Selected Commentary

(bon appétit)

“What you eating, Gramma?” It’s a question the little one (all of two years old) asks me—eyes wide and full of curiosity—every time I take a bite of anything. But of course it’s not really a question. It’s an invitation...for me to ask her if she wants some. It warms my heart every time I see her curiosity in the kitchen. My mother (the little one’s great-grandmother) loved cooking, and her tastes were eclectic.

(The Atlantic) 

Having spent my career as a civil-rights advocate, I’m acutely aware that the people most affected by the hydroxychloroquine drug shortages live in communities or belong to demographic groups that are among the most vulnerable, even in the absence of a pandemic. One day, generations will recall with shame and outrage how the federal government foresaw but failed to prevent this unfolding human tragedy. 

(Women's Health Magazine)

I wasn't just trying to finish college while working full-time—I was also a single mom with a high-energy, precocious 4-year-old daughter. I'd been striving hard to be the good student, the reliable employee, the perfect parent. I’d been holding it all together—and now this? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

(Center for American Progress)

Women are the country’s largest voting bloc, and women of color are the fastest-growing segment of that group. When coupled with the fact that women of color make up just more than half of the emerging majority—in other words, people of color, who by 2043 will represent a majority of the country’s population—it becomes clear that this new reality points to a vastly altered political landscape, one in which women of color may wield great influence.

(The Shriver Report)

Indeed, the core concept of fairness that underlies the pay-inequity discussion animates every equality movement. It is about more than having a comparable paycheck for comparable work, just like the civil rights movement was about more than having racial-equality laws on the books. At its core, pay equity—and the broader idea of women as full participants in the economic life of our country—is about concepts as old as the republic itself. It is about recognizing that we all deserve basic dignity, respect, equal opportunity, and access to economic security.

(CNN)

We can't forget that a basic tenet of the movement King represented was one of economic security. For millions of American women and their families—especially women of color—the aspiration of equal rights coupled with full economic opportunity is far from realized. Today, one in three Americans lives at or below the poverty line, and almost 70% are women and children. The number of working poor struggling to lift themselves into the middle class is steadily increasing, with the worst poverty rates falling on black and Latina women. As we chart the course for the next generation of change, addressing the economic crisis facing women—particularly low-income women and women of color—must be front and center.

(Lenny Letter)

We need to address the disproportionate number of women—especially women of color—who are trapped in low-wage work. We have to confront the value (or lack thereof) we place on women's work. We pay dog trainers twice as much as childcare providers, and janitors more than housekeepers. Domestic workers, who are overwhelmingly women and predominantly women of color, are among the most undervalued, unprotected workers in America — it's an outrage that the people who take care of our families can barely afford to take care of their own.