In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Misogyny; racism; pay gap] Kanya D'Almeida on the pay gap: "The gender wage gap is widest for Black and Latina women, who earn 60 cents and 55 cents, respectively, for each dollar paid to white men, according to new data from the National Partnership for Women and Families released ahead of Equal Pay Day. Based on an analysis of U.S. Census data, the national survey found that women who are employed full time earn, on average, 79 cents to every dollar paid to their male counterparts, amounting to an annual pay gap of roughly $10,762. This means that every year, women in the workforce are 'losing' nearly $500 billion to unfair payment practices that persist in every state and 98 percent of the country's 435 congressional districts. ...If women had received equal pay in the year 2015, they could have secured 83 more weeks of food for themselves and their families, 11 additional months' worth of rent, or nine more years of birth control, according to the survey." Damn.

[CN: Police brutality; racism] The Guardian continues their excellent coverage of Chicago police's "black site" Homan Square: "[A] Guardian transparency lawsuit has revealed [Jaime Galvan] as the second person known to have died in police custody at Homan Square. Internal police records show that between late 2004 and mid 2015, Chicago police detained more than 7,351 people at Homan Square, more than 6,000 of whom are black, but only permitted lawyers access 86 times. The records are still incomplete."

[CN: Racism] Yesterday, Hillary Clinton appeared with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and participated in a skit that contained a "joke" which played on the concept of "colored peole time." de Blasio, whose wife and children are black, attempted to defend the joke on the basis that it was intended to be satirical, but, as Imani Gandy noted, which I am sharing with her permission: "You gotta be Black to make jokes about CPT. You can't be married to a Black person or Black-adjacent. You have to actually be Black." Yup. And, you know, intent ain't magic. If Clinton has made any comment on it, I have not been able to find it.

[CN: Misogyny; fat hatred; bullying] Jane Sanders is increasingly playing a more visible role in Bernie Sanders' campaign. Last night alone, she did two different interviews on MSNBC, during which she made some curious comments about their tax returns which are getting a lot of scrutiny. That's fair enough. What isn't fair is that a number of people who don't support Sanders have not stuck to valid criticisms, but have begun to attack Jane Sanders' appearance. I'm not going to link to any of it; it's easy enough to find if you're so inclined. Jane Sanders' appearance is utterly irrelevant to this campaign. I can't put it any more plainly than that.

[CN: Terrorism; child abuse] Boko Haram continues to engage in some of the most heinous tactics anywhere around the globe: "Boko Haram's use of child bombers has increased over the last year with one in five [redacted] attacks now done by children, the UN's child agency says. Girls, who are often drugged, were behind three-quarters of such attacks committed by the militant Islamist group in Cameroon, Nigeria, and Chad. It is an 11-fold increase with four attacks in 2014 compared to 44 the next year, including January 2016. ...The seven-year insurgency, which has mainly affected north-eastern Nigeria as well as its neighbours around Lake Chad, has left some 17,000 people dead. Unicef says up to 1.3 million children have been forced from their homes across four countries: Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, and Niger." I continue to refuse to use the phrase "suicide bomber" to refer to children who are abducted, drugged, and forced to strap explosives to themselves. Fucking hell.

[CN: Homophobia] Haha welp! "Conservatives have long squawked that the studies showing positive outcomes for the children of same-sex couples are lacking methodologically, instead offering their own flawed studies to claim negative consequences. A new study, however, uses their preferred methods—minus the flaws—and proves what the medical community has already long known: same-sex couples make great parents." Does this mean we can put an end to the homophobic fearmongering? Probably not! Because homophobic fearmongers are terrible!

[CN: Sexual violence; abuse; hostility to marginalized people] Shut the fuck up, Stephen Fry. Just shut the fuck up.

[CN: Misogyny; harassment] The Guardian has done an analysis of its own comment threads and found (to the shock of absolutely no one reading this, I imagine) "that articles written by women attract more abuse and dismissive trolling than those written by men, regardless of what the article is about."

[CN: Misogynoir; sexual harassment] This interview with Anita Hill, ahead of HBO's Confirmation, a fictionalized account of her role in Clarence Thomas' SCOTUS confirmation hearings, is so terrific. I was so struck by the fact that Hill was only 35 at the time, because I was so young when it happened, and now I'm 6 years older than she was when she testified. She was so damn young. Not that being put through that at any time would have been easy, but still. She was so young.

Today, President Obama has made a presidential proclamation establishing the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument. There's a lot of interesting history at the link!

Woot! "Rihanna's 'Work,' featuring Drake, posts an eighth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated April 23). With her latest frame on top, Rihanna has now tied The Beatles for the second-most total weeks spent at No. 1 (59) and trails only Mariah Carey, the leader with 79." Congratulations, Rihanna!

And finally! I love dogs so much: "The researchers made several other interesting discoveries when analyzing the videos of how people interacted with their pets. They found that women touched dogs more during playtime, while half of all men in the study were completely hands-off. Humans were also happier the closer they were to their dog. 'I was surprised to see that different types of play (and different levels of activity and contact between person and dog) were correlated with different emotional experience for the persons: they had very positive affect in games like tug or wrestling play; much more neutral affect in fetch,' Horowitz told CBS News in an email. However, these distinctions did not appear to make much difference to the dogs themselves. 'Dog affect was overwhelmingly positive' the whole time, the study reported." Dog affect was overwhelmingly positive. IT'S A DAY!