedness of the fight for climate justice. “We fight for our Mother Earth because the fight for Mother Earth is the mother of all other fights,” Xakriabá said. “We are fighting for your lives. We are fighting for our lives. We are fighting for our sacred territory. But we are being persecuted, threatened, murdered, only for protecting our own territories. We cannot accept one more drop of indigenous blood spilled.”” 19-Year-Old Indigenous Climate Activist Artemisa Xakriabá: “We Fight for Mother Earth” (via Democracy Now)

Something Amazing

Aristocats and Lizzo

Misogyny

“The scale of hypocrisy here is so staggering it’s almost impressive. People, often young women, who dare to speak up can expect to face public harassment and private retribution. Young women can expect to be punished for the crimes men commit against them—but if they dare to speak up, they are the ones who are “ruining lives.”” Gaming’s #MeToo Moment and the Tyranny of Male Fragility (by Laurie Penny for Wired)

Racism

“Penguin Random House, the publishers of the book, told the AP that “we’re working with our author, Eni, on this issue and are in contact with Amazon.” The players’ union in England and anti-racism activists have denounced Amazon, whose CEO is Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, for not removing the posts.” Amazon criticized over racist reviews of soccer star’s book (by Rob Harris for AP)

Religious Interference in Health Care

“We believe in a creator who has given us choice, and that’s what overarches the approach that we take,” Carlyle Walton, president of the Adventist Health Policy Association, told Rewire.News in an interview. “We think that infringing, for want of a better term, on people’s choices is not something that God has called us to do.” But that position does not extend to abortion care. Loma Linda University Health, a California-based Adventist system with six hospitals, said in a statement that it offers abortions “only in situations in which the fetus has a condition that is incompatible with life, or in a situation when the pregnancy is life-threatening to the mother.”” Meet Another Religious Health System Restricting Reproductive Care (by Amy Littlefield for Rewire)

Prison Industrial Complex

“Angola would become one of the nation’s largest maximum-security prisons — and one of its bloodiest. Over the many decades, reforms have been made, but criminal justice advocates continue to push for more. Angola, Gardullo said, is a lesson in the “long arc of history and what changes and doesn’t change.”” From a slave house to a prison cell: The history of Angola Plantation (by Krissah Thompson for Washington Post)

Trans Workers

“Before my transition, people assumed I knew what I was talking about. They didn’t talk over me in meetings. They trusted me when I spoke, and they didn’t look to others for confirmation of my ideas.There was a baseline assumption that I was competent and capable. Since my transition, it’s distressingly common for people to talk over me, to look to men for validation of the things I say, to assume that I couldn’t possibly know anything about [technical topic] because I’m a girl. I’ve actually had people tell me, “what could you possibly know about that? You’re a girl!” In a previous role at my current company, I had a male coworker who needed to be told *by my boss* “Tammy knows what she’s doing and I trust her judgment, so please stop trying to hijack her meetings and run them like they’re your meetings!”” How Work Changes When You’re A Woman: An Interview with a Transgender Woman (Ask a Manager)

For my fellow Londoners

Reduce your plastic usage!

My football (soccer) team’s Sunday league season starts today. WOOOOOOOOOO!

Racism

“But the two Chinese-born men at the center of the incident told BuzzFeed News it all began as a case of racial profiling. In their first media interview, the men said they did not know each other, did not run away, and that it was the airline employee who had been acting erratically.” What Caused The Mass Panic At Newark Airport? Racism. (by Amber Jamieson for Buzzfeed)

Healthcare

“Marjorie agreed to do the job for a flat rate of $160 per day plus room and board. Her workday starts when Bob wakes up, or before, and finishes after he goes to sleep, and can stretch for 14 or 16 hours or more. She works 26 or 27 days out of the month. The pay is not much — at 16 hours a day, it would come to $10 an hour — but Bob’s family is deeply grateful, and that counts for a lot.“If I take a client and I have the respect,” she said, “I will stay through to the end.”” On the Job, 24 Hours a Day, 27 Days a Month (by Andy Newman for the New York Times)

Anti-Trans Movements

“Last March, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in her favor. “It is analytically impossible to fire an employee based on that employee’s status as a transgender person without being motivated, at least in part, by the employee’s sex,” the court said in its decision. “An employer cannot discriminate on the basis of transgender status without imposing its stereotypical notions of how sexual organs and gender identity ought to align.”” The rise of anti-trans “radical” feminists, explained (by Katelyn Burns for Vox)

Something Good

WSL 2019-20: our club-by-club guide to the new season (Suzanne Wrack for The Guardian)

Racism

“Recall how cartoonist Mark Knight rendered Serena Williams with Sambo-like lips throwing a temper tantrum in a tutu after she defended what she, one of the greatest athletes of all time, deemed bad referee calls during a 2018 U.S. Open upset. Former First Lady Michelle Obama was routinely drawn as masculine and equated with being an ape in a trope planted in the American psyche by the likes of venerated Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, an investor in the burgeoning 18th century business of trading Africans into enslavement.” When They (Don’t) See Us (by Deborah Douglas via Medium)

“I started writing because every single day I was living a half-life. I started writing because I was tired of taking in every racist joke, every insult, every assumption. I was tired of hearing the locks on people’s cars click down as I walked past theirs in a grocery store parking lot. I was tired of worrying about my brother’s safety when he went on tour. I was tired of worrying that I might die at each traffic stop. I was tired of seeing Black body after Black body lying in the street like so much garbage after an encounter with police. And I was so very tired of being silent through it all. Silence was not helping me. It was killing me.” The Thing About Safety (by Ijeoma Oluo via Medium)

Democracy

“State officials, however, confirmed at least two other machines in Calhoun County also “jumped.” One voter reported similarly voting for Waller but having the machine change his vote to Reeves. Though state officials only confirmed problems with three machines in two counties, the Waller campaign told the Ledger that it received reports of the same issue in Leflore, Lamar, Pearl River, Lincoln, Washington, Forrest and Scott counties. Reeves won the runoff with about 54 percent of the vote, The Associated Press reported.” Voters say touchscreen machines switched their votes in nine Mississippi counties (by Igor Derysh for Salon)

General Ridiculousness

“Are we to believe that arguing for the murder of a quarter of the female population is “flippant,” but calling Stephens a bedbug is an offense worthy of censure? This is someone who mocked sexual assault survivors for wanting a break room with counselors during a debate on rape culture, a writer who questioned the “moral proportion” of firing sexual harassers. Is targeting a professor’s job for a barely seen quip morally proportional? Are high-profile columnists more deserving of a “safe space?”” The Unbearable Fragility of Bret Stephens (by Jessica Valenti via Medium)

Trans Issues

“Shortcomings in the technology used by the TSA and insufficient training of the agency’s staff have made transgender and gender nonconforming travelers particularly vulnerable to invasive searches at airport checkpoints, interviews and a review of documents and data shows. The TSA says that it is committed to treating all travelers equally and respectfully. But while the agency has known about the problems for several years, it still struggles to ensure the fair treatment of transgender and gender nonconforming people.” When Transgender Travelers Walk Into Scanners, Invasive Searches Sometimes Wait on the Other Side (by Lucas Waldron and Brenda Medina for ProPublica)