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#members of their community as if you represent them and are the sole spokesperson
snekdood · 10 months
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bitches be like. i hate vegans so much that i’ve decided i like killing animals and its fine and i dont feel bad and animals dont have feelings and its fine and im cool subversive and different and edgy and like to post fucked up stuff to make vegans uncomfortable bc im just so cool
#you sound like every cishet republican man to me#you're not a Cool Subversive Leftist you're literally regressing by seeing animals as just objects of your pleasure and thats it lmao#im sorry but you dont just get to throw out all of veganism. it does infact have some roots in leftism.#you can sit there and cope with the fact you agree w some vegan talking point by calling it 'animal welfare' all you want#doesnt change the fact that a lot of those ideas in those circles were formed by vegans.#damn woooah vegans arent a monolith and dont all agree on the same shit woooahhh who knew#literally i have no idea how we even got to this point or how this would be surprising.#when i was on vegan twitter bitches were arguing all the fucking time within it. ur really gonna sit ther en tell me they're all secret#eco fash that hates native ppl and people who have to eat meat? ya sure???#you would think the individuals on tumblr- of all places- would understand how frustrating it would be to be grouped in with the worst#members of their community as if you represent them and are the sole spokesperson#you'd think they'd hate when someone jumps to conclusions about them based on their lifestyle#but naur. i think yall take it too personally. as if a vegan just being in a room is somehow trying to force you to be vegan.#literally grow tf up.#if a vegan being in the same room with you triggers feelings in you that you Have to stop eating meat- i really think thats a you problem#bud. homeboy hasnt even spoke to you leta lone look at you and apparently you feel this weird pressure now#idk man dont you think that pressure might be coming within?? maybe.... you do infact feel things and feel a lil guilty abt eating meat?#not telling you to stop... i still eat meat here n there. but at least im honest with myself about how it makes me feel to do it.#its infact normal to take a second to think about the loss someone made in exploitation to provide you with whatever.#if you can let yourself feel a lil guilt about buying a fast fashion thing you can sure as fuck finally extend your fuckin empathy to#animals and stop treating them like objects or toys.
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You don't speak for all autistic people, stop trying to. It's fucking gross watching you always fucking ignore and slur the rest of us that disagree with your stances and erase our experiences as not real autism or backwards or some shit while you act like a sole authority and then cry and hide behind your diagnosis when you get called out as if you're the special only one and the rest of us don't have to deal with shit and don't have a right to our opinions or experiences.
What really makes me sick is how you never recognize your own privilege, and you spread your opinions to allistic people as if they’re fact. It’s the minority of autistic people that attend groups or even care about them. Groups that are run by and mostly for fucking allistic family members. Autistic people that aren’t middle class, aren’t white, aren’t Western, are older and got late diagnosed, won’t shut up and just nod along are not represented by those groups. especially in the UK.
but don’t worry. we know you don’t care. lol believe me the autism community online knows all about your ego and need to be The Special Spokesperson and the most hurt. we know allllll about it. only you have ever suffered! only your opinions and issues matter! you must feel special and right and validated and get all the attention at all times and fuck every other individual.
lmao I’ve literally never done any of this but ok mate
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I was just going to ignore and delete these but they’re so fucking funny lol
I have never claimed to speak for all autistic people, merely for myself. I have never tried to erase anybody’s experiences, and I never said a damn thing about groups?? I do recognise that I’m privileged - I’m white, I’m able-bodied, I’m transmisogyny-exempt… all these things do give me privilege in society, and as such while I am disadvantaged in many areas, I’m better off than many. I know this, I recognise this. I’m not sure why you think I don’t?
“the autism community online knows all about your ego” I’m afraid you are drastically overestimating my fame. I have 1420 followers on here and (last I checked) 20 on Twitter. Are you sure you’ve got the right person? (no, seriously, are you sure you’ve got the right person? did you intend to send this to someone else?)
I will freely admit I do have issues with my ego and with needing to be the centre of attention. that’s something I’m trying to work on, if it makes you feel any better.
And hey, at least I’m not the one sending people hate on anon because they can’t bring themselves to say it on their account!
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fastfoodessay609 · 4 years
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allenjackkson · 4 years
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What goes into preparing an executive for an interview
It is like hitting the high notes to get a conversation with a media channel for the executive or the company representative. Meetings give a chance to present your brand, and company representatives are the ideal leaders of the organization. This way, you can boost brand reliability, solve disaster, and improve sales. Also, seasoned members of the company sometimes make mistakes during the interviews. This is where media coaching comes into the picture.
Even a public speaking course will benefit because it is almost the same to deliver a speech on the stage and conduct interviews. Such training and coaching sessions will prepare the organization's managers and spokespersons as follows:
• Use short and crisp bullet form writing: Executives have a busy life and time is a big constraint for them. High-level tasks are a part of their daily activities. Nonetheless, they are expected to know the specifics during interviews. Some coaches provide a lot of pages for the executives to read before the meeting. This strategy cannot help a person. It's not always helpful to give too much content. A useful preparation document should not contain more than a few points of conversation, and it should be bulleted.
• Take the help of a support tool: Everything should be said in a message when giving an interview. You don't want to sound fake, though, as if you were reading a prepared script. This is where it makes sense to use message support tool. It will include stories and statistics in the message support tool. Shared tales would be presented as a personal experience, histories, and studies. On the other hand, statistics are figures and facts.
• Have worksheets: Celebrity coach is responsible for creating a communication worksheet consisting of three messages: stories, statistics and sound bites. This allows the executive or the representative to focus solely on the goal behind the interview. If you do a telephone interview, the interviewee will be able to keep the worksheet on the desk and mark off the responses already answered.
• Answer indirectly to the question: We are likely to give the ' what ' answers in everyday circumstances. For example, if someone asks how the weather is, the right answer would be hot, and you share the temperature details. Although it would be enough in everyday circumstances, in an interview, it would be inappropriate. In fact, the ' why ' behind the question should be answered by executives.
• Follow simplicity: This is not only ideal for interviews with newspapers but also the course of public speaking. Keep it simple and short, whether it's interviews or speeches. Try to be in the spotlight at one go for 30-45 seconds. In this way, you can highlight the key points and make sure that the reporter picks from your answer the correct message: practice briefness and simple responses. Have a mock interview, if possible, before being part of a real discussion. Avoid giving long and complicated answers.
• Know your target audience: Skip demographics if possible and focus on the audience's psychology. Imagine who you will be the target audience before you perform the interview.
It is best to seek the help of a celebrity coach before being part of a media interview as he or she knows how to direct you through the whole process.
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shirlleycoyle · 5 years
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Instagram Apologizes for Blocking Caribbean Carnival Content
This article originally appeared on VICE Canada.
Instagram is apologizing after it made a “mistake” by hiding posts under hashtags related to carnivals in the Caribbean for allegedly falling afoul of the platform’s community guidelines.
Shortly after St. Lucia wrapped up its carnival—an annual Caribbean tradition where revellers from around the world parade and dance through the streets in their costumes—on July 16, multiple users noticed that Instagram prompted a community guidelines violation notice when users viewed hashtags #fuzionmas, #stluciacarnival, #trinidadcarnival2020, #xuvocarnival, and #ehtshirtmas, representing carnival events in St. Lucia, Trinidad, and Antigua. “Recent posts from [hashtag] are currently hidden because the community has reported some content may not meet Instagram’s community guidelines,” the message said.
The result was confusion and anger, on the part of carnival goers.
“I find it very offensive that Instagram is deeming carnival culture inappropriate,” Frequent carnival-goer Cinelli Mangal said. “Instagram has not indicated which community guideline(s) carnival posts are violating, as they’ve only linked us to their general policy.”
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Screenshots showing hashtags that were affected.
As of Friday, July 19, the prompt did not appear when viewing carnival-related hashtags on Instagram. According to the company, the hashtags were restricted by mistake.
“The hashtags #xuvocarnival and #trinidadcarnival2020, among others, were restricted in error and we are restoring them to full visibility. We apologize for the mistake. Over a billion people use Instagram every month, and operating at that size means mistakes are made—it is never our intention to silence members of our community,” said Alex Kucharski, an Instagram spokesperson.
To manage the vast amount of content uploaded to the platform every day, Instagram—like many social media sites—uses a combination of machine learning and automated filters, as well as user reports, to accomplish moderation tasks such as demoting content and flagging comments.
For some, Instagram restricting carnival-related hashtags for allegedly violating the site’s community standards echoed how the celebration is often misunderstood and deemed “inappropriate” by people unaware of the ancestral practice’s history.
“It’s hard for me, an avid carnival goer, to imagine how carnival photos could violate Instagram’s ‘community guidelines,'” said Jade Nixon, a PhD student at the University of Toronto studying carnival. Often, she said, ignorant critics of carnival celebrations paint it as overly sexual.
“For those that attend carnival, we know that carnival is an expression of freedom, of personhood, of movement, of moving Blackly that exceeds solely sexual understandings of it. These static, narrow readings of carnival, in my opinion, understand this practice to be a breach.”
Conversations around Caribbean carnivals and their diasporic iterations abroad are brimmed with commentary steeped in xenophobia and respectability politics, painting women as devoid of agency or hyper sexualizing them for their participation. In 2016, for example, a Japanese steel pan player named Asami Nagakiya was murdered during Trinidad carnival. Then-Port of Spain mayor Raymond Tim Kee blamed “lewdness” and “vulgarity” for her death, which consequently inspired #NotAskingForIt, an anti-victim blaming campaign that advocated for the acknowledgement of women’s agency both within and outside of carnival spaces.
According to Michael Saunders, social media manager of the popular Trinidad-based band TRIBE Carnival, hiding carnival-related posts on Instagram can negatively affect locals for whom carnival is a financial opportunity as well.
“My initial reactions were that of shock, confusion, and overall disappointment,” Saunders said of his feelings upon realizing that he was unable to view posts under St. Lucia carnival-related hashtags on Instagram.
“Not only does Instagram’s ban affect business models and tourism, it suppresses an entire culture that has worked tirelessly to be established and silences a massive creative voice,” he said. “Carnival in my opinion is a dominantly visual experience. If you’re playing it, you wanna show the world [that] you are.”
With Barbados’ own Grand Kadooment parade approaching—a parade Rihanna is frequently seen at—Instagram users will soon see if the issue is fully resolved so as to not interrupt sharing highlights of carnival’s culture.
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Instagram Apologizes for Blocking Caribbean Carnival Content syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/
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ufcw · 4 years
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Celebrating International Women’s Day
Today is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the social, cultural and political achievements of women today and throughout history. The UFCW is proud of the contributions of all the hardworking women who make sure our communities have access to the quality foods, health services, and more that we all depend on.
Women have played a major role in the history of workers rights, from fighting for equality for farm workers to demanding dignity for textile workers. Below are just a few outstanding women leaders from labor history.
*the following is adapted from the Zinn Education Project*
1. Louise Boyle
Photographer Louise Boyle is best known for the images she captured, documenting the devastating effects of the Great Depression on American workers. In 1937, at the height of a wave of labor militancy, Ms. Boyle was invited to photograph the living and working conditions of the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union members from several Arkansas communities. Her provocative recording depicted courageous people linking their futures together despite devastating poverty, physical hardship, and brutal police-endorsed reprisals. Most portray African American farmers in their homes, at union meetings and rallies, or at work with their families picking cotton. Boyle returned in 1982 to rephotograph some of the people and places she had documented earlier.
2. Hattie Canty
A Las Vegas transplant in rural Alabama, legendary African American unionist Hattie Canty was one of the greatest strike leaders in U.S. history. Her patient leadership helped knit together a labor union made up of members from 84 nations.  During her time as an activist, she saw first hand how the labor and civil rights movements were intrinsically linked: “Coming from Alabama, this seemed like the civil rights struggle…the labor movement and the civil rights movement, you cannot separate the two of them.”
3. May Chen
In 1982, May Chen helped organize and lead the New York Chinatown strike of 1982, one of the largest Asian American worker strikes with about 20,000 garment factory workers marching the streets of Lower Manhattan demanding work contracts. “The Chinatown community then had more and more small garment factories,” she recalled. “And the Chinese employers thought they could play on ethnic loyalties to get the workers to turn away from the union. They were very, very badly mistaken.” Most of the protests included demands for higher wages, improved working conditions and for management to observe the Confucian principles of fairness and respect. By many accounts, the workers won. The strike caused the employers to hold back on wage cuts and withdraw their demand that workers give up their holidays and some benefits. It paved the way for better working conditions such as hiring bilingual staff to interpret for workers and management, initiation of English-language classes and van services for workers.
4. Jessie de la Cruz
A field worker since the age of five, Jessie knew poverty, harsh working conditions, and the exploitation of Mexicans and all poor people. Her response was to take a stand. She joined the United Farm Workers union in 1965 and, at Cesar Chavez’s request, became its first woman recruiter. She also participated in strikes, helped ban the crippling short-handle hoe, became a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, testified before the Senate, and met with the Pope. She continued to be a political activist until her death in 2013, at the age of 93.
5. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn once said, “I will devote my life to the wage earner. My sole aim in life is to do all in my power to right the wrongs and lighten the burdens of the laboring class.” In 1907, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn became a full-time organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World and in 1912 traveled to Lawrence, MA during the Great Textile Strike. She became “the strike’s leading lady.”
6. Emma Goldman
In 1886, year after her arrival from Lithuania, Emma Goldman was shocked by the trial, conviction, and execution of labor activists falsely accused of a bombing in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, which she later described as “the events that had inspired my spiritual birth and growth.” A born propagandist and organizer, Emma Goldman championed women’s equality, free love, workers’ rights, free universal education regardless of race or gender, and anarchism. For more than thirty years, she defined the limits of dissent and free speech in Progressive Era America. Goldman died on May 14, 1940, and buried in Forest Park, Illinois amongst the labor activists that first sparked her life’s work as an activist. Throughout her career, she fought against the corporate powers that tried to dehumanize the people that worked for them: “Still more fatal is the crime of turning the producer into a mere particle of a machine, with less will and decision than his master of steel and iron. Man is being robbed not merely of the products of his labor, but of the power of free initiative, of originality, and the interest in, or desire for, the things he is making.”
7. Velma Hopkins
Velma Hopkins helped mobilize 10,000 workers into the streets of Winston-Salem, NC, as part of an attempt to bring unions to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The union, Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers of America-CIO, was integrated and led primarily by African American women. They pushed the boundaries of economic, racial and gender equality. In the 1940s, they organized a labor campaign and a strike for better working conditions, pay, and equal rights under the law. It was the only time in the history of Reynolds Tobacco that it had a union. Before Local 22 faced set-backs from red-baiting and the power of Reynolds’ anti-unionism, it gained national attention for its vision of an equal society. This vision garnered the scrutiny of powerful enemies such as Richard Nixon and captured the attention of allies such as actor Paul Robeson and songwriter Woody Guthrie. While it represented the workers, the union influenced a generation of civil rights activists.
8. Dolores Huerta
Before becoming a labor organizer, Dolores Huerta was a grammar school teacher, but soon quit after becoming distraught at the sight of children coming to school hungry or without proper clothing. “I couldn’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children.” In 1955, Huerta launched her career in labor organizing by helping Fred Ross train organizers in Stockton, California, and five years later, founded the Agricultural Workers Association before organizing the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez in 1962. Some of her early victories included lobbying for voting rights for Mexican Americans as well as for the right of every American to take the written driver’s test in their native language. A champion of labor rights, women’s rights, racial equality and other civil rights causes, Huerta remains an unrelenting figure in the farm workers’ movement.
9. Mother Jones
Marry Harris “Mother” Jones made it her mission to stand up for the rights of the children who worked in factories and mills under horrible conditions in the early 1900’s. “I asked the newspaper men why they didn’t publish the facts about child labor in Pennsylvania. They said they couldn’t because the mill owners had stock in the papers.” “Well, I’ve got stock in these little children,” said I,” and I’ll arrange a little publicity.” On July 7, 1903, Jones began the “March of the Mill Children” from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt’s Long Island summer home in Oyster Bay, NY, to publicize the harsh conditions of child labor and to demand a 55-hour work-week. During this march she delivered her famed “The Wail of the Children” speech, even though Roosevelt refused to see them.
10. Mary Lease
“Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street.” These words, which eerily echo some sentiments today, were spoken more than 120 years ago by Mary Lease, a powerful voice of the agrarian crusade and the best-known orator of the era, first gaining national attention battling Wall Street during the 1890 Populist campaign. As a spokesperson for the “people’s party,” she hoped that by appealing directly to the heart and soul of the nation’s farmers, she could motivate them to political action to protect their own interests not only in Kansas but throughout the United States. “You may call me an anarchist, a socialist, or a communist, I care not, but I hold to the theory that if one man as not enough to eat three times a day and another man has $25,000,000, that last man has something that belongs to the first.” Mary spent most of her life speaking out in favor of social justice causes including women’s suffrage and temperance, and her work reflected the multifaceted nature of late nineteenth-century politics in the United States. Many female leaders today, such as Elizabeth Warren, still fight against Wall Street and the 1% as inequality has reached exorbitant levels.
11. Clara Lemlich
“I have listened to all the speakers, and I have no further patience for talk. I am a working girl, one of those striking against intolerable conditions. I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in generalities. What we are here for is to decide whether or not to strike. I make a motion that we go out in a general strike.” These were the words of  Clara Lemlich, a firebrand who led several strikes of shirtwaist makers and challenged the mostly male leadership of the union to organize women garment workers. With support from the National Women’s Trade Union League (NWTUL) in 1909 she lead the New York shirtwaist strike, also known as the “Uprising of the 20,000”. It was the largest strike of women at that point in U.S. history. The strike was followed a year later by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that exposed the continued plight of immigrant women working in dangerous and difficult conditions.
12. Luisa Moreno
Luisa Moreno, a Guatemalan immigrant, first got involved in labor activism in 1930 at in Zelgreen’s Cafeteria in New York City, when she and her co-worker protested the employer’s exploitation of its workers with long hours, constant sexual harassment, and the threat, should anyone object, of dismissal. Hearing that workers would picket the cafeteria, police formed a line on the sidewalk that allowed customers to pass through. Luisa, in a fur collar coat, strolled through the cordon of policemen as if she was going to enter the cafeteria. When she was directly in front of the door she pulled a picket sign from under her coat and thrust it in plain view, yelling, “Strike!” Two burly policemen grabbed her by the elbows. They lifted her off the sidewalk and hustled her into the entrance way of a nearby building. She came out with her face bleeding and considered herself fortunate that she was not disfigured. Moreno spent the next 20 years organizing workers across the country. Her story serves as a reminder of just how dangerous the conditions were in those days to simply make one’s voice heard, but her bravery helped change those conditions for the better.
13. Agnes Nestor
“Any new method which the company sought to put into effect and disturb our work routine seemed to inflame the deep indignation already burning inside us. Thus, when a procedure was suggested for subdividing our work, so that each operator would do a smaller part of each glove, and thus perhaps increase the overall production—but also increase the monotony of the work, and perhaps also decrease our rate of pay—we began to think of fighting back.” This reminiscence by Nestor described how the oppressive conditions of the glove factory pushed her to take a leading role in a successful strike of female glove workers in 1898. Soon she became president of her glove workers local and later a leader of the International Glove Workers Union. She also took a leading role in the Women’s Trade Union League, serving as president of the Chicago branch from 1913 to 1948.
14. Pauline Newman
Pauline Newman, a Russian immigrant, began working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1903 when she was thirteen years old. Finding that many of her co-workers could not read, she organized an evening study group where they also discussed labor issues and politics. Newman was active in the shirtwaist strike and the Women’s Trade Union League. She became a union organizer for the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) and director of the ILGWU Health Center. “All we knew was the bitter fact that after working 70 or 80 hours in a seven-day week, we did not earn enough to keep body and soul together,” she said.
15. Lucy Parsons
On May 1, 1886, Lucy Parsons helped launched the world’s first May Day and the demand for the eight-hour work day. Along with her husband, anarchist and activist Albert Parsons, and their two children, they led 80,000 working people down the Chicago streets and more than 100,000 also marched in other U.S. cities. A new international holiday was born. Parsons went on to help found the International Workers of the World, continued to give speeches, and worked tirelessly for equality throughout the rest of her life until her death in 1942.
16. Frances Perkins
On March 4, 1933, Frances Perkins became the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. Having personally witnessed workers jump to their death during the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, Perkins promoted and helped passed strong labor laws to try to prevent such atrocities from ever occurring again.
17. Rose Pesotta
When Rose Pesotta arrived in Los Angeles in 1933 to organize employees in the garment industry, the workforce of which was 75% Latina, the local leadership of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), consisting of mostly white men, had no interest in organizing female dressmakers, feeling that most would either leave the industry to raise their families or shouldn’t be working in the first place. On October 12, 1933, a month after Rose Pesotta arrived, 4,000 workers walked off the job and went on strike. Their demands included union recognition, 35-hour work weeks, being paid the minimum wage, no take home work or time card regulation, and for disputes to be handled through arbitration. The strike ended on Nov. 6 with mixed results, but the workers gained a 35-hour workweek and received the minimum wage. Although not a complete victory, the message sent was a powerful one. What Rose Pesotta knew all along was now clear to the garment bosses and her male union counterparts; women, specifically women of color, should not be discounted. When it came to the demands of dignity and respect, these workers would not be ignored.
18. Ai-Jen Poo
When Poo started organizing domestic workers in 2000, many thought she was taking on an impossible task.  Domestic workers were too dispersed–spread out over too many homes. Even Poo had described the world of domestic work as the “Wild West.” Poo’s first big breakthrough with the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) happened on July 1, 2010, when the New York state legislature passed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. The bill legitimized domestic workers and gave them the same lawful rights as any other employee, such as vacation time and overtime pay. The bill was considered a major victory, and the NDWA expanded operations to include 17 cities and 11 states.
19. Florence Reece
Florence Reece was an activist, poet, and songwriter. She was the wife of one of the strikers and union organizers, Sam Reece, in the Harlan County miners strike in Kentucky. In an attempt to intimidate her family, the sheriff and company guards shot at their house while Reece and her children were inside (Sam had been warned they were coming and escaped). During the attack, she wrote the lyrics to Which Side Are You On?, a song that would become a popular ballad of the labor movement.
Song Lyrics
CHORUS: Which side are you on? (4x)
My daddy was a miner/And I’m a miner’s son/And I’ll stick with the union/‘Til every battle’s won [Chorus]
They say in Harlan County/There are no neutrals there/You’ll either be a union man/Or a thug for JH Blair [Chorus]
Oh workers can you stand it?/Oh tell me how you can/Will you be a lousy scab/Or will you be a man? [Chorus]
Don’t scab for the bosses/Don’t listen to their lies/Us poor folks haven’t got a chance/Unless we organize [Chorus]
20. Harriet Hanson Robinson
At the age of 10, Harriet Hanson Robinson got a job in textile Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts to help support her family. When mill owners dropped wages and sped up the pace of work, Harriet and others participated in the 1836 Lowell Mill Strike. Later as an adult, Harriet became an activist for women’s suffrage and would recount her mill work experience in Loom and Spindle or Life Among the Early Mill Girls. In her book, Harriet concludes: “Such is the brief story of the life of every-day working-girls; such as it was then, so it might be to-day. Undoubtedly there might have been another side to this picture, but I give the side I knew best–the bright side!”
21. Fannie Sellins
Fannie Sellins was known as an exceptional organizer that also made her “a thorn in the side of the Allegheny Valley coal operators.” The operators openly threatened to “get her.” After being an organizer in St. Louis for the United Garment Workers local and in the West Virginia coal fields, in 1916 Sellins moved to Pennsylvania, where her work with the miners’ wives proved to be an effective way to organize workers across ethnic barriers.  She also recruited black workers, who originally came north as strikebreakers, into the United Mine Workers America. During a tense confrontation between townspeople and armed company guards outside the Allegheny Coal and Coke company mine in Brackenridge on August 26, 1919, Fannie Sellins and miner Joseph Strzelecki were brutally gunned down. A coroner’s jury and a trial in 1923 ended in the acquittal of two men accused of her murder. She is remembered for her perseverance and bravery.
22. Vicky Starr
“When I look back now, I really think we had a lot of guts. But I didn’t even stop to think about it at the time. It was just something that had to be done. We had a goal. That’s what we felt had to be done, and we did it,” said “Stella Nowicki”, the assumed name of Vicki Starr, an activist who participated in the campaign to organize unions in the meatpacking factories of Chicago in the 1930’s and ‘40s.
23. Emma Tenayuca
“I was arrested a number of times. I never thought in terms of fear. I thought in terms of justice,” said Emma Tenayuca, born in San Antonio, Texas on Dec. 21, 1916. Later, she would become to be known as “La Pasionaria de Texas” through her work as an educator, speaker, and labor organizer. From 1934–1948, she supported almost every strike in the city, writing leaflets, visiting homes of strikers, and joining them on picket lines. She joined the Communist Party and the Workers Alliance (WA) in 1936. Tenayuca and WA demanded that Mexican workers could strike without fear of deportation or a minimum wage law. In 1938 she was unanimously elected strike leader of 12,000 pecan shellers. Due to anti-Mexican, anti-Communist, and anti-union hysteria Tenayuca fled San Antonio for her safety but later returned as a teacher.
24. Carmelita Torres
On Jan. 28, 1917, 17-year-old Carmelita Torres led the Bath Riots at the Juarez/El Paso border, refusing the toxic “bath” imposed on all workers crossing the border. Here is what the El Paso Times reported the next day: “When refused permission to enter El Paso without complying with the regulations the women collected in an angry crowd at the center of the bridge. By 8 o’clock the throng, consisting in large part of servant girls employed in El Paso, had grown until it packed the bridge half way across. “Led by Carmelita Torres, an auburn-haired young woman of 17, they kept up a continuous volley of language aimed at the immigration and health officers, civilians, sentries and any other visible American.”
25. Ella Mae Wiggins
Ella Mae Wiggins was an organizer, speaker, and balladeer, known for expressed her faith in the union, the only organized force she had encountered that promised her a better life. On Sept. 14, 1929, during the Loray Mill strike in Gastonia, NC,  Textile Workers Union members were ambushed by local vigilantes and a sheriff’s deputy. The vigilantes and deputy forced Ella Mae Wiggins’ pickup truck off the road, and murdered the 29 year-old mother of nine. Though there were 50 witnesses during the assault and five of the attackers were arrested, all were acquitted of her murder. After her death, the AFL-CIO expanded Wiggins’ grave marker in 1979, to include the phrase, “She died carrying the torch of social justice.” Also a song-writer, her best-known song, A Mill Mother’s Lament, was recorded by Pete Seeger, among others.
26. Sue Cowan Williams
Sue Cowan Williams represented African-American teachers in the Little Rock School District as the plaintiff in the case challenging the rate of salaries allotted to teachers in the district based solely on skin color. The suit, Morris v. Williams, was filed on Feb. 28, 1942, and followed a March 1941 petition filed with the Little Rock School Board requesting equalization of salaries between black and white teachers. She lost the case, but then won in a 1943 appeal.
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Dozens of transgender detainees transferred from criticized New Mexico ICE facility
Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY Published 10:30 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2020 | Updated 9:00 p.m. ET Jan. 31, 2020
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After 9/11, the U.S. enforced stricter control on immigration. This enforcement led to the birth of Homeland Security and ICE, but what is ICE exactly? We explain.
USA TODAY
DENVER — Dozens of transgender migrant detainees have been moved from a long-criticized detention facility in New Mexico to other holding sites across the country, including a newly built unit in suburban Denver.
ICE officials wouldn’t say if they had completely shut down what had been the sole housing unit dedicated to transgender women migrants at the Cibola Correctional Center in rural New Mexico. But the move of the 27 inmates last week came just days after members of Congress demanded that ICE either improve conditions for transgender detainees or simply let them go.
In a statement, ICE officials said Thursday they’re working with the Cibola facility’s owner, CoreCivic, to improve conditions at the detention center, which can house more than 1,000 inmates and detainees. Many ICE facilities are owned and operated by private contractors.
“ICE recognizes the unique, long-term health care management needs of detainees who identify as transgender and wants to ensure transgender detainees have access to every resource available at ICE’s disposal,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.
ICE on Friday confirmed that all trans detainees have been removed from Cibola, and CoreCivic officials said they are in the process of hiring in-house medical staff to replace a contracted service. 
“CoreCivic is committed to providing high-quality healthcare to those entrusted to our care,” company spokesman Amanda Gilcrist said in a statement. “Detainees with unique medical needs were transferred from Cibola County while the facility continues to work through this transition of providers.”
A USA TODAY Network investigation published in December revealed that some transgender inmates at Cibola felt mistreated by staff at the facility, which also serves as the county jail. Several transgender inmates held at Cibola said they had been sexually assaulted or subjected to sexual harassment.
Allegra Love, 38, an attorney and executive director of the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, has visited the Cibola facility in Milan, New Mexico, dozens of times over the past two years. Problems there mirror complaints elsewhere, she said: poor medical staffing, under-paid guards and unexpected closures and lockdowns that make it hard to effectively represent her clients. The Dreamers Project provides free legal services to immigrants, who aren’t always automatically entitled to an attorney the way criminal defendants are.
Autopsy: Bruises on transgender migrant who died in ICE custody caused by CPR, not abuse
Love said in a November interview that the medical care in particular in Ciboloa was lacking: “I’ve had clients with cancer, with heart conditions, and they’re told to drink water, that the desert is very dry and they just need water. The medical neglect is rampant.”
A federal investigation into the 2018 death of transgender detainee Roxsana Hernandez Rodriguez revealed that Cibola County, where the detention center is housed, had only one ambulance to cover its 4,500-square mile area. The Jan. 14 letter to ICE from 45 members of Congress highlighted Rodriguez’s death, along with the 2019 death of another recently-transferred transgender detainee.
“Each day that ICE continues to detain transgender people is a day that the health and well-being of those individuals is at risk,” the Democratic members of Congress wrote. “We ask that you honor the long-standing reputation of the United States as a refuge for individuals who face persecution and adhere to the Congressional directives regarding the treatment of transgender people…”
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In an interview with USA TODAY late last year, Jenny Garcia, 23, a transgender woman who fled her home in Mexico, said guards made her strip and bathe with men at Cibola, even though they knew she identified as transgender. She said her two months in Cibola was an isolating and dehumanizing experience that included the extensive use of solitary confinement is what was supposed to be a holding center, not a jail. She said she couldn’t contact her family in Mexico and wasn’t given opportunities to contact anyone to advocate on her behalf. 
‘These people are profitable’: Under Trump, private prisons are cashing in on ICE detainees
“They didn’t treat us like people. They treated us like animals,” said Garcia, who has been released and is living with a relative in California while her case is reviewed. “I was fleeing my country and I was told the asylum process was one where would they would believe me. Instead, they called me names. There were points where I couldn’t stand it anymore. I felt like I was slowly dying in the detention center.”
In an April 2019 inspection, a federal auditor said Cibola met standards for the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a federal law governing how detention centers and prisons must operate in order to minimize sexual assault. Among the criteria is keeping detainees of different sexes segregated, and ensuring privacy from the opposite sex during showers. The auditor said transgender detainees had their own law library, beauty salon, medical exam room and an open recreation yard separate from the rest of the population, but didn’t actually interview any of those detainees.
An inspection Monday of the Aurora ICE facility in suburban Denver by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Crow’s staff found the site was housing 20 transgender detainees in the newly opened unit and noted that the private contractor running the site, GEO Group, was working with local LGBT health experts.
“ICE is aware of the additional mental health supports needed by transgender individuals and is reaching out to community groups to do what they can to ensure these needs are met,” Crow’s staff said in their report. “In addition to visit with mental health professionals, they are currently offering services such as twice-weekly ESL lessons and will have the hairstyling services offered in the women’s areas extended to the transgender dorms as well.”
Contributing: Kristin Lam, USA TODAY
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Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) lashed out at presidential scion Donald Trump Jr. for claiming Democrats seemingly want the coronavirus to kill “millions of people” so they can end President Donald Trump’s “streak of winning,” threatening a “serious altercation” on Friday morning if the first son got near him.With financial markets tanking amid growing fears over the coronavirus, Team Trump and right-wing media have trained their attention on complaining about how Democrats and mainstream media have reacted to the Trump administration’s disjointed response to the crisis. During a Friday morning Fox & Friends appearance, Trump Jr. insisted that Democrats were rooting for a massive disaster.“For them to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they can end Donald Trump’s streak of winning is a new level of sickness,” he bellowed.Appearing on MSNBC shortly thereafter, Garamendi was asked by host Hallie Jackson to react to those remarks. He immediately puffed his chest.“He should not be near me when he says that,” the congressman seethed.“Why not?” Jackson wondered aloud.“There would be a serious altercation,” the California Democrat replied. “That is just totally outrageous. I can assure you that there’s not a Democrat or Republican in Congress that wants anybody to be sick.”Garamendi went on to explain his concerns about the administration’s response to the viral outbreak, noting that the United States has been aware since December of the growing epidemic in China and that Americans have been exposed to it. After criticizing Team Trump’s lack of preparation and planning, and referencing a whistleblower’s recent complaint highlighting the lack of training and safeguards for HHS personnel serving coronavirus evacuees, Garamendi concluded with another warning to the president’s eldest child.“Don Jr. better not get close to me,” the Democratic lawmaker fumed. “It would not be a healthy situation.”Jimmy Kimmel Brutally Roasts Don Jr.’s All-Time Worst LooksFollowing Garamendi’s challenge to Trump Jr., a spokesman for the president’s son provided the following response to The Daily Beast.“The outrageous remarks from Congressman Garamendi were beyond the pale and should be universally condemned by Republicans and Democrats alike,” spokesperson Andy Surabian said. “Almost as outrageous as the Congressman’s comments was the lack of pushback from MSNBC host Hallie Jackson, who’s [sic] silence about political violence aimed towards a member of the first family, was truly deafening.”“By threatening Don Jr. with physical violence on national TV, Congressman Garamendi made clear to everyone watching that he is better suited to represent Antifa than the people of California’s 3rd Congressional district,” he concluded. “He should apologize immediately.”Garamendi, meanwhile, fired back with a statement of his own.“My sole focus is on the health and safety of my constituents and all Americans," he said in response to Trump Jr. “Donald Trump Jr. made the outrageous statement that Democrats want people to die for political purposes. If he wants to come to my office to explain his comments, my door is open. There is no threat of physical violence—but he can expect a strong verbal altercation.”“I will continue working to ensure our communities have the testing kits and resources necessary to successfully address the Coronavirus crisis. I hope Donald Trump Jr. and the President will join me in this effort,” Garamendi concluded.—With reporting by Asawin SuebsaengRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2TphHL5 via IFTTT
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She raised her niece like a daughter. Then the US government separated them at the border
The Trump administration is still separating children from their family members at the border. Inside a hidden crisis
by Valeria Fernández and Jude Joffe-Block in Phoenix, Arizona
The six-year-old girl on the other end of the line tells Alexa she fears they will never be together again. In another 15-minute phone call, she questions if Alexa still loves her. She asks Alexa to pick her up from the family she’s staying with in New York. Alexa hears the girl say the words in Spanish: “You are my mom, I want to be with you.”
Alexa wishes she could go get her. But Alexa’s locked up 2,400 miles away, at an immigration detention center in Arizona.
Alexa, 23, and her six-year-old niece arrived at the US border from Guatemala in early 2019, after gang members murdered much of their family and Alexa was left as the sole caretaker of the little girl. It’s been more than seven months since US officials on the Arizona border separated them. It’s the longest they have ever been apart. Now they are in the hands of a system that won’t make it easy for them to reunite.
The public outcry over forced family separations at the border last year has faded from the headlines, yet migrant families continue to be separated today. A federal judge in San Diego ordered the Trump administration in the summer of 2018 to reunite families and stop separating most parents and children. But the court order does not apply to non-parents, and the administration keeps separating people like Alexa – aunts, grandparents or older siblings who commonly step in as guardians without formal paperwork – from the children they’re traveling with, without any procedure to reunite them. (The government also continues splitting up some children from their parents, citing reasons such as the parents’ criminal history.)
Figures obtained on Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) through litigation reveal the federal government separated at least 1,556 more children from their parents than it had previously disclosed, bringing the number of known cases to more than 5,460. “The family separation practice was worse than we thought in the past and is still ongoing,” says Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrant Rights Project. The overall tally would be larger still if it included families like Alexa and her niece, but no one has tracked the number of children separated from non-parent adult relatives.
Anthony Enriquez, who oversees legal services for thousands of unaccompanied child migrants in New York for Catholic Charities Community Services, says his staff estimate that for every 10 children they see who were separated from a parent, there could be up to four additional children separated from a different adult relative. 
“When we talk about family separation, we are not just talking about DNA families,” Enriquez says. “Immigration officials are still separating families to willfully cause harm to both children and adults for the purpose of deterring future immigration and coercing people who are here now to accept deportation.”
•••
There are days when Alexa says she would rather die, “so I won’t have to suffer any more”. Her memories come at night, amid the screams of other detainees who plead to be released or beg for cigarettes. She wakes up feeling like someone is hunting her. She knows she’s seen too much death.
When we talk about family separation, we are not just talking about DNA families
Anthony Enriquez
Alexa, who did not want her real name or niece’s name disclosed for fear of reprisal, told her story over a series of phone calls from the Eloy detention center, located 64 miles (103km) from Phoenix, Arizona. During a brief visit at the center, she spoke softly, without ever erasing her welcoming smile. A white rosary peeked out from underneath her dark green uniform.
When Alexa thinks about her family she bows her head to cry. She says she was a teenager when gang members beat her mother to death in front of her in Guatemala over a longstanding land dispute. Two years later, in 2013, the gang returned and murdered her father and sister in the family’s rural home. Alexa managed to flee and looked for help. When she returned home with the police, she found her dead sister’s eight-month-old baby near death, choking in a pool of blood, her little legs bound. The baby was in shock and could not cry.
Alexa, then 17, suddenly found herself the sole caregiver of her niece. “Every time she cried, I cried with her,” she says. “We grew up together.”
She worked cleaning jobs so she could buy the baby milk, she says. She went on to have a son of her own, but he fell ill and died suddenly at 22 months. In 2018, the gang that killed her family fatally shot her partner outside the couple’s home. The gang shot at Alexa, too, and she fled with the girl, who was five by then.
The federal prosecutor’s office in Guatemala told Alexa they couldn’t help her because the men were too dangerous and advised her to leave the country, she recalls. After she made it to Mexico’s northern border in early 2019, she resolved to apply for political asylum in the US, ruling out living in Mexico because of gangs and violence there. She didn’t know that she could be separated from the girl when she started her journey. “The United States is the only country that can protect you,” she says.
American volunteers at her migrant shelter in Mexico helped her obtain copies of the child’s birth certificate and family death certificates, which prove her relatives were murdered. The volunteers also gave her a letter to carry, which stated she didn’t agree to be separated from the child.
She assured the girl they would stay together, that in the US, everything would be better. But when they got to the Lukeville, Arizona, port of entry and she asked for asylum, she was told they would be split up and the girl would be sent to New York. It would take Alexa days before she understood that was a state thousands of miles away.
“The girl was clinging to me,” Alexa recalls, adding that a female customs officer ripped her from her arms nonetheless. Alexa remembers the girl’s cries and the officer telling her to shut up. “You can’t do this without my permission,” Alexa recalls saying. “‘Of course, I can,’ she told me.”
•••
Children who arrive at the border without a parent or legal guardian – even if they come with an adult relative – are considered “unaccompanied” and are sent to child shelters, according to a US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson. These protocols “ensure the safety of the child”, the spokesperson wrote in an e-mail. The government requires legal guardians to show adoption papers or a court order, neither of which Alexa has.
But some advocates say the government should broaden its definition of legal guardian to include longstanding adult caregivers. Michelle Brané, director of migrant rights and justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission, is disappointed the government has so far refused to take that step. “Because really the whole point of all of this is to do what’s in the best interests of the child,” Brané says.
Once separated, there’s no real mechanism for reuniting children with the adult relatives who raised them, says attorney Catherine Weiss, the chair of the pro bono practice at Lowenstein Sandler, which represents immigrant children in both individual cases and class actions. “It is regularly the case that the adult who crossed with that child will be removed while the child remains.”
In fact, Brané says when these caregivers are separated from children at the border, it’s not even “necessarily noted in the file anywhere that this separation occurred or who the adult is that brought the child in”.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has issued legal guidance that makes it harder for Central Americans fleeing violence to qualify for asylum. And under Trump, immigrants who ask for asylum at ports of entry are typically forced to remain in detention until their cases are resolved.
Alexa spent 15 days without any news of what had happened to her child, until a psychologist at the detention center helped arrange for a phone call. The girl had been placed with a temporary foster family in New York City.
Volunteers Alexa had met at the shelter in Mexico learned of her situation and rallied to help. They found her pro bono attorneys and requested the girl’s case be overseen by an independent child advocate, a service available to some unaccompanied immigrant children in government custody. The child advocate got federal officials to allow Alexa and her niece to call twice a week.
For many other families like Alexa’s, phone calls with children don’t happen at all, says Weiss, the attorney. “If that person is not the biological parent or legal guardian, there is no guarantee of communication.”
•••
An immigration judge has found Alexa’s case credible and acknowledged she suffered harm, but denied her case met the complex legal standard for asylum. Her attorney Suzannah Maclay has filed an intent to appeal but says the case could take over two years to reach a resolution, given the current backlog in cases and the Trump administration’s constant changes to the immigration system. There is a chance, however, Alexa could be released from detention sooner through other legal motions.
Like other separated caregivers, she’s now facing dueling priorities: enduring detention long enough to defend herself from deportation back to danger, and reuniting with her child as quickly as possible – even when there is no clear path to do so.
In detention, most days resemble one another. She sleeps as much as she can. Her uniform makes her feel like a criminal. The food is always the same – “potatoes, potatoes and more potatoes”. She is often sick to her stomach, and sometimes it is hard to distinguish whether it is the food or the anxiety of not knowing what will happen next.
Sometimes she is hopeful. She has heard from the child advocate maybe the girl can be transferred to Arizona and they can have brief reunions in the detention visitor room. She is learning to read in English and Spanish, so she can understand her legal documents rather than just stare at them.
Increasingly, though, she thinks it’s better to be deported than keep fighting in detention. Her heart aches for her child, and it’s hard to accept that the girl she raised as a daughter now lives with strangers. “Without her I feel like everything is over,” she says.
I’ve been locked up for a long time without having done anything, my only mistake was to ask for asylum
Alexa
“I am desperate and depressed,” she says. “I’ve been locked up for a long time without having done anything, my only mistake was to ask for asylum.”
But if she were to return to Guatemala, she knows she wouldn’t be safe. “They are looking for me to kill me,” she says. And she fears an American family will adopt the little girl if she were to return, though legal advocates say that rarely happens.
It’s more likely if Alexa were to be deported, the child’s advocate would arrange for the girl to also return to Guatemala – even though it could take months for her to follow. Alexa would probably have to board a plane alone, trusting the government and advocates to ensure her child would one day join her.
In the meantime, Alexa looks forward to those days when she talks to her girl. Sometimes they make small talk about the dolls the girl plays with, or the school she attends. Other times, she tells Alexa she has a magic wand that will make the distance between them disappear. There’s not a call when the girl doesn’t ask how much longer they will have to wait to be together. Alexa has to say it’s all in the hands of a judge.
It’s tough to explain to a six-year-old she protected all her life that she’s now powerless. She’s all the family Alexa has. “And I’m not willing to lose her,” she says.
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morningusa · 5 years
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Republican defenders mostly silent, with two vivid exceptions, as at least one additional whistleblower steps forward Trump’s course of self-defense, meanwhile, appeared to be increasingly erratic. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty ImagesAs Donald Trump strived to enforce message discipline among Republicans in the face of a building threat that he will be impeached, new forces beyond the US president’s control appeared likely to accelerate the congressional impeachment inquiry further in the coming week.At least one additional whistleblower has stepped forward to describe an alleged scheme by Trump to extort Ukraine for dirt on Democratic 2020 presidential rival Joe Biden, the individual’s lawyer announced.Congress is preparing to take testimony on Tuesday from a major figure in the Ukraine scandal, Gordon Sondland, a wealthy hotelier and major Trump donor who was made US ambassador to the European Union.Similar testimony last week by former US special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker led to the disclosure of a damaging series of text messages further implicating Trump in the scandal.And Trump’s would-be defenders in the Republican ranks, with the notable exception of two figures who themselves are deeply implicated in the Ukraine affair – secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani – have fallen mostly silent. No Trump defender from the White House appeared on the US Sunday morning news shows, nor did any members of the congressional Republican political leadership.Trump’s course of self-defense, meanwhile, appeared to be increasingly erratic. The president told House Republicans that his reportedly outgoing energy secretary, Rick Perry, was the secret Machiavelli behind a phone call Trump held with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, central to the scandal, Axios reported.“Not a lot of people know this but, I didn’t even want to make the call,” Trump was quoted as saying. “The only reason I made the call was because Rick asked me to.”Article 1 of the United States constitution gives the House of Representatives the sole power to initiate impeachment and the Senate the sole power to try impeachments of the president. A president can be impeached if they are judged to have committed "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" – although the constitution does not specify what “high crimes and misdemeanors” are.The process starts with the House of Representatives passing articles of impeachment. A simple majority of members need to vote in favour of impeachment for it to pass to the next stage. Democrats currently control the house, with 235 representatives.The chief justice of the US supreme court then presides over the proceedings in the Senate, where the president is tried, with senators acting as the jury. For the president to be found guilty two-thirds of senators must vote to convict. Republicans currently control the Senate, with 53 of the 100 senators.Two presidents have previously been impeached, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Andrew Johnson in 1868, though neither was removed from office as a result. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before there was a formal vote to impeach him.Martin BelamA spokesperson said that Perry had urged Trump to speak with Ukraine about natural gas but not about Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, or a conspiracy theory about Ukrainian election tampering, which were the topics Trump raised on the July call.“Lesson to all of you Trump aides,” tweeted Neera Tanden, president of the liberal Center for American Progress, “he’s taking you all down with him so you might as well get off the boat while you can.”After a week in which his campaign seemed to dither over Trump’s constant attacks, Biden published a pugilistic op-ed in the Washington Post declaring “enough is enough”. “You won’t destroy me, and you won’t destroy my family,” the piece concluded. “And come November 2020, I intend to beat you like a drum.”On Sunday afternoon, Biden criticized Trump on Twitter.> In my experience, asking a foreign government to manufacture lies about your domestic political opponent is not “done all the time.” https://t.co/w8K8C17yUj> > — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 6, 2019News of at least one more whistleblower with direct knowledge of Trump administration interactions with Ukraine emerged Sunday. “I can confirm that my firm and my team represent multiple whistleblowers in connection to the underlying 12 August disclosure to the Intelligence Community Inspector General,” tweeted Andrew Bakaj. “No further comment at this time.”Trump spent Sunday morning tweeting outrage at Democrats and at Mitt Romney, who has been the only GOP senator to condemn Trump’s Ukraine dealings in strong, clear terms.At the weekend, Maine Republican senator Susan Collins said of Trump’s comments last week saying China should investigate the Bidens, that: “I thought the president made a big mistake by asking China to get involved in investigating a political opponent. It’s completely inappropriate.”But the efficacy of Trump’s efforts to keep Republicans onside in his defense was also visible at the weekend, with Pompeo telling reporters in Athens that it was the government’s “duty” to investigate a conservative conspiracy theory placing Ukraine instead of Russia at the heart of 2016 election tampering. That conspiracy theory has been debunked thoroughly.Another Republican senator, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, scrambled on Sunday to make amends for his admission on Friday that he had heard the state department was trying to put together a deal in which military aid for Ukraine would be tied to Zelenskiy’s cooperation in Trump’s alleged conspiracy against Biden.Johnson used an appearance on NBC News’ Meet the Press to become adamant about how Trump had personally told him there was no such linkage, and then, to the intense frustration of host Chuck Todd, Johnson peddled the Ukraine election tampering conspiracy. “What happened in 2016?” said Johnson. “Who set him up? Did things spring from Ukraine?”But Colin Powell, the former secretary of state under George W Bush, called the whistleblower a “patriot” in an appearance on CNN.“The Republican party has got to get a grip on itself,” Powell said. “Republican leaders and members of the Congress … are holding back because they’re terrified of what will happen [to] any one of them if they speak out.”Meanwhile the former Republican congressman Joe Walsh, who has mounted a primary run against Trump, accused Trump of betrayal.“This president deserves to be impeached,” Walsh said on CNN’s State of the Union. “This president betrayed his country again this week … He stood on the White House lawn and told two foreign governments to interfere in our election. Donald Trump is a traitor.”Minnesota senator and Democratic 2020 election candidate Amy Klobuchar amplified that message, comparing the Ukraine scandal to Watergate.“This is impeachable,” Klobuchar told CNN. “He’s acting like a global gangster, going to one leader after another trying to get dirt on his political opponent. I consider that a violation of our laws.”
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coin-river-blog · 5 years
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There’s something off-putting about a multi-billion dollar company like Walmart doing away with jobs primarily filled by people with disabilities. More than two years ago, the world’s largest retailer began replacing its greeters with so-called “customer hosts on a trial basis, and now the company plans to take the new initiative nationwide.
NPR reported that 1,000 stores would lose these greeter positions as of April 25.
Disabled Walmart Employees Latest Casualty in Retail Wars
youtube
Poignantly, the switch disproportionately affects employees who have cerebral palsy and other conditions that didn’t get in the way of Walmart hiring them. Now, the employer seems to see them as no longer as valuable.
Trying to hide under the guise that the move will allow it to improve the customer experience, as Walmart has done, is bologna.
If customer experience was a factor, Walmart wouldn’t have the reputation of having 30 checkout lanes with only 10 open. I digress.
Simply, this move is one of corporate arrogance that I didn’t see Walmart pursuing. Many others aren’t content with it either. They’ve lit up social media platforms like Christmas trees in expressing their outrage.
Never Miss It Until It’s Gone
This is bullshit. @Walmart can afford to keep the greeters AND create a new role. This is explicitly trying to remove disabled people from their rosters in a "legal" way. Its disgusting. @ACLU is there anything you can do?https://t.co/C3bl8N4fyz. #Walmart #aclu
— -K- (@xZombie_Baitx) February 26, 2019
One of the hallmarks of going to Walmart is being greeted with a smile by the employees as you walk into the store. There’s something about these workers that can even placate your frustration at having to show your receipt when leaving the store.
The thought of these people losing their jobs is gut-wrenching. One can’t help but wonder how a $285 billion company couldn’t leave these greeters in place. Who in the C-Suite thought this was going to go over well and wouldn’t end up running off customers?
Walmart’s Disappointing Defense
In a statement to NPR that I guess was supposed to show some compassion, a Walmart spokesperson said it would “give greeters with disabilities more time beyond April 25 to find new accommodations.”
“We recognize that our associates with physical disabilities face a unique situation. With that in mind, we will be extending the current 60-day greeter transition period for associates with disabilities. This allows associates to continue their employment at the store as valued members of the team while we seek an acceptable, customized solution for all of those involved.”
The spokesperson said the extended period would allow it to:
“explore the circumstances and potential accommodations, for each individual, that can be made within each store.”
The elimination of many of these disabled employees follows years’ worth of complaints over Walmart’s labor practices. The company’s practices have even been put under the scrutiny of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EOC).
Gotta Have Workers Who Can Clean Up Spills!
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Back in 2016, Walmart alerted workers, and the public, that it would be shaking up the “greeter” job description.
Here’s an excerpt from that statement:
“We’ve been working to welcome customers to an improved Walmart for some time now, and of the countless details we’ve taken a look at, a key piece has been better utilizing an important role – our greeters.”
It launched a pilot program in 2015 that included the new customer host position. These associates would be tasked with:
greeting customers
checking receipts
helping with customer returns
These are the tasks the greeters already do. It would seem the greeters, including those who are disabled, could just become customer hosts.
NPR pointed out that under federal law, employers must provide reasonable accommodations to workers with disabilities. The law requires an “interactive process” between employer and employee to evaluate requests to be accommodated.
Perhaps, Walmart should revisit that federal labor law. That’s because this move to just get rid of existing employees to replace them with people skilled in lifting items wreaks.
Disabled Walmart Employees Aren’t Backing Down
Some of the workers affected by the eliminations are being proactive in trying to keep their jobs. They’ve reached out to the retail giant with their concerns, and a list of their contributions, to Walmart.
In the photo below is Adam Catlin. He is a Walmart greeter with cerebral palsy. He has become somewhat of a hero in all this.
Adam Catlin gets out of a car before starting his shift at a Walmart in Selinsgrove, Pa. Catlin, who has cerebral palsy, is afraid he’ll be out of work after store officials changed his job description to add tasks that he’s physically unable to do. | Source: Holly Catlin via AP
Catlin, who has cerebral palsy, is afraid he’ll be out of work after store officials changed his job description to add tasks that he’s physically unable to do.
Adam’s mother, Holly Catlin, took to Facebook about his job being eliminated. Here’s an excerpt from that heart-wrenching post:
“Due to his disability, he has always had the option to stay home and collect SSI. However, Adam has such a strong desire to work and support himself. He even wanted to go to work rather then the hospital the morning of his heart attack. I am sad and I am sickened to see what a huge blow this is to him. I am putting this out there to make all of you, his friends, that he has made in the community, know, to not expect his smiling face and heartfelt, booming ‘hello’ as you enter those doors in the future. (After April) What a sad loss…to you, and definitely to him.”
Hey Walmart, This Won’t Help You Survive the Amazon Revolution
Amazon and Jeff Bezos have been eating Walmart’s lunch. | Source: REUTERS / Joshua Roberts
It’s not like Walmart can’t afford these salaries. Just last week, CCN reported on the company’s blowout fourth-quarter earnings report. Its share rose after the stellar report, underscoring its growing dominance in the e-commerce space.
Walmart reported adjusted per-share earnings of $1.41, easily topping analysts’ estimate of $1.33. Revenues reached $138.79 billion compared with $138.65 billion expected.
Rolling in that kind of money means that the retailer is doing pretty well, but, of course, it doesn’t mean all is well in Bentonville.
Amazon has left a trail of disrupted retail business models and conquered markets in its wake. Now it has Walmart in its sights.
Clearly, the Arkansas-based company is in the toughest battle of its history as it tries to keep its customers from migrating to Amazon.
However, the concern that it’s cutting out one element, these greeters, who were a pleasure for many customers, could backfire. Walmart says the customer hosts will have expanded duties beyond greeting customers that many disabled workers can’t do.
So their solution is to hand out pink slips.
Ridiculous!
No matter which way Walmart is trying to spin this, the company deserves the mounting criticism it is receiving – and more.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to, CCN.
Featured Image from AP Photo / Elise Amendola, File
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brittanyyoungblog · 5 years
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Huddle Up for Healthy Relationships during Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month
Studies show one in three high school students experience physical and/or sexual violence that is perpetrated by someone they are dating or going out with. 1 A startling 43 percent of dating college women and 28 percent of college men say they experience violent and abusive dating behavior.2  During February’s Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month (TDVAM), national, state and local domestic violence and sexual assault organizations are inviting people to “Huddle Up for Healthy Relationships” and work together to prevent dating abuse. We want you to join us in this campaign, too, and celebrate healthy relationships with us!  
“Dating violence is preventable, especially if education about healthy relationships starts early,” says William Wubbenhort, Associate Commissioner for the Family and Youth Services Bureau within the Administration for Children and Families. “This month and beyond, we want educators, youth, and community leaders to join along with middle, high school and college students, to creatively promote messages about dating violence prevention, and raise awareness of the differences between healthy, unhealthy, and abusive relationships.”  
Dating abuse is more common than people think and can include:  
• Physical and sexual abuse  
• Verbal/emotional abuse and controlling behaviors  
• Digital abuse (the use of technologies such as cell phones and social networking to abuse and control) 
Anyone can help promote positive teen relationships. Join the conversation with national and local domestic violence experts and help spread awareness to keep teens safe. Use your voice, write and post blogs, participate in Twitter polls, shoot videos and recognize Wear Orange for Love Day during Respect Week February 11 – 15. If you are a parent, you can learn about dating abuse and how to support your teen with a guide we created in both English and Spanish. 
To get started, download the Huddle Up for Healthy Relationships Toolkit on loveisrespect.org for #TeenDVMonth engagement ideas. We have plenty of materials you can use in your school, community or home. Follow #HuddleUp for #HealthyRelationships on social media.  
Here is a glance at some key TDVAM activities: 
• Jan. 31: Join the kick-off webinar “State of Dating Violence: Huddle Up for Healthy Relationships” – The National Domestic Violence Hotline and a spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will ignite the month-long campaign with a discussion on the epidemic of dating abuse, current dating trends among young people, what to look for in a healthy relationship, and where to go for support when you or someone you care for is in an abusive relationship. Watch here. 
• Feb. 1: Campaign participants are encouraged to take selfie-style, smart phone videos telling, “What a healthy relationship looks like to me” and post them on social media using #HuddleUp for #HealthyRelationships to generate online conversation.  
• Feb. 11-15: It’s Respect Week! Among other activities outlined in the toolkit, students are urged to make an announcement on their school’s public address system and website on February 11. Share that it’s time to celebrate healthy relationships and to get educated about unhealthy behaviors.  
• Feb. 12: Wear #orange4love and share on social with a statement that you take a stand against abuse and support healthy relationships.  
loveisrespect is a project of The National Domestic Violence Hotline. Our purpose is to engage, educate and empower young people to prevent and end abusive relationships. We provide information and support to concerned friends and family members, teachers, counselors, service providers and members of law enforcement. Advocates provide free and confiential support through online chat at loveisrespect.org, text (send loveis to 22522*) or phone, 1-866-331-9474. *Msg&Data Rates apply on text for help services. Read our privacy policy and Terms & Conditions. Text STOP to 22522 to unsubscribe. Text HELP to 22522 for tech support.  
This project is funded in part by Grant Number 90EV0426 from the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Family and Youth Services Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Administration for Children and Families or the U.S. Department of HHS. 
1 Vagi, K.J., Olsen, E.O.M., Basile, K.C., & Vivolo-Kantor, A.M. (2015).  Teen dating violence (physical and sexual) among US high school students: findings from the 2013 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey.  JAMA Pediatrics, 169 (5), 474-482. 
2 http://bit.ly/2CXtjN3 
The post Huddle Up for Healthy Relationships during Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month appeared first on Loveisrespect.org.
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robbiemeadow · 5 years
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Huddle Up for Healthy Relationships during Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month
Studies show one in three high school students experience physical and/or sexual violence that is perpetrated by someone they are dating or going out with. 1 A startling 43 percent of dating college women and 28 percent of college men say they experience violent and abusive dating behavior.2  During February’s Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month (TDVAM), national, state and local domestic violence and sexual assault organizations are inviting people to “Huddle Up for Healthy Relationships” and work together to prevent dating abuse. We want you to join us in this campaign, too, and celebrate healthy relationships with us!  
“Dating violence is preventable, especially if education about healthy relationships starts early,” says William Wubbenhort, Associate Commissioner for the Family and Youth Services Bureau within the Administration for Children and Families. “This month and beyond, we want educators, youth, and community leaders to join along with middle, high school and college students, to creatively promote messages about dating violence prevention, and raise awareness of the differences between healthy, unhealthy, and abusive relationships.”  
Dating abuse is more common than people think and can include:  
• Physical and sexual abuse  
• Verbal/emotional abuse and controlling behaviors  
• Digital abuse (the use of technologies such as cell phones and social networking to abuse and control) 
Anyone can help promote positive teen relationships. Join the conversation with national and local domestic violence experts and help spread awareness to keep teens safe. Use your voice, write and post blogs, participate in Twitter polls, shoot videos and recognize Wear Orange for Love Day during Respect Week February 11 – 15. If you are a parent, you can learn about dating abuse and how to support your teen with a guide we created in both English and Spanish. 
To get started, download the Huddle Up for Healthy Relationships Toolkit on loveisrespect.org for #TeenDVMonth engagement ideas. We have plenty of materials you can use in your school, community or home. Follow #HuddleUp for #HealthyRelationships on social media.  
Here is a glance at some key TDVAM activities: 
• Jan. 31: Join the kick-off webinar “State of Dating Violence: Huddle Up for Healthy Relationships” – The National Domestic Violence Hotline and a spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will ignite the month-long campaign with a discussion on the epidemic of dating abuse, current dating trends among young people, what to look for in a healthy relationship, and where to go for support when you or someone you care for is in an abusive relationship. Watch here. 
• Feb. 1: Campaign participants are encouraged to take selfie-style, smart phone videos telling, “What a healthy relationship looks like to me” and post them on social media using #HuddleUp for #HealthyRelationships to generate online conversation.  
• Feb. 11-15: It’s Respect Week! Among other activities outlined in the toolkit, students are urged to make an announcement on their school’s public address system and website on February 11. Share that it’s time to celebrate healthy relationships and to get educated about unhealthy behaviors.  
• Feb. 12: Wear #orange4love and share on social with a statement that you take a stand against abuse and support healthy relationships.  
loveisrespect is a project of The National Domestic Violence Hotline. Our purpose is to engage, educate and empower young people to prevent and end abusive relationships. We provide information and support to concerned friends and family members, teachers, counselors, service providers and members of law enforcement. Advocates provide free and confiential support through online chat at loveisrespect.org, text (send loveis to 22522*) or phone, 1-866-331-9474. *Msg&Data Rates apply on text for help services. Read our privacy policy and Terms & Conditions. Text STOP to 22522 to unsubscribe. Text HELP to 22522 for tech support.  
This project is funded in part by Grant Number 90EV0426 from the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Family and Youth Services Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Administration for Children and Families or the U.S. Department of HHS. 
1 Vagi, K.J., Olsen, E.O.M., Basile, K.C., & Vivolo-Kantor, A.M. (2015).  Teen dating violence (physical and sexual) among US high school students: findings from the 2013 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey.  JAMA Pediatrics, 169 (5), 474-482. 
2 http://bit.ly/2CXtjN3 
The post Huddle Up for Healthy Relationships during Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month appeared first on Loveisrespect.org.
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Tuesday was a historic night for Muslim women in US politics.
Two Muslim women won their House races in Midwest districts. Democratic candidate Rashida Tlaib was elected in Michigan, without opposition, to replace Rep. John Conyers, who stepped down after facing sexual harassment allegations. In Minnesota, Democrat Ilhan Omar defeated Republican Jennifer Zielinski. Omar is replacing Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison — the first Muslim person elected to Congress — who on Tuesday won his race for state attorney general.
Upon her victory, Omar congratulated Tlaib on Twitter expressing her solidarity with her “sister” and excitement to serve in Congress together.
Congratulations to my sister @RashidaTlaib on your victory!
I cannot wait to serve with you, inshallah.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 7, 2018
Neither victory was a complete surprise: Tlaib and Omar ran in two districts that tend to favor Democrats. Still, their wins remain hugely symbolic, both for Muslim visibility in the United States and as a repudiation of anti-immigrant, nativist sentiment in the age of Donald Trump.
Suman Raghunathan, the executive director of advocacy group South Asian Americans Leading Together, told Vox, “It’s incredibly inspiring … to see the nation’s first Muslim American women elected to Congress just two years after the administration decided to introduce the first ‘Muslim ban’ — I think that’s a very strong, powerful message of repudiation against the politics of division rather than the politics of inclusion.”
She stressed the importance of the women’s backgrounds not only as Muslims, but also as those with immigrant and refugee backgrounds. Tlaib is the child of Palestinian immigrants, while Omar came to the United States more than 20 years ago as a refugee from Somalia. Both have made pro-immigrant policies a staple of their platforms and have been vocal critics of the Trump administration’s hardline approach to migration.
Raghunathan also highlighted the fact that Tlaib and Omar’s elections are only a small part of what she sees as a wider electoral repudiation of the Trump administration’s specific brand of nationalism and conservatism.
“Tlaib and Omar are not the only firsts,” Raghunathan said. “Last night saw a number of other oppressed and marginalized communities who also elected their first members of Congress. Kansas saw both the repudiation of the noted anti-immigrant demagogue Kris Kobach, rejected in the governors’ race, and also you saw Kansas’s Third District — which was the home of Meshon Cooper who was murdered by a white supremacist last year — flip, and elect one of the nation’s first Native American women, and Kansas’s first gay women,” Democrat Sharice Davids.
Tlaib and Omar’s victory, therefore, must be seen as part of a broader movement: one in which progressive women and members of minority groups are bringing their experiences to the fore to combat Trumpist rhetoric and policies alike.
Omar and Tlaib have both been explicit about the degree to which their identities inform their politics. Before her election, Omar told the New Yorker’s Emily Witt that her opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement was rooted in her own consciousness of oppression. “I’ve always seen how it was created out of fear, and how it became a tool to dehumanize and treat Muslims as second-class citizens within this country,” she said.
Likewise, Tlaib told ABC News before the election, “I ran because of injustices and because of my boys, who are questioning their [Muslim] identity and whether they belong. I’ve never been one to stand on the sidelines.”
While their elections are historic, some commentators caution against reducing Tlaib and Omar down solely to their identities as Muslim women. As imam Dawud Walid told Vox, all too often, people focus on Muslim candidates’ identities rather than focusing on their policy proposals.
“It’s very important to have a democracy that truly represents and reflects the people that live in the country,” Walid said. “With [Tlaib and Omar], we’re adding to that representation that has been sorely missing in Congress, [but] there is a tendency of wanting to place Muslims in a policy ghetto.”
Walid added, “There is somehow an expectation that [an elected Muslim] person is supposed to be a spokesperson for Muslim. … I don’t see either of them as a spokesperson for their faith. We’ve got Islamic scholars, and female Islamic scholars for that. These are people who got elected in districts that are majority non-Muslim and they are representing the interests of their district and the country as a whole.”
Wajaharat Ali, a journalist and frequent commentator on Islamic issues, concurred. Pointing out that the district that Omar won in was predominately white and 70 percent Christian, he argued that Omar and Tlaib’s victories were fundamentally about their ability to connect with the needs of a population hungry for strong, progressive candidates. “Oftentimes [the narrative will] be — ‘we’re the first Muslims.’ But what you’re seeing now is [the narrative of] ‘we are public servants and champions of the people who happen to be Muslim.’”
“What that shows you,” he added, “is an evolving America that has a more nuanced, sophisticated understanding of how to deal with women and people of color and minorities. Meaning those markers are not used to tokenize them, but are seen as just one of the many aspects of their identity.”
Original Source -> Tlaib and Omar are the first Muslim women elected to Congress. They’re also so much more.
via The Conservative Brief
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phaylenfairchild · 6 years
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Here’s A First: A Celebrity Has An Out And Proud Relationship With A Transwoman
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The couple have shared their love story publicly, across social media and this marks the first time a celebrity has acknowledged their romance with a Transgender person.
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If you’ve seen the award winning series “Schitt’s Creek” starring comedic legends Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, then you know actress Emily Hampshire. Hampshire plays the role of Stevie on the Canadian sitcom which became a cross-over hit in the United States since the first season aired in 2015. Hampshire also pulled double duty on her acting tasks, taking up the role of Jennifer Goines in the Sy-Fy futuristic drama 12 Monkeys which has aired simultaneously to Schitt’s Creek.
Hampshire has been posting pictures to her social media with her new girlfriend- Teddy Geiger, a woman who is an accomplished figure in her own right having written hits for bands like One Direction and Shawn Mendes, announced her transition last October and withdrew from the prying of public eyes before re-emerging in May.
This isn’t the way it usually happens for Transwomen in relationships with celebrities. In fact, most celebrities, especially men, who engage in relationships with trans-identifying folks keep it very quiet, less for privacy reasons and more out of shame and embarrassment. Those who have been discovered to have had intimate relationships with trans people typically end up uniformly denying it or claiming they were tricked. Some even simply pretend it never happened despite evidence to the contrary.
The reality is, young trans people who are growing up as productive members of society have had it demonstrated over and over that they remain outside the boundaries of achieving personal happiness and fulfilling relationships due to their gender. They feel relegated to their potential being capped at someone else’s dirty secret or sexual experiment. The trans community doesn’t have many well known figures who portray the possibilities of finding love when compared to our cisgender counterparts.
We all appreciate the celebrity power-couples who are thriving and who, by their very existence, change the shape of what we understand and accept as a “Normal.” Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka are a gay couple we’ve watched fall in love, get married and have a beautiful family- just ten years ago, this was virtually unheard of. We also have Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor or Ellen Degenerous and Portia Derossi; All strong, successful women who haven’t felt it necessary to hide their same-sex relationships in order to achieve great things in the entertainment industry. Just a few examples of many LGB figures that have chosen to live their lives unapologetically, thereby providing visibility and consequentially normalizing the diversity that is encompassed in the word “Love.”
Us trans folks haven’t had those examples to call on. Why is this important? Since the dawning of celebrity voyeurism, we’ve been delivered by means of red carpet flashbulbs the love stories of Liz and Dick, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers. Every young girl who swoons over Justin Bieber and his latest girlfriend and holds them on a pedestal with the hashtag #Relationshipgoals acknowledges that relationships are a part of our development. A natural evolution. A pursuit we, as social beings, all share to some degree. The gossip rags love to talk about which A-Lister Jennifer Lawrence or Taylor swift is dating today, emphasizing that these women have permission and acceptance in greater society as they actively integrate with the males of our species.
Everyone wants a love story; An epic fairytale. Cis privilege is having that demonstrated every single day, in their favorite songs, television shows, gossip magazines, social media, movies and books. Thankfully, Cis-Love has been broadened to include and celebrate gay and lesbian couples…
… Trans love? Not so much. We’re still the fodder for tabloid media sensationalism and dehumanizing jokes. We’re still fighting be acknowledged as normal, bathroom using human beings against a tide of conservatives who instead create the narrative that we’re a threat. We, as transgender people, are doing our best to thrive while under psychological, emotional and even physical assault every single day. It’s possible that cis people who might otherwise consider us as potential romantic partners, discard us due to the baggage they believe accompanies us. Maybe they think our gender equates the sum of our parts and determining factor of every choice we make. Shows like Transparent did us no favors, posturing an older transwoman as a catalyst of damage for her entire family and ultimately becoming sexually confused. That’s a huge weight to bear the weight of, if it actually represented the transgender experience, but it’s inaccurate. Sexuality and gender are like your fingers and toes. They each have a vital purpose, but that purpose is wholly independent and unrelated to the other. Neither has influence on what the other does.
Perhaps they believe that, by the matter of mere association, they’ll have to suddenly become an advocate, an activist or community spokesperson. Possibly they’re concerned that a relationship with a trans person will usurp every noteworthy achievement ever made, substituted instead by salacious news headlines and invasive lines of questioning focusing solely on that… and that inevitably may become the sum of their own parts.
Maybe they’re afraid that public perception will be forever altered, or they’ll be the punchline to a barrage of jokes. Could it be that they, too, have seen others in situations where they must defend, justify or deny their relationships with trans folks instead of just being happy.
Because that’s what we need to see.
Couples. Happy.
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Not cis people lying about having been in relationships with us, or suddenly ignoring the fact we ever existed to preserve their professional status. A relationship with a trans person, whether it be with an NBA sports star or a Olympic gold medalist or a Comedy legend, has been only portrayed to the public as humiliating and shame-worthy.
Up until now, in the realm of public consciousness, that’s how we’ve been portrayed. That’s how our identities have been controlled and how we’ve been framed in the context of intimacy.
This is why- whether Emily Hampshire and Teddy Geiger realize it or not- their visibility is so momentous and vital to pursuing a cultural shift. They don’t sensationalize their romance. They don’t punctuate their presence with politicized missives or leverage their coupling as a social justice statement. They just are as they are. Like every other couple in love, there is no great statement to be made.
That, by itself, makes the greatest statement of all.
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ufcw · 5 years
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26 labor heroines you should know for Women’s History Month
Women’s History Month is celebrated in order to promote the significant contributions women have made to the labor movement and beyond that are often left out of the history lessons taught in our classrooms or promoted in society.
The following women are just some of the major players who have had a major role in the fight for equal rights, who made (and are still making) history by exposing horrible labor conditions and acted to change them, and inspired a generation of activists and leaders today.
*the following is adapted from the Zinn Education Project*
1. Louise Boyle
Photographer Louise Boyle is best known for the images she captured, documenting the devastating effects of the Great Depression on American workers. In 1937, at the height of a wave of labor militancy, Ms. Boyle was invited to photograph the living and working conditions of the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union members from several Arkansas communities. Her provocative recording depicted courageous people linking their futures together despite devastating poverty, physical hardship, and brutal police-endorsed reprisals. Most portray African American farmers in their homes, at union meetings and rallies, or at work with their families picking cotton. Boyle returned in 1982 to rephotograph some of the people and places she had documented earlier.
2. Hattie Canty
A Las Vegas transplant in rural Alabama, legendary African American unionist Hattie Canty was one of the greatest strike leaders in U.S. history. Her patient leadership helped knit together a labor union made up of members from 84 nations.  During her time as an activist, she saw first hand how the labor and civil rights movements were intrinsically linked: “Coming from Alabama, this seemed like the civil rights struggle…the labor movement and the civil rights movement, you cannot separate the two of them.”
3. May Chen
In 1982, May Chen helped organize and lead the New York Chinatown strike of 1982, one of the largest Asian American worker strikes with about 20,000 garment factory workers marching the streets of Lower Manhattan demanding work contracts. “The Chinatown community then had more and more small garment factories,” she recalled. “And the Chinese employers thought they could play on ethnic loyalties to get the workers to turn away from the union. They were very, very badly mistaken.” Most of the protests included demands for higher wages, improved working conditions and for management to observe the Confucian principles of fairness and respect. By many accounts, the workers won. The strike caused the employers to hold back on wage cuts and withdraw their demand that workers give up their holidays and some benefits. It paved the way for better working conditions such as hiring bilingual staff to interpret for workers and management, initiation of English-language classes and van services for workers.
4. Jessie de la Cruz
A field worker since the age of five, Jessie knew poverty, harsh working conditions, and the exploitation of Mexicans and all poor people. Her response was to take a stand. She joined the United Farm Workers union in 1965 and, at Cesar Chavez’s request, became its first woman recruiter. She also participated in strikes, helped ban the crippling short-handle hoe, became a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, testified before the Senate, and met with the Pope. She continued to be a political activist until her death in 2013, at the age of 93.
5. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn once said, “I will devote my life to the wage earner. My sole aim in life is to do all in my power to right the wrongs and lighten the burdens of the laboring class.” In 1907, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn became a full-time organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World and in 1912 traveled to Lawrence, MA during the Great Textile Strike. She became “the strike’s leading lady.”
6. Emma Goldman
In 1886, year after her arrival from Lithuania, Emma Goldman was shocked by the trial, conviction, and execution of labor activists falsely accused of a bombing in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, which she later described as “the events that had inspired my spiritual birth and growth.” A born propagandist and organizer, Emma Goldman championed women’s equality, free love, workers’ rights, free universal education regardless of race or gender, and anarchism. For more than thirty years, she defined the limits of dissent and free speech in Progressive Era America. Goldman died on May 14, 1940, and buried in Forest Park, Illinois amongst the labor activists that first sparked her life’s work as an activist. Throughout her career, she fought against the corporate powers that tried to dehumanize the people that worked for them: “Still more fatal is the crime of turning the producer into a mere particle of a machine, with less will and decision than his master of steel and iron. Man is being robbed not merely of the products of his labor, but of the power of free initiative, of originality, and the interest in, or desire for, the things he is making.”
7. Velma Hopkins
Velma Hopkins helped mobilize 10,000 workers into the streets of Winston-Salem, NC, as part of an attempt to bring unions to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The union, Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers of America-CIO, was integrated and led primarily by African American women. They pushed the boundaries of economic, racial and gender equality. In the 1940s, they organized a labor campaign and a strike for better working conditions, pay, and equal rights under the law. It was the only time in the history of Reynolds Tobacco that it had a union. Before Local 22 faced set-backs from red-baiting and the power of Reynolds’ anti-unionism, it gained national attention for its vision of an equal society. This vision garnered the scrutiny of powerful enemies such as Richard Nixon and captured the attention of allies such as actor Paul Robeson and songwriter Woody Guthrie. While it represented the workers, the union influenced a generation of civil rights activists.
8. Dolores Huerta
Before becoming a labor organizer, Dolores Huerta was a grammar school teacher, but soon quit after becoming distraught at the sight of children coming to school hungry or without proper clothing. “I couldn’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children.” In 1955, Huerta launched her career in labor organizing by helping Fred Ross train organizers in Stockton, California, and five years later, founded the Agricultural Workers Association before organizing the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez in 1962. Some of her early victories included lobbying for voting rights for Mexican Americans as well as for the right of every American to take the written driver’s test in their native language. A champion of labor rights, women’s rights, racial equality and other civil rights causes, Huerta remains an unrelenting figure in the farm workers’ movement.
9. Mother Jones
Marry Harris “Mother” Jones made it her mission to stand up for the rights of the children who worked in factories and mills under horrible conditions in the early 1900’s. “I asked the newspaper men why they didn’t publish the facts about child labor in Pennsylvania. They said they couldn’t because the mill owners had stock in the papers.” “Well, I’ve got stock in these little children,” said I,” and I’ll arrange a little publicity.” On July 7, 1903, Jones began the “March of the Mill Children” from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt’s Long Island summer home in Oyster Bay, NY, to publicize the harsh conditions of child labor and to demand a 55-hour work-week. During this march she delivered her famed “The Wail of the Children” speech, even though Roosevelt refused to see them.
10. Mary Lease
“Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street.” These words, which eerily echo some sentiments today, were spoken more than 120 years ago by Mary Lease, a powerful voice of the agrarian crusade and the best-known orator of the era, first gaining national attention battling Wall Street during the 1890 Populist campaign. As a spokesperson for the “people’s party,” she hoped that by appealing directly to the heart and soul of the nation’s farmers, she could motivate them to political action to protect their own interests not only in Kansas but throughout the United States. “You may call me an anarchist, a socialist, or a communist, I care not, but I hold to the theory that if one man as not enough to eat three times a day and another man has $25,000,000, that last man has something that belongs to the first.” Mary spent most of her life speaking out in favor of social justice causes including women’s suffrage and temperance, and her work reflected the multifaceted nature of late nineteenth-century politics in the United States. Many female leaders today, such as Elizabeth Warren, still fight against Wall Street and the 1% as inequality has reached exorbitant levels.
11. Clara Lemlich
“I have listened to all the speakers, and I have no further patience for talk. I am a working girl, one of those striking against intolerable conditions. I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in generalities. What we are here for is to decide whether or not to strike. I make a motion that we go out in a general strike.” These were the words of  Clara Lemlich, a firebrand who led several strikes of shirtwaist makers and challenged the mostly male leadership of the union to organize women garment workers. With support from the National Women’s Trade Union League (NWTUL) in 1909 she lead the New York shirtwaist strike, also known as the “Uprising of the 20,000”. It was the largest strike of women at that point in U.S. history. The strike was followed a year later by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that exposed the continued plight of immigrant women working in dangerous and difficult conditions.
12. Luisa Moreno
Luisa Moreno, a Guatemalan immigrant, first got involved in labor activism in 1930 at in Zelgreen’s Cafeteria in New York City, when she and her co-worker protested the employer’s exploitation of its workers with long hours, constant sexual harassment, and the threat, should anyone object, of dismissal. Hearing that workers would picket the cafeteria, police formed a line on the sidewalk that allowed customers to pass through. Luisa, in a fur collar coat, strolled through the cordon of policemen as if she was going to enter the cafeteria. When she was directly in front of the door she pulled a picket sign from under her coat and thrust it in plain view, yelling, “Strike!” Two burly policemen grabbed her by the elbows. They lifted her off the sidewalk and hustled her into the entrance way of a nearby building. She came out with her face bleeding and considered herself fortunate that she was not disfigured. Moreno spent the next 20 years organizing workers across the country. Her story serves as a reminder of just how dangerous the conditions were in those days to simply make one’s voice heard, but her bravery helped change those conditions for the better.
13. Agnes Nestor
“Any new method which the company sought to put into effect and disturb our work routine seemed to inflame the deep indignation already burning inside us. Thus, when a procedure was suggested for subdividing our work, so that each operator would do a smaller part of each glove, and thus perhaps increase the overall production—but also increase the monotony of the work, and perhaps also decrease our rate of pay—we began to think of fighting back.” This reminiscence by Nestor described how the oppressive conditions of the glove factory pushed her to take a leading role in a successful strike of female glove workers in 1898. Soon she became president of her glove workers local and later a leader of the International Glove Workers Union. She also took a leading role in the Women’s Trade Union League, serving as president of the Chicago branch from 1913 to 1948.
14. Pauline Newman
Pauline Newman, a Russian immigrant, began working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1903 when she was thirteen years old. Finding that many of her co-workers could not read, she organized an evening study group where they also discussed labor issues and politics. Newman was active in the shirtwaist strike and the Women’s Trade Union League. She became a union organizer for the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) and director of the ILGWU Health Center. “All we knew was the bitter fact that after working 70 or 80 hours in a seven-day week, we did not earn enough to keep body and soul together,” she said.
15. Lucy Parsons
On May 1, 1886, Lucy Parsons helped launched the world’s first May Day and the demand for the eight-hour work day. Along with her husband, anarchist and activist Albert Parsons, and their two children, they led 80,000 working people down the Chicago streets and more than 100,000 also marched in other U.S. cities. A new international holiday was born. Parsons went on to help found the International Workers of the World, continued to give speeches, and worked tirelessly for equality throughout the rest of her life until her death in 1942.
16. Frances Perkins
On March 4, 1933, Frances Perkins became the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. Having personally witnessed workers jump to their death during the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, Perkins promoted and helped passed strong labor laws to try to prevent such atrocities from ever occurring again.
17. Rose Pesotta
When Rose Pesotta arrived in Los Angeles in 1933 to organize employees in the garment industry, the workforce of which was 75% Latina, the local leadership of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), consisting of mostly white men, had no interest in organizing female dressmakers, feeling that most would either leave the industry to raise their families or shouldn’t be working in the first place. On October 12, 1933, a month after Rose Pesotta arrived, 4,000 workers walked off the job and went on strike. Their demands included union recognition, 35-hour work weeks, being paid the minimum wage, no take home work or time card regulation, and for disputes to be handled through arbitration. The strike ended on Nov. 6 with mixed results, but the workers gained a 35-hour workweek and received the minimum wage. Although not a complete victory, the message sent was a powerful one. What Rose Pesotta knew all along was now clear to the garment bosses and her male union counterparts; women, specifically women of color, should not be discounted. When it came to the demands of dignity and respect, these workers would not be ignored.
18. Ai-Jen Poo
When Poo started organizing domestic workers in 2000, many thought she was taking on an impossible task.  Domestic workers were too dispersed–spread out over too many homes. Even Poo had described the world of domestic work as the “Wild West.” Poo’s first big breakthrough with the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) happened on July 1, 2010, when the New York state legislature passed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. The bill legitimized domestic workers and gave them the same lawful rights as any other employee, such as vacation time and overtime pay. The bill was considered a major victory, and the NDWA expanded operations to include 17 cities and 11 states.
19. Florence Reece
Florence Reece was an activist, poet, and songwriter. She was the wife of one of the strikers and union organizers, Sam Reece, in the Harlan County miners strike in Kentucky. In an attempt to intimidate her family, the sheriff and company guards shot at their house while Reece and her children were inside (Sam had been warned they were coming and escaped). During the attack, she wrote the lyrics to Which Side Are You On?, a song that would become a popular ballad of the labor movement.
Song Lyrics
CHORUS: Which side are you on? (4x)
My daddy was a miner/And I’m a miner’s son/And I’ll stick with the union/‘Til every battle’s won [Chorus]
They say in Harlan County/There are no neutrals there/You’ll either be a union man/Or a thug for JH Blair [Chorus]
Oh workers can you stand it?/Oh tell me how you can/Will you be a lousy scab/Or will you be a man? [Chorus]
Don’t scab for the bosses/Don’t listen to their lies/Us poor folks haven’t got a chance/Unless we organize [Chorus]
20. Harriet Hanson Robinson
At the age of 10, Harriet Hanson Robinson got a job in textile Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts to help support her family. When mill owners dropped wages and sped up the pace of work, Harriet and others participated in the 1836 Lowell Mill Strike. Later as an adult, Harriet became an activist for women’s suffrage and would recount her mill work experience in Loom and Spindle or Life Among the Early Mill Girls. In her book, Harriet concludes: “Such is the brief story of the life of every-day working-girls; such as it was then, so it might be to-day. Undoubtedly there might have been another side to this picture, but I give the side I knew best–the bright side!”
21. Fannie Sellins
Fannie Sellins was known as an exceptional organizer that also made her “a thorn in the side of the Allegheny Valley coal operators.” The operators openly threatened to “get her.” After being an organizer in St. Louis for the United Garment Workers local and in the West Virginia coal fields, in 1916 Sellins moved to Pennsylvania, where her work with the miners’ wives proved to be an effective way to organize workers across ethnic barriers.  She also recruited black workers, who originally came north as strikebreakers, into the United Mine Workers America. During a tense confrontation between townspeople and armed company guards outside the Allegheny Coal and Coke company mine in Brackenridge on August 26, 1919, Fannie Sellins and miner Joseph Strzelecki were brutally gunned down. A coroner’s jury and a trial in 1923 ended in the acquittal of two men accused of her murder. She is remembered for her perseverance and bravery.
22. Vicky Starr
“When I look back now, I really think we had a lot of guts. But I didn’t even stop to think about it at the time. It was just something that had to be done. We had a goal. That’s what we felt had to be done, and we did it,” said “Stella Nowicki”, the assumed name of Vicki Starr, an activist who participated in the campaign to organize unions in the meatpacking factories of Chicago in the 1930’s and ‘40s.
23. Emma Tenayuca
“I was arrested a number of times. I never thought in terms of fear. I thought in terms of justice,” said Emma Tenayuca, born in San Antonio, Texas on Dec. 21, 1916. Later, she would become to be known as “La Pasionaria de Texas” through her work as an educator, speaker, and labor organizer. From 1934–1948, she supported almost every strike in the city, writing leaflets, visiting homes of strikers, and joining them on picket lines. She joined the Communist Party and the Workers Alliance (WA) in 1936. Tenayuca and WA demanded that Mexican workers could strike without fear of deportation or a minimum wage law. In 1938 she was unanimously elected strike leader of 12,000 pecan shellers. Due to anti-Mexican, anti-Communist, and anti-union hysteria Tenayuca fled San Antonio for her safety but later returned as a teacher.
24. Carmelita Torres
On Jan. 28, 1917, 17-year-old Carmelita Torres led the Bath Riots at the Juarez/El Paso border, refusing the toxic “bath” imposed on all workers crossing the border. Here is what the El Paso Times reported the next day: “When refused permission to enter El Paso without complying with the regulations the women collected in an angry crowd at the center of the bridge. By 8 o’clock the throng, consisting in large part of servant girls employed in El Paso, had grown until it packed the bridge half way across. “Led by Carmelita Torres, an auburn-haired young woman of 17, they kept up a continuous volley of language aimed at the immigration and health officers, civilians, sentries and any other visible American.”
25. Ella Mae Wiggins
Ella Mae Wiggins was an organizer, speaker, and balladeer, known for expressed her faith in the union, the only organized force she had encountered that promised her a better life. On Sept. 14, 1929, during the Loray Mill strike in Gastonia, NC,  Textile Workers Union members were ambushed by local vigilantes and a sheriff’s deputy. The vigilantes and deputy forced Ella Mae Wiggins’ pickup truck off the road, and murdered the 29 year-old mother of nine. Though there were 50 witnesses during the assault and five of the attackers were arrested, all were acquitted of her murder. After her death, the AFL-CIO expanded Wiggins’ grave marker in 1979, to include the phrase, “She died carrying the torch of social justice.” Also a song-writer, her best-known song, A Mill Mother’s Lament, was recorded by Pete Seeger, among others.
26. Sue Cowan Williams
Sue Cowan Williams represented African-American teachers in the Little Rock School District as the plaintiff in the case challenging the rate of salaries allotted to teachers in the district based solely on skin color. The suit, Morris v. Williams, was filed on Feb. 28, 1942, and followed a March 1941 petition filed with the Little Rock School Board requesting equalization of salaries between black and white teachers. She lost the case, but then won in a 1943 appeal.
from 26 labor heroines you should know for Women’s History Month
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