Fifty Years On: Toward a Politics of Inclusivity
My 5 year-old son and I have had two conversations about the police — or “la policia,” as we call them – already this week. In the first, he declared to me that “all police are not bad.” That’s part of a larger and ongoing post-Trayvon talk we’ve been having this summer (more on that here). Then yesterday morning, he pointed out that the “police man or police woman,” did not have the siren on.
Black Girl Proud
I knew from the beginning that I was a black girl and I was proud. I have my mother to thank for that. She taught me and my sister to be proud of being black. My parents filled our home with relics of black pride. Daddy loved listening to Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff, Momma preferred Billie Holiday and Natalie Cole. Daddy is Nigerian and upon returning from a visit, Daddy and Momma proudly hung up p
Are All New Mothers Endowed Equally?
There could be a lot of reasons I see everything through a race lens. I have a biracial son, for instance, and I know I’m going to get questions about why a whole lot of folks who look like his mother seem to live differently than the folks who look like his father. I’m also a political scientist who focuses on race politics, so it’s my basically my job to see race everywhere. Or maybe I see race
What Does Race Have to Do with a Woman’s Salary? A Lot.
Race/ethnicity has always created a dividing line in the United States, and it’s no different with the pay gap. Each year, AAUW’s The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap addresses this question, and, of course, the answer is that the pay gap affects all women. But it doesn’t affect all women equally. The 2013 edition of The Simple Truth presents the facts about the pay gap between women and men,
What Does the March on Washington Mean Today?
Recently, my 12-year-old son and I entered the subway station at 96th Street and Broadway. On our way to the downtown platform, we saw a young teen boy being frisked and questioned by police. The young man was either light-skinned black or Latino, and he was dressed in the style fashionable for kids his age — low-waisted skinny jeans, belted across his hips, a t-shirt, and a fitted baseball cap si
A Day to Remember, A March That Must Continue
On August 28, 1963, hundreds of thousands of men and women came together in Washington, D.C., for the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The massive turnout and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech made it a turning point for the nation that led to great and long overdue change. This week and next, civil rights, women’s and labor leaders who participated in t
Just jobs?
On August 29th, in honor and in continuation of the March on Washington 50 years ago, I will join friends, family, and my community on a march for good jobs. The march is organized by low wage fast food and retail workers, under the banner of ‘fight for 15′ who are demanding a living wage and jobs with justice. Much of my work at MomsRising centers around the state of jobs in this country — spec
Wise Words from Daughter about Adopted Korean Brother
We’ve come a long way since the Civil Rights March on Washington. It’s commonplace nowadays for a family to adopt a child from another country. There’s still much to be done regarding society fully embracing diversity, but teaching our children to be open-minded is a good start. -Maria Adcock, publisher of the Bicultural Mama blog. This blog post originally appeared in Bicultural Mama. Many thanks
The Social Justice Movement Emerging in North Carolina
The kids were sitting “crisscross apple sauce” and waiting for story time to begin. Almost a thousand people gathered in Durham, North Carolina to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday — a sea of black, brown, and white faces looking expectantly at the stage. And when Ms. Virginia Williams stepped up to speak, she took all of us — children, college students, parents, and grandparents alike — back in time
Building a New Racial Justice Movement
MomsRising Note: Thank you, Rinku Sen, for allowing us to cross-post from Colorlines. We encourage our readers to visit the website for ongoing coverage of racial and social justice, as well as leave comments to the writer below. Many thanks! Building a New Racial Justice Movement Protestors march at Austin, Tex., Justice for Trayvon rally on July 20, 2013. Photo: Ann Harkness/Wikimedia Commons