Progressive Media Advocates
Sexism or gender discrimination may stem from the belief that a person of one sex is intrinsically superior to a person of the other. The articles in this category focus primarily on discrimination in employment but may contain pieces on discrimination in lending, housing and other vital areas of life.
Kamala Lopez: Today’s American woman seems to be comfortably cocooned in a strange illusion where female empowerment is widely equated with the freedom to dress a certain way (super sexy!) or party a certain way (binge drink!) or be as sexually indiscriminate as the next guy (hook up!).
Sharon Kyle: In a culture where “whiteness” is rarely mentioned and hardly ever critically examined it is not surprising that the women in my church saw the story as heartwarming and uplifting. I, on the other hand, saw this as just another story of the black experience as viewed through the white lens.
Sikivu Hutchinson: Regardless of whether they are custodians or corporate execs, women continue to be saddled with the majority of child care, housework, and adult caregiving. The minute a working mother hits the door, down time is sacrificed for cleaning, parenting, cooking and counseling duties. Sacrifice becomes a woman’s life creed. And it is this message that store flotillas of pink baby dolls, strollers and play houses instill in little sacrificial princesses in training.
Lawrence Wittner: In one way, Rand Paul is quite right. Anti-discrimination laws do turn the tables on businessmen, who find that they can no longer mistreat employees and customers on the basis of race, religion, national origins, or gender. And isn’t that ban on discriminatory behavior a good idea?
Snippets of progressive women in the media today. This is Linda Milazzo, an uncompromising progressive journalist whose work is found on the Huffington Post, AlterNet, and we’re proud to say the LA Progressive as well as many other online progressive publications. The internet and specifically the blogosphere, as it is coming to be know, is [...]
Reform will benefit small business – not burden it: It’s a myth that health insurance reform will hurt small businesses. To the contrary, reform will ease the burdens on small businesses, provide tax credits to help them pay for employee coverage and help level the playing field with big firms who pay much less to cover their employees on average.
One of the lessons of identity politics is that success requires knowing not just what you’re for, but also what you’re against. Blacks are for racial justice and against racism. Women are for gender equity and against sexism. Moms are for ending discrimination against mothers (fair pay, flexible work, paid sick days, maternity and paternity [...]
February is a poignant month for it marks my parent’s wedding anniversary and mother’s birthday and both come a few weeks after the 10th commemoration of her death. Probably because Barack Obama’s inauguration is still fresh in my mind, and she was a lifelong progressive Democrat, I’ve been thinking a lot about Joyce lately: More [...]
December 1 is World AIDS Day and Black women are dying of AIDS. Is anyone doing anything about it? Right here in the nation’s capitol, the HIV/AIDS epidemic rivals that of many Third World countries. Affectionately dubbed the “Chocolate City,” Washington D.C.’s population is approximately 60 percent people of African descent. Of its residents, one [...]
All this talk about Gwen Ifill’s objectivity being compromised because she has a soon to be released book entitled, “Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama” sounds a lot like much ado about nothing. I did a little searching and found that PBSs Jim Lehrer, moderator of several consecutive presidential debates dating back [...]
Ever since McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate, I’ve been battling with my intuition and the fight or flight reflex. My first thought was, “McCain’s desperate and is pulling all the stops.” I wanted to curse her, smash McCain’s face into a brick wall, and throw a temper tantrum of huge proportions. But [...]
by Rev. Irene Monroe – In the past, Oprah has had presidential hopefuls on her show, for example, Al Gore and George Bush during their 2000 bid. By having both candidates on her show, Oprah not only appeared bipartisan but also catered to her audience comprised of both Bush Republicans and Gore Democrats.
During Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech when nominated by John McCain for Vice President, McCain wouldn’t leave Palin alone on stage. Rather than give her the momentary limelight, McCain peered over her shoulder and read her speech alongside her. He was visibly nervous and has remained so ever since. Other than Wednesday at the RNC when [...]
by Rev. Irene Monroe — The second night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), Obama’s toughest rival for the presidential nominee, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a knockout keynote address, bridging the chasm between her supporters and his.
by Rev. Irene Monroe — Michelle Obama won’t use the F-word. Alice Walker called it by another name. Her daughter, Rebecca Walker, an icon of the “Third Wave” of feminism, redefined the F-word and then denounced it. And when Hillary Clinton used the F-word, before she ran for president, she got clobbered with rumors stating [...]
I’ve heard that former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn is on a list of potential Democratic Vice Presidential candidates. In fact, Barack took Sam along on a recent political sojourn to Indiana.
hroughout the course of the Democratic presidential primaries, many have asked which is the bigger societal problem in the United States: racism or sexism? Although the question itself is absurd–the two are often interrelated, after all, and comparing systems of oppression is typically neither intellectually nor ethically very productive–there is little question that both remain [...]
Although the office of vice president carries little inherent power, it positions its occupant to be the natural frontrunner to succeed a successful president. And because no political party plans for its presidential nominee to not be successful, almost every time a party holds a convention, it is in effect nominating not just one presidential [...]
The Night of Terror at Occoquan Warehouse is the story of our grandmothers, and great-grandmothers and their fight to win the right to vote. This is what they lived only 90 years ago. It was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote in the United States. [...]
Walter Brasch: The failure to maintain records in an easily searchable method continues to allow the DEP to withhold public information from the public by burying the requested data within piles of irrelevant documents, most of which need interpretation from scientists.
Brent Budowsky: Let’s escalate the effort to eliminate the backlog of benefits due to wounded warriors and disabled vets by devoting whatever resources are necessary to complete this mission, and enlisting a major business leader.
Vicki Zakrzewski: Planned school closings have been met with angry protests from teachers and parents who argue that the closures will force students to cross dangerous gang lines on their way to school.
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Good Job, Hillary
Anyone reading the L.A. Progressive knows I support Barack Obama. But I have to admit that as I sat watching and listening to Hillary Clinton announce that she was suspending her campaign this past Saturday, I felt a tinge sadness and a sense of loss. I didn’t expect to feel this. I was getting tired [...]