Livs. Sleepy.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Daily Dose of Cute
Livs. Sleepy.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
The Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by embroidery.
Recommended Reading:
Miriam: [Content Note: Worker exploitation] A New Labor Issue: Control Over Time
Teddy: [CN: War on agency] Report: States with Most Abortion Restrictions Have Worst Health Outcomes
BYP: [CN: Death; self-harm] Family of Woman Who Died in Missouri Jail Cell Demands Answers
James: Theatre Owners Are Angry about Interstellar's 'Film First' Initiative
Veronica: Selfie the TV Show vs. #365FeministSelfie
Fannie: [CN: Misogyny; racism] Further Thoughts on Defiance
Andy: David Lynch's Twin Peaks Returning to TV in 2016; Show Will Be Set 25 Years Later
If you'd like to check out some more terrific round-ups of recommended reading, head on over to visit Angry Asian Man and stavvers!
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Christian Supremacy; Islamophobia; anti-atheism; privilege.]
"I'm sick and tired of minorities running our country! As far as I'm concerned, I don't think that atheists (minority), muslims (minority) nor any other minority group has the right to tell the majority of the people in the United States what they can and cannot do here. Is everyone so scared that they can't fight back for what is right or wrong with his country?"—Charlotte Lucas, co-founder of Lucas Oil, "a Corona, California-based oil products company with annual revenues in excess of $150 million," on her Facebook page in a now-deleted post.
(Although the company is based in California, the Lucases live in Indianapolis and are major players in Indiana. Their name "adorn[s] the stadium where the NFL's Indianapolis Colts play their games. Lucas Oil paid $122 million in 2012 for a 20-year contract for the naming rights to the stadium.")
There's so much I love, ahem, about this quote, but I think my favorite part is her pitiful whine about "everyone" being "so scared that they can't fight back" against the tyranny of Muslims and atheists.
LOL. Whoooooooooooops!
I always find it particularly amusing when I hear other Hoosiers moaning about how non-Christians are taking over the country, considering that it's still state law you can't buy booze on a Sunday because Jesus.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: War on agency; misogyny] Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus justifies the Republican hypocrisy on supporting deregulation until it comes to abortion clinics with this garbage: "The fact of the matter is we believe that any woman that's faced with unplanned pregnancy deserves compassion, respect, counseling." Yes. Which includes access to abortion, if the words "respect" and "compassion" are to have any meaning at all.
[CN: Disenfranchisement] Republicans are trying to make sure they win the midterms by disenfranchising as many likely Democratic voters as possible. DEMOCRACY!
[CN: Misogyny; homophobia] Pope Francis walked (instead of taking a car! because he's so cool!) to the first day of the two-week Extraordinary Synod on the Family, at which attendees will be debating "a variety of issues including cohabiting couples, teen mothers, and children from same-sex unions." Sounds like it'll be terrific. I hope we get breaking news on whether he got blisters from his stroll and what he has for lunch.
[CN: Illness; death; assisted death] Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman with terminal brain cancer "is using the last weeks of her life to advocate for expanding Americans' access to doctor-assisted death. Maynard, who "relocated to Portland so she could take advantage of Oregon's" physician-assisted death law, "says she wants patients across the country to have more control over decisions related to their end-of-life care." I think it's incredibly admirable that, even though she managed to get access to control over her end-of-life decisions by moving, she's using her time in order to try to expand access for others. That is a mighty and generous teaspoon.
Something something Clinton and liberal disenchantment. Rinse and repeat this story fully one million times for the next 3-24 months.
[CN: Misogyny] Actress Lizzy Caplan has interesting things to say about double-standards of promiscuity and the expectations on women around child-bearing and -rearing. It's great that young actresses feel they have more space to talk about these issues from a more feminist perspective now. That was not always the case.
[CN: Fat hatred] I don't even know, y'all: "Where the 'fat' tables are in restaurants." The fat tables. Meaning: The tables at which people tend to order/eat more food. For fuck's sake.
Do you want to read James Spader talking about movies and TV and theater and playing a baddie? Well, off you go then!
Welp, this might be the best thing you read all day: A dog saved six cats who had been dumped in the garbage. COME ON! That is too terrific for words!
SCOTUS Makes Big Same-Sex Marriage Decision
The United State Supreme Court has just made a MAJOR decision regarding same-sex marriage in the United States: This morning, it declined to hear five states' appeals of pending gay marriage cases and decided to leave intact lower court rulings across the nation, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in 11 additional states:
The unexpected decision by the justices, announced without further explanation, immediately affects five states in which federal appeals courts had struck down bans against gay marriage: Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Utah.At SCOTUSblog noted on Twitter: "Practically, today SCOTUS recognized a right to SSM. Implausible that later it will undo marriages, absent a big change in Ct's membership."
It also will bring along six other states located in the judicial circuits overseen by those appellate courts: North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Colorado, Kansas and Wyoming.
The action will bring to 30 the number of states where gays and lesbians can marry. Appeals courts in Cincinnati and San Francisco are considering cases that could expand that number further, presuming the Supreme Court remains outside the legal fray.
Most court-watchers had predicted the justices would hear one or more cases this term and issue a verdict with nationwide implications by next June. But the justices, perhaps sensing that the country is headed toward legalizing gay marriage without their involvement, chose to deny states' appeals.
So that's the good news. The very good news.
The bad news is that SCOTUS is taking a big punt on the issue, which prolongs leaving this garbage state-by-state patchwork of legal/illegal same-sex marriage in place.
Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin summed it up very well: "Any time same-sex couples are extended marriage equality is something to celebrate, and today is a joyous day for thousands of couples across America who will immediately feel the impact of today's Supreme Court action. But let me be clear: The complex and discriminatory patchwork of marriage laws that was prolonged today by the Supreme Court is unsustainable. The only acceptable solution is nationwide marriage equality and we recommit to ourselves to securing that ultimate victory as soon as possible."
In more good news, however: Just last Friday, Jackson County Circuit Judge J. Dale Youngs ruled that Missouri "must recognize the marriages of same-sex couples who have wed legally in other places." In other words, even if same-sex marriage remains illegal in Missouri, the state must recognize legal same-sex marriages from other states, just as the state recognizes legal different-sex marriages performed in other states.
That's exactly what DOMA used to exist to prevent states from having to do. Now that DOMA is gone, there's no law justifying the denial of equal protection for same-sex couples.
This is a crucial precedent, because now even states that want to ban same-sex marriage will likely be forced to recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in another state, which basically subverts any rationale for keeping it illegal within any individual state.
The dominoes continue to fall.
"Which Side Are You On?"
[Content Note: Reference to the killing of Michael Brown.]
Saturday night, protestors interrupted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's concert to raise awareness about police brutality, racism, and the Michael Brown case, and it was beautiful and moving:
The orchestra and chorus were preparing to perform Johannes Brahms' Requiem just after intermission when two audience members in the middle aisle on the main floor began singing an old civil rights tune, "Which Side Are You On?" They soon were joined, in harmony, by other protesters, who stood at seats in various locations on the main floor and in the balcony.
The protesters then unfurled three hand-painted banners and hung them from the Dress Circle boxes. One banner listed the birth and death date of Brown, who was shot by Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9.
The five-minute interruption was met with a smattering of applause from some audience members, as well as members of the orchestra and chorus. Others simply watched as the orchestra remained silent.
The protest ended quietly as participants left voluntarily, chanting, "Black lives matter." Conductor Markus Stenz resumed the concert shortly thereafter.
SLSO publicist Erika Ebsworth-Goold said the protesters were paying members of the audience. She said they left the building peacefully.
Before leaving, the protesters scattered red paper hearts over the edge of the balcony onto the main floor orchestra seats. They read, in part: "Requiem for Mike Brown."
Video Description: A black man and a white woman stand in the audience at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, singing, "Justice for Mike Brown, friends. Justice for Mike Brown. The camera spins around, and another black man and another white woman stand and join them. "Justice for Mike Brown is justice for us all. Which side are you on, friends? Which side are you on?" As they continue to sing in harmony, more people around the audience begin to stand and join them.
One sign is unfurled from the balcony: "Requiem for Mike Brown 1996-2014." And then another: "Racism lives here" with a downward pointing arrow at a silhouette of the St. Louis skyline, including the iconic arch.
The camera pans around, showing an increasing number of singers. Some of the audience members applaud. Some look confused. Some look angry. "Which side are you on, friends? Which side are you on? Justice for Mike Brown is justice for us all."
Another side is unfurled from the balcony: "Rise up and join the movement" below which is the picture of a rising sun. And a fourth, featuring an image of Michael Brown and the words: "Mike Brown 1996-2014."
There is more applause, from both some audience members and some members of the symphony, on stage. The singing ends, and the protestors chant: "Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter." Paper hearts are dropped from the balcony. Applause. The protestors continue to chant as they leave. "Black lives matter."
Ten
Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the day I started blogging in this space.
Ten years. That is a very long time. In internet years, that's like a biebillion. I've been blogging so long that, when I started blogging, George W. Bush had only been elected (sort of) once, there was no such thing as Twitter, and Walter White was still Malcolm's dad.
When I first started blogging, I didn't even know how to code a link. (See what I did there?) I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, and I never imagined that Shakespeare's Sister would ever be anything other than a little space where I rambled, confessed, pleased, yelled into a void.
Ten years and more than 40,000 posts later, we've had millions of page views from countless visitors, hundreds of thousands of comments, and dozens of contributors and moderators. Two contributors have died: Beloved and brilliant Maud and Jonathan Swift. We've had three marriages of people who met in comments. And so many friendships have been forged here.
I've received countless emails from people who have told me that this space and this community changed their lives. Helped them realize what they wanted to do professionally. Gave them the courage to leave an abusive relationship. Inspired them to rescue a dog or a cat who has become an inseparable companion. Turned them into feminists. I have heard from people who told me that my work has influenced them as they drafted policy or wrote court decisions. I have corresponded with people all over the world. The reach of this little space continually amazes me.
I don't even know how to wrap my head around these things. I just hold onto them, and keep them close, so that I always remember that I am putting something into the world that matters. I cannot be cavalier. And I try not to be.
I've never believed that blogs will change the world, but I do believe most fervently that even a single blog has the capacity to change the world for individual people in big and small ways, can turn people on to and connect them with a global community, offer a much-needed laugh on a bad day, provide support and validation from like-minded people, open its readers' minds to new ideas and persuade them to let go of prejudices and give them a new way of understanding and loving themselves. I do believe in expecting more and being engaged and striving for safe spaces and teaspoons. I believe most passionately in teaspoons. I'm happy and grateful to have found people who believe in them, too.
I am a better person than I was ten years ago. I know more about myself, both the good things and the things that need changing. I've made great friends and had great teachers. I've made mistakes and let people down. I've learned more in this space than I ever could have imagined, and I learn still every day.
I am not just a better person for other people, but a better person for myself. I am more content in myself than I have ever been, and I have discovered that I am tougher than I ever imagined I could be.
I am forever changed because of Shakesville, and the people who visit or come to stay.
And I am so grateful to each of you who has supported and encouraged and challenged and taught me along the way. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Those words don't feel big enough to hold my enormous gratitude. Thank you.
Onward...
Open Thread
Hosted by unctuousness.
(That is Chef Aarón Sánchez, a regular judge on Chopped. He says "unctuous" a lot.)
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
FYI
[Content Note: Misogynoir; lookism.]
[Davis' new show, How to Get Away with Murder,] premiered September 25 to 14 million viewers, following an essay by New York Times television critic Alessandra Stanley in which she called [creator Shonda Rhimes] an "angry black woman" whose grand achievement is flooding network television with characters wrought in her own image. (Though Stanley, who claimed that her argument was misunderstood, does seem to like the show.) The Times' public editor declared the piece "astonishingly tone deaf and out of touch," while Rhimes and cast members from her other hit shows, Grey's Anatomy and Scandal, blasted it on Twitter.Brilliant and brave the end.
Davis says she finds the term "angry" as a descriptor for African-American women to be "very offensive, as is 'sassy,' as is 'soulful.' We've used them enough. It's time to bury them in the racial-history graveyard," she says, chuckling. "My feeling about the article is it's a reflection of how we view women of color, what adjectives we use to describe them—as scary, as angry, as unattractive. I think that people are tired of it."
As for the part of the article that praised Rhimes for casting Davis, despite her being "older, darker-skinned and less classically beautiful" than Scandal star Kerry Washington, Davis says, "there is no one who would compare Glenn Close to Julianna Margulies, Zooey Deschanel to Lena Dunham. They just wouldn't. They do that with me and Kerry because we're both African-Americans and we're both in Shonda Rhimes shows. But they wouldn't compare me to [Grey's Anatomy's] Ellen Pompeo," she says, laughing again. "Because Ellen Pompeo is white."
I watched the premiere episode of How to Get Away with Murder, although I haven't had a chance to watch last night's episode yet, and I quite liked it. Viola Davis is terrific in it, and I already can't wait to see what happens next!
Also: [minor spoilers] A scene of oral sex being performed on a woman and gay men having sex in the first episode of a primetime network television series? Rock the fuck on.
The Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by swirls...
Recommended Reading:
Abigail: Victoria Chang Wins California Book Award and 2014 PEN Center USA Literary Award
Kristin: [Content Note: Misogynoir; violence] Not All of the Black Freedom Fighters Are Men: An Interview with Black Women on the Front Line in Ferguson
George: Ebola Vaccine Delay May Be Due to An Intellectual Property Dispute
Prison Culture: [CN: Carcerality; racism; classism] #NoSchoolPushout: Defining the School-to-Prison Pipeline
BYP: [CN: Racism; slurs; bullying] Teacher Fired for Defending 9-Year-Old Who Was Victim of Racist Bullying
Bina: [CN: Domestic violence; misogyny] On Marriage and the Ideal Spouse
Ragen: [CN: Fat hatred] Fuck the Animal Rights Group Which Shall Not Be Named
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Daily Dose of Cute
Video Description: Matilda the Blue-Eyed Sealpoint Fuzzy Cat lies on a pillow on the couch beside me. I scratch her head, and then her paw, and she nuzzles my hand. She purrs. I take my hand away and she sits up, looking at me like WTF? She reaches out with her paw and gently touches my hand. I pet her head again. She purrs and curls her paws. I withdraw my hand, and she looks at me then turns her head away sadly. I reach out a single wiggling finger, and she bumps her head against it. I scratch her head. She purrs.
Tilsy. ♥
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Recommended Reading
[Content Note: War on agency; misogyny; classism.]
I started out thinking I was going to pull an excerpt out of this piece for a Quote of the Day, but it really just needs to be read in its entirety: Andrea Grimes' "No Undue Burden? What Texas' HB 2 Means for Maria," in which the absurdity of the "no undue burden" threshold is examined via the circumstances of a fictional but representative woman, whose situation is entirely typical of many women.
Please go read the whole thing.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: War on agency; misogyny] Andrea Grimes: "Overnight, Majority of Legal Abortion Facilities in Texas to Close Following Fifth Circuit Ruling." Last night, a three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction against HB2, the omnibus abortion bill famously filibustered by Wendy Davis, meaning that Texas can now enforce the horrendously restrictive legislation. "According to findings from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas, today's ruling will mean that more than one million potential abortion-seeking Texans will live greater than 150 miles from a legal abortion facility." The entire state of Texas will have 8 abortion clinics serving its entire population of 26.5 million people.
Do you bank at JP Morgan Chase? Then you might want to pay attention to this news: "JP Morgan Chase, one of the largest banks in the US, said on Thursday that a massive computer hack affected the accounts of 76 million households and about seven million small businesses, making it one of the largest of its kind ever discovered. ...The bank said financial information was not compromised and that there had been no breach of login information such as account or social security numbers, passwords or dates of birth. However, names, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses of account holders were captured by hackers." Terrific.
The latest employment numbers: "A surprisingly powerful surge in hiring pushed unemployment to a six-year low of 5.9 percent in September as the U.S. labor market showed renewed vigor. The 248,000 gain in payrolls last month followed a 180,000 increase in August that was bigger than previously estimated, the Labor Department reported in Washington. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey called for a 215,000 advance. The jobless rate fell to the lowest level since July 2008, from 6.1 percent." Which is still a deceptive number, because it does not account for the job seekers who have stopped looking, or the graduates who have not yet been able to find a job, etc.
[CN: Racism; violence] In Ferguson, voter registration has jumped 30% since August 9, the day Michael Brown was fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson. Which is great, but only if these new voters have candidates worth voting for. Anyway: "Recent voter registration is due, in large part, to community efforts to boost civic engagement. Organizations like the NAACP and League of Women Voters, in addition to sororities and fraternities, are actively involved in registering the city's residents. Other community members are handing out registration cards for voters to mail them in. But some are not pleased with the surge of registered voters. In August, Matt Wills, the executive director of Missouri's Republican Party, denounced protesters' voter registration efforts, saying, 'If that's not fanning the political flames, I don't know what is. I think it's not only disgusting but completely inappropriate... Injecting race into this conversation and into this tragedy, not only is not helpful, but it doesn't help a continued conversation of justice and peace.'" LOLOLOLOLOL FUCK YOU.
[CN: Racism] Speaking of racism and dangerous cops: Lt. Shawn Williams, of the Charleston, West Virginia, Police Department, has been put on paid administrative leave while he is investigated after recordings were found on his computer of his "young daughter dressed in what appear to be articles of a police uniform and dancing to an anthem of the Ku Klux Klan. ...On the videos, a man alleged to be Williams can be heard asking the girl questions. Derogatory racial language can be heard, sources said." Good fucking grief. He should lose his job and be charged with child abuse.
[CN: Homophobia; bullying; assault] Unbelievable: A teenage boy "who spent nine days in the hospital after fighting back against his anti-gay bullies at high school is now being charged with assault." So, schools abdicate responsibility for prevention of bullying; refuse to intervene in bullying and harassment; and then punish bullied kids when they fight back to try to stop bullying. Just fucking perfect.
[CN: Misogynist slur] Vice President Joe Biden told a ha-ha funny joke about how being Vice President is "a bitch." Dude. Considering that the presumed next Democratic presidential candidate is a woman, the person people most want to challenge her is a woman, and you ran against a ticket that included a female vice-presidential nominee, maybe CAN IT with the misogynist slurs, all right? Asshole.
[CN: Antisemitism; racism; homophobia] Author Nicholas Sparks, who is not only a writer of terrible books and screenwriter of terrible movies, is also apparently the founder of a Christian academy called the Epiphany School (of course he is), and a former employee is alleging that the school is rampant with nasty bias and hostility to diversity. Gee, and Sparks always seemed so nice with his books about beautiful straight white Christian patriots falling in beautiful straight white Christian patriotic love!
And finally! Do you need some underwater puppies? You probably need some underwater puppies.
A Story About Bootstraps
[Content Note: Privilege.]
Politicians love stories about people who "came from nothing" and Made It Big in America. It doesn't matter if it's the Republican National Convention or a Democratic gubernatorial debate or any venue at all where a politician can name some Average American zie met on the Campaign Trail who has the Greatest Story about Achieving the American Dream.
We hear these stories in US politics all the time.
The inner city kid who grew up to be a war hero. The single teen mom who now runs her own successful business. The immigrant who came here with nothing and now owns the restaurant where he started as a busboy.
We love movies about people who "overcame." We love stories about Exceptional People who "rose above" their meager circumstances.
And people—especially people who have a vested interest in the fairy tale of the American Dream, particularly as it is used to deny the existence of privilege—love to tell these sorts of stories about themselves. Created narratives, carefully edited narratives, about how they Made It without any help from anyone.
It's that carefully edited thing that's always the kicker.
And I'm not even talking about failing to mention that it matters if you were the beneficiary of government programs that made sure you had electricity, or mail, or passable roads, or clean drinking water, or food, or shelter, or healthcare, or a loan.
We all tend to leave that stuff out, even though we shouldn't.
I'm talking about leaving out details that aren't just details. To shape your struggle into a narrative of bootstraps, when maybe it wasn't exactly so.
Recently, Iain and I were joking about what his personal narrative would be if he ran for office in the US. [These details shared with his permission.] It would be an inspiring tale of a poor, homeless, unemployed immigrant who arrived in America with $50 to his name, one suitcase, and the clothes on his back; who never took a hand-out from anyone.
"And now, just 12 years later, here I stand before you as a homeowner, a successful businessman, and YOUR CANDIDATE FOR THE UNITED STATES SENATE!" Wild cheers and applause!
What a success! It's truly the American Dream! If he can do it, anyone can!
And the thing is? It's technically true.
Iain really did arrive in the States with $50 to his name, one suitcase, and the clothes on his back. He was poor and homeless and unemployed. He never "took a hand-out." That is all 100% true.
But here are a few other relevant details:
He's male; he's white; he's straight; he's cisgender; he has no visible disabilities; he is well educated.
He immigrated from Scotland, a country where English was his first language and which makes him, in the prejudiced language of immigrant-ranking, an "ex-pat" rather than an "immigrant."
He had more "stuff," but he couldn't be bothered to ship it, so he just left it behind.
He came to the US on a fiancee visa.
He was guaranteed to get a work visa as soon as we were married and he was eligible to apply for one.
He was only "homeless" because I'd sold my home before moving to Scotland for a short time, but we had people with whom to stay in the States until we got a new place. He had a built-in support network of people willing to be there for him, because he was my partner, in his new country.
I was able to quit my job and move there because my parents volunteered to sponsor him. (That is, they promised to the government to cover his expenses if necessary, so he would not take US welfare.) They didn't ultimately have to pay his living expenses, but the fact that they were willing to commit to the possibility indicates how much support he had moving here.
Because I'd sold my home, I had money to use to cover our expenses until we both found work. (And he found work before I did.)
In a tough job market, his brogue made him memorable and interesting to potential employers. He stood out from the crowd as an immigrant, in the best possible way.
Et cetera.
Pointing these things out, of course, is not to take anything away from the fact that Iain is an ambitious, hard-working, talented person. And he has not led a charmed life. It's merely to acknowledge that he has many privileges that other ambitious, hard-working, talented people who have also struggled don't have.
You know, all the details that get left out of stories about bootstrapping one's way to the American Dream.
White USians (particularly, though not exclusively and not universally) subscribe fully and uncritically to the narrative of bootstraps and the promise of the American Dream and the myth of opportunity. Anyone (except oneself, naturally) who fails to achieve, including other whites who had the terrible sense to be born poor, with disabilities, to abusive parents, and/or in some other potentially success trajectory-fucking circumstance, is personally blamed for their lot and—even in spite of obvious innate incompatibilities with the unjust, inflexible, kyriarchal, privilege-rewarding system by which we're meant to achieve "success" as if it's a level playing field—is suspected, and frequently openly accused, of simply failing to work hard enough.
If there is one person born to poverty, one person with disabilities, one person who has survived profound abuse, who can be held up as an example of achievement, then everyone else is failing to thrive. Even as we devour barfinating narratives of triumph over tragic circumstances, we pretend that terrible beginnings don't really matter, except insomuch as they make great first acts for Sandra Bullock Oscar vehicles.
This intractable belief in bootstraps manifests the bias detailed above because it encourages the lie that history doesn't matter. And neither does present bias. It encourages the lie that every life happens in a fucking void.
Except, of course, when it suits us to judge an individual by our prejudices about an entire class to which they belong.
When you're a non-privileged person, you're as bad as the worst conceivable member of a shared demographic, and only as good as your own personal achievement.
That is the gross underbelly of American Individualism. Its story only really works for privileged people, among whose privileges include being seen as an individual, whether they fail or succeed.
And that is why the American Dream, and all its narratives of bootstraps and hard work and equal opportunity, is conservative horseshit: The American Dream is not, and has never been, that we collectively eradicate poverty, achieve meaningful and lasting social justice, and celebrate our shared success, but that each of us as individuals would achieve some sort of perfect destiny of wealth, health, and security.
And fuck everyone who doesn't. They're just lazy.
All of this, all of it, is underwritten by curated narratives about success, about the people who succeed within a very specific model. Tales told by the victors.
Victors who want—and need—to claim that they never had any help from anyone. Because, if they had, their admonishments to people without their privileges to pull themselves up by their bootstraps would be readily seen for the vile cruelty it is.
We should view with suspicion stories of personal success via bootstraps. We should view critically their lack of detail. They exist in service to an agenda.
Gruesomely, to an agenda explicitly designed to make the individual success being exalted a virtual impossibility for anyone who's truly got nothing but their bootstraps.
Hungry. For Change, Sure, But Also Just Hungry.
[Content Note: Food insecurity; poverty; class warfare.]
Yesterday, President Obama gave an address on the state of the US economy at Northwestern University, just outside Chicago. Leading into the midterm elections, clearly his focus was to highlight the gains the economy has made and optimism that the work yet to be done is underway. And that's certainly the tone he struck, with the usual emphasis on the need for a thriving middle class:
So it is indisputable that our economy is stronger today than when I took office. By every economic measure, we are better off now than we were when I took office. At the same time, it's also indisputable that millions of Americans don't yet feel enough of the benefits of a growing economy where it matters most — and that's in their own lives.Lots of good stuff there, and also lots of the usual bootstraps bullshit that imagines it's possible for people in poverty to move into the middle class if only they really want to and try hard enough, which justifies policy that's really wealth redistribution upwards but pitched as maintaining the middle class, rather than policy centered on lifting people out of poverty.
And these truths aren't incompatible. Our broader economy in the aggregate has come a long way, but the gains of recovery are not yet broadly shared — or at least not broadly shared enough. We can see that homes in our communities are selling for more money, and that the stock market has doubled, and maybe the neighbors have new health care or a car fresh off an American assembly line. And these are all good things. But the stress that families feel — that's real, too. It's still harder than it should be to pay the bills and to put away some money. Even when you're working your tail off, it's harder than it should be to get ahead.
And this isn't just a hangover from the Great Recession. I've always said that recovering from the crisis of 2008 was our first order of business, but I also said that our economy wouldn't be truly healthy until we reverse the much longer and profound erosion of middle-class jobs and incomes.
So here's our challenge. We're creating more jobs at a steady pace. We've got a recovering housing market, a revitalized manufacturing sector — two things that are critical to middle-class success. We've also begun to see some modest wage growth in recent months. All of that has gotten the economy rolling again, despite the fact that the economies of many other countries around the world are softening. But as Americans, we measure our success by something more than our GDP, or a jobs report. We measure it by whether our jobs provide meaningful work that give people a sense of purpose, and whether it allows folks to take care of their families. And too many families still work too many hours with too little to show for it. Job growth could be so much faster and wages could be going up faster if we made some better decisions going forward with the help of Congress. So our task now is to harness the momentum that is real, that does exist, and make sure that we accelerate that momentum, that the economy grows and jobs grow and wages grow. That's our challenge.
When the typical family isn't bringing home any more than it did in 1997, then that means it's harder for middle-class Americans to climb the ladder of success. It means that it's harder for poor Americans to grab hold of the ladder into the middle class. That's not what America is supposed to be about. It offends the very essence of who we are. Because if being an American means anything, it means we believe that even if we're born with nothing — regardless of our circumstances, a last name, whether we were wealthy, whether our parents were advantaged — no matter what our circumstances, with hard work we can change our lives, and then our kids can too.
And that's about more than just fairness. It's more than just the idea of what America is about. When middle-class families can't afford to buy the goods or services our businesses sell, it actually makes it harder for our economy to grow. Our economy cannot truly succeed if we're stuck in a winner-take-all system where a shrinking few do very well while a growing many are struggling to get by. Historically, our economic greatness rests on a simple principle: When the middle class thrives, and when people can work hard to get into the middle class, then America thrives. And when it doesn't, America doesn't.
This is going to be a central challenge of our times. We have to make our economy work for every working American. And every policy I pursue as President is aimed at answering that challenge.
The President gives lip service to the idea that the recovery isn't broad enough, but doesn't say flatly that the recovery has "bypassed the majority of American households" and that "future growth is likely to be lopsided, because the foundation for broad prosperity is arguably the weakest it has been since World War II." That is the conversation we refuse to have—because neither party is truly interested in a bottom-up economic policy.
We'll still "debate" the efficacy of trickle-down economics as though it hasn't been resoundingly discredited, but we won't even whisper the suggestion that what we truly need is trickle-up economics.
Because fates forfend the most privileged people in the country just be expected to maintain while we focus for a minute on people who have nothing.
Anyway.
On the same day the President gave this address, the findings of a new study by Feeding Indiana's Hungry and Feeding America were published. Just over the state border in Indiana from where the President was speaking, "1 in 6 Hoosiers, or an estimated 1.1 million people in Indiana, turn to food pantries and meal service programs to feed themselves and their families."
1 in 6.
And, contrary to conservative narratives about lazy moochers who don't want to work: A majority of the households (61%) in Indiana served by Indiana agencies and programs "have at least one member who has been employed in the past year," and among all served households where someone is employed, "the person with the longest employment duration is more likely to be employed full-time."
In fact, 59% of households with an employed person using social services include at least one full-time worker. And they still cannot make ends meet.
"The results of this study show us that the face of hunger is one we would recognize in every Hoosier community," said Emily Weikert Bryant, Executive Director of Feeding Indiana's Hungry. "Many of our neighbors who are seeking food assistance have jobs, raise families, work toward education and struggle with health problems, like all of us. Too often, our clients also have to make unimaginable choices to get enough food for their families."Here are some statistics about those choices:
* 85% of households report purchasing inexpensive, unhealthy [for them] food because they could not afford healthier [for them] options.
* 64% households have a member with high blood pressure.
* 34% of households include a member with diabetes.
* 77% of households report having to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care.
* 45% of these households are making that choice every month.
* 77% report choosing between paying for food and paying for utilities.
* 39% of these households are making that choice every month.
* 78% report making choices between paying for food and paying for transportation.
* 44% of these households are making that choice every month.
* 63% report choosing between paying for food and paying for housing.
* 31% of these households are making that choice every month.
* 40% report choosing between paying for food and paying for education expenses.
* 19% of these households are making that choice every month.
* 60% of households reported using three or more coping strategies for getting enough food in the past 12 months, including but not limited to: Eating food past the expiration date (62%); purchasing inexpensive, unhealthy food (85%); pawning or selling personal property (43%); watering down food or drinks (35%).
The truth is, we can talk in civil tones about abstract policy positions, and we can debate tax cuts vs. tax increases, and we can use anodyne language to talk about "the recovery," and we blather on endlessly about various ideas to strengthen the economy, but, at a certain point, we've just got to start feeding people.
We are the wealthiest nation on the planet, and we aren't feeding people.
I say, loudly and often, that Republicans think people aren't entitled to food, and they don't. I'm not sure Democrats do, either. Not really. Because our Democratic president is still talking about how America gives everyone an opportunity to succeed, while there are millions of people watering down food to survive.
