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Project 2025 is an attack on Black people, by Julianne Malveaux
Project 2025 is a conservative manifesto if a Republican is elected president in 2024. Crafted by the Heritage Foundation, the 900-page book comprehensively addresses every agency that the president can influence, with suggestions for the agencies that should be eliminated or altered.
Poor and low income people need to vote, by Julianne Malveaux
“There were 15 presidential debates in 2020,” thunders the Rev. William Barber, the co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival (www.poorpeoplescampaign.org). I’ve heard him make this point many times, and sometimes the exclusion so rankles him that he shifts from conversational mode to preacher mode, with all the thunder that comes with the shift.
AIPAC’s role in the war between Israel and Palestine, by Julianne Malveaux
Let me begin with the obligatory statements. What happened on Oct. 7, 2023, was horrible.
The ridiculous retiring Republicans, by Julianne Malveaux
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson needed Democrats to narrowly avert the government shutdown that loomed if Congressional budget legislation was not passed by Saturday, March 23. Many Republicans did not vote for the budget legislation; Democrats saved the day.
Inflation, nutrition and reality, by Julianne Malveaux
Remember the parable of the blind men and the elephant? As each approached an elephant and tried to describe it, they came up with wildly disparate answers. One thought it a snake, another a tree, another a trunk. Because they were blind, they could not see the big picture; they described the part of the elephant they could touch.
Congressman Troy Nehls — Rash, brash, out of control, by Julianne Malveaux
Republican Congressman Troy Nehls (R-TX) recently attacked his colleague, St. Louis Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO), with rash, brash, and out-of-control language. It happened at the end of January, but somehow, his attack stuck in my craw.
Give a child a book for Christmas, by Julianne Malveaux
They don’t call it “Black Friday” because they love Black people; they call it Black Friday because many businesses are pushed into the black (from the red ink of losses to the black ink of profits) on that day or into the holiday season.
A segregationist in the House, by Julianne Malveaux
Many are rejoicing that Republicans finally got around to electing a speaker, thus breaking the logjam that began when Trump acolyte Matt Goetz (R-Fla.) introduced legislation to eliminate Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.). In selecting Louisiana’s Mike Johnson, Republicans chose a self-avowed “evangelical Southern Christian” (read racist segregationist) who is anti-choice, anti-gay rights (and marriage), and anti-education.
Class warfare always has existed, by Julianne Malveaux
The United Auto Workers and the Big Three automobile manufacturers – Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis haven’t been able to agree on worker compensa- tion, and no wonder. The UAW leader, Shawn Fein, is fiercely committed that workers should be better compensated and should recoup some of the concessions they made to manufacturers when the automobile industry was in trouble in 2009. On the other side, the CEOs of the big three are touting their “generous” offer to the union, claiming they’d be bankrupt if they met union demands, and using terms such as “class warfare” to describe the current stalemate.
When will we raise the minimum wage?, by Julianne Malveaux
The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Several states have a higher minimum, but a predictable few, including Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama, are stuck at that low minimum.
Who gets to play?, by Julianne Malveaux
As summer winds down, and folks start rushing back to school or work, the memories of their vacations perhaps sustain them when, after Labor Day, the business of fall quickly engulfs them. There’s that Gershwin song from Porgy & Bess, “Sum- mertime and the Living is Easy,” record- ed more than 25,000 times with artists as diverse as Ella Fitzgerald and Willie Nelson. There’s that no-caring vibe that so many exude. Summer feels like, “Let’s go out to play.” Which begs the question: Who gets to play? In the European Union, workers get 20 days a year for vacation. Stores are nearly deserted in Paris this August because people have time off! In contrast, the average worker gets just 11 days of vacation in the United States. If they’ve worked in corporate America, the average worker gets just one week and has to work for up to five years before getting even two weeks. Many think educators get the summer off, and some faculty have the summer for research and preparation. But many K-12 teachers are paid so little that summer is when many of them get their side hustle on. Some teachers are driving for ride- share companies such as Uber and Lyft. Others have lined up consulting, tutoring, or other assignments. The other day, I had a ride with a math teacher who said his salary was too low to sustain his family. During Julianne Malveaux the summer, he clocks 12-hour days into ride-sharing. He’s one of the millions who don’t get to come out to play. Then there are the people who cobble a living working two or three part-time jobs. More than 8 million people have multiple jobs. Who knows what kind of juggling they are doing? Do any of their jobs provide them with vacations? When do they unplug? Reflect? Spend time with family or simply get to exhale? Just like everything else in our society, leisure is unevenly distributed. Those with more means and more access have more opportunities to play. Those who are simply surviving don’t have playtime, reflection time, or other downtime. The European Union edict that everyone, regardless of where they sit on the economic totem pole, gets 20 days a year off is an egalitarian recognition of the human right to relax. We in the United States are not as far along. Instead of rewarding labor with time off, we exploit workers in as many ways as possible, extracting surplus value from their work. There is little data on leisure, so most of my thoughts are in- terpretations and extrapolations. But as I listen to people wax rhapsodic about their vacations, their “happy places,” the wind and the sun and the beaches, I can’t help but think of those who don’t get time to enjoy wind, sun and beach. Summer is a time when many come out to play. What happens to those who don’t have that opportunity? Do they live in Langston Hughes’dream deferred? Do they dry up like a raisin in the sun, fester like a sore, and then run? Do they sag like a heavy load? Do they explode? In a growing number of American cities, workers are exploding, striking and demand- ing more money and more days off. It’s about time. Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist, author, commentator and activist.
