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Written by: Kamran Mofid

Published: 25 September 2020

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(N.B. Although, this article is about the US, nonetheless, it is global in its relevance.)

“If Black women—who, since our nation’s founding, have been the most disadvantaged by the rules that structure our society—

can one day thrive in the economy, then it must finally be working for everyone.”

Black Lives Matter supporters demonstrate against racial injustice and police brutality

in Portland, Oregon, on July 31.- Photo: Marketplace.org

Why putting Black women first may save us from economic disaster

By Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, Via The Economic Policy Institute (EPI)*

‘In 2008, our economy experienced an economic crisis in which Black women lost 258,000 jobs—more than twice as many as the jobs gained by Black men.

Our current economic crisis is unfortunately offering up disparity déjà vu. The ravages of the coronavirus have resulted in employment among Black women dropping 11 percentage points—more than any other group. Despite historically low unemployment rates in March, within a month of the pandemic, Black women’s unemployment rate has climbed to 16.9%, suffering the greatest job losses as compared with other groups.

Black women are bearing the brunt of this economic crisis, and keep in mind that Black women were already underpaid upwards of $50 billion in forfeited wages before the pandemic, according to economist Michelle Holder. These findings illustrate an ugly truth: COVID-19 is laying bare the structural inequities that compound when race and gender intersect—inequities that may be best addressed through recentering economic policy on Black women.

Why should policymakers center Black women?

Black women are the core of the nation’s economy, holding the front-line jobs and running small businesses, and they are more often the single heads of households in their communities. If they are elevated through policy, including everything from paid sick leave to stimulus programs targeted directly toward them, the economy at-large will benefit.

A grocery store worker stands behind a protective plastic screen as she works the

cashier at a supermarket in Miami, April 2020.- Photo:Center for American Progress

Unfortunately, decisions that have already been made don’t take racial and gender inequities into account.

For example, the Federal Reserve Board decided to expand funding for small businesses in light of the recent crisis. As of right now, Black businesses, many of which are owned by women, are most likely to be overrepresented in industries hardest hit by COVID-19; anecdotal evidence suggests that Black business owners are also finding difficulties in applying for funding offered by the Federal Reserve Board.

If the economy is working for Black women, then the economy is working for everyone—an ideology that Janelle Jones, Managing Director of Policy and Research at the Groundwork Collaborative, coined as “Black women best.” Kendra Bozarth of the Roosevelt Institute explains: “If Black women—who, since our nation’s founding, have been the most disadvantaged by the rules that structure our society—can one day thrive in the economy, then it must finally be working for everyone.”

Right now, the economy is not working for Black women. LeanIn recently surveyed nearly 3,000 individuals, and found 60% of Black women were concerned about paying their rent or mortgage as compared with just 24% of white men, which may be due to the fact that Black women are three times as likely as white women to be single heads of households. On the dimensions of paying for groceries and affording child care, there was a 30 and 10 percentage point gap between Black women and white men, respectively.

Furthermore, across the United States, the share of Black women employed in service occupations ranges from 23% in Maryland to 40% in Rhode Island. Many service-sector jobs are considered “essential,” despite the fact that on average, essential workers are less likely to have benefits and face higher health risks. The stories punctuating deaths among Black women highlight those dying on the front lines as health care workers, grocery store clerks, and teachers.

Employers should shift their thinking on paid sick and parental leave, subsidized child and elder care, and work flexibility to help Black women, who are disproportionately facing COVID-19-related deaths in their communities. This shift can inevitably help all workers regardless of background. When the policies shift to focus on the outcomes of Black women, everyone benefits.

Another example of how “Black women best” being at the center of economic policy helps everyone is government mobile payments, which Economist Lisa D. Cook cites as one way to alleviate economic hardship. Imagine if policymakers considered how direct mobile payments via Venmo or Cash App could reach Black mothers who are being asked to meet looming deadlines. Black women would be the aim, but universally, needs would be met.

“Black women best” also translates into prioritizing the perspectives of Black women in economic and policy spaces, an objective that is currently being achieved by the Sadie Collective, a nonprofit organization that addresses the underrepresentation of Black women in economics and related fields. Recently, the organization penned //medium.com/@sadiecollective/open-letter-to-economics-blm-5b38100e59b5">a letter to allies, inclusive of individuals and organizations, constituting a list of demands that aim to achieve equity for Black women. To date, the letter has been endorsed by nearly 2,000 individuals and organizations, and cross-posted by the Economic Policy Institute as well as the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

Within the Federal Reserve System, structural racism and sexism have kept Black women out of leadership roles that contribute meaningfully to the health of the U.S. economy and beyond. Specifically, out of 406 economists staffed at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, only one identifies as a Black woman.

Because Black women make up the majority of the Black labor force, they are the pulse of the U.S. economy. By ignoring them, economists and policymakers run the risk of propagating lasting economic ramifications.

As we grapple with the historic job losses, uneven distribution of relief, and widening racial wage gaps, we must not forget to care for and protect Black women. And we must not forget those Black women who died working and serving their communities amidst a global pandemic—women like Rana Zoe Mungin, a beloved social studies teacher and activist from Brooklyn; Leilani Jordan, a Maryland supermarket greeter hired under a program for people with disabilities who helped elderly shoppers make their purchases; and Priscilla Carrow, a community activist from Queens and a hospital worker who was planning on retiring by the end of this year.

Their stories illustrate that indeed Black women are a key part of the backbone of the economy and our communities; as one of Carrow’s friends told a local TV news outlet after her passing: “There were so many people who relied on her so it’s affecting the lives of many, many people.”

*This article by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman was first published in The Economic Policy Institute on 25 June 2020

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To protect Black women and save America from itself, elect Black women

Photo:Brookings Institution

‘One-hundred years ago, women finally gained the right to vote through the 19th Amendment. But it’s taken much longer for women—specifically, Black women—to be granted a seat at the cultural and political table of America.

Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress (in 1968) and the first woman and African American to seek the nomination for president of the United States from one of the two major political parties (in 1972), famously said, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” A vanguard for women’s political leadership, Chisholm tactfully pushed for inclusion throughout the political process. But as her quote suggests, if conventional democratic processes fail, then you have to take matters into your own hands.

Recently, across the county, we have seen a new generation of Black political leaders do just that, while a legion of vital Black women voters pushes for long-neglected reforms. But Black women are still vastly underrepresented nationally among political candidates, making up only 2% of challengers to incumbents. If we truly want to create a more equitable America and solidify Black women’s seat at the table, we must bring Chisholm’s folding chair all the way to the White House—with a Black woman vice presidential candidate in 2020.

Representation matters to our political mental health. The fact that all but one president (and every vice president) in the history of the United States has been a white man would be completely unbelievable if the American psyche didn’t see leadership as equating to that one demographic. Today, Black women elected officials—Chisholm’s spiritual children—are not only representing people but also remedying the sick American psyche with every chair they bring to the table…’- Continue to read: Black women’s rise should be America’s gain

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A selected readings on similar topics and issues from our archive

‘I have a Dream’, 57 Years On and Why We Must Carry on Imagining the Dream

‘I Have a Dream’: Yearning for Dr. King’s Interconnected World

The scar on the conscience of Britain: The neglect of its children, youth, students and more

The Broken Economic Model and the Inhumanity of the Lost Decade of Austerity

Eruption of anxiety, depression and suicide in Britain

Austerity driven Homeless children put up in Shipping Containers in ‘Great Britain’ 

Austerity and its Consequences: No Hope for the Youth 

Life, death and economics: Austerity is a killer 

'This is not about politics, it's about humanity'

Recession, Austerity, Mental, Emotional and Physical Illness 

Crisis after crisis and the crucial voices of hope

Is Neoliberal Economics and Economists 'The Biggest Fraud Ever Perpetrated on the World?'

Do you have an eye for justice and sense of duty? Then, these questions are for you.

The Myth of the ‘Promised’ Land

Dear Mr. Trump This is How to Make America Great Again

The Mother of all Heists: ‘The Neoliberal Looting of America’

Is this the way to make America great again?

Poverty is not Natural: A Must Read Book

GCGI Celebrating Activism and Hope with British VOGUE

Marcus Rashford: 'This is not about politics, it's about humanity'

Healing Our Way to a more Caring, Kinder and Fairer Society: A View from a CEO and a Recovered Economist

In Search of a Better Tomorrow: Reasons for Hope In Times of Uncertainty

Mr. Trump, this is not the way to make America great again!

This is How to Make the World Great Again: The Compassion Project

Details

Written by: Kamran Mofid

Published: 24 September 2020

Hits: 3036

Autumn Equinox:Walking with the Goddess of Mother Nature

Time to Celebrate Awakening, Balance, Give Thanks, Invite Renewal, and Tell Stories

Photo: The Thirsty Soul

The autumnal equinox marks one of two specific positions of Earth during its year-long orbit around the sun where the celestial equator (the spatial projection of the plane between northern and southern hemispheres) passes through the center of our solar star. In these equinox positions, our planet’s axis is directed neither toward nor away from the sun and the boundary between light and shadow is perpendicular to the equator.During this significant, albeit brief, moment of cosmic equanimity, the planet is divided into approximately equal parts night and day, hence the word “equinox” with Latin roots meaning “equal night.”

'When leaves begin to fall, temperatures drop and days become shorter, it can only mean autumn is on its way. No matter how hot the summer has been, the next season of the year is fast approaching, with home comforts, bronzed woodland hues and a pumpkin or two.' 

To Autumn by John Keats

(31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821)

‘Marked by sensuous profusion and artistic control, this most widely published of

English poems is laden with meaning.’

Photo: Pinterest

 Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

   With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

   And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

      To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

   With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

      For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

   Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

   Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,

   Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

      Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

   Steady thy laden head across a brook;

   Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

      Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?

   Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

   And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

   Among the river sallows, borne aloft

      Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

   Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

   The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

      And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.- Poem of the week: To Autumn by John Keats

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Embrace the Spirituality of the Autumn Equinox

Mother of Darkness, Mother of Light

Earth beneath us, soul in flight,

Songs of love and love of life,

Guide us to our home. ~Circle Song

Photo: Gaia

Autumn Equinox is the Time for Storytelling

‘The spiritual meaning of the fall equinox can be found in the holiday of Mabon, celebrated in Paganism and other faiths that revolve around nature. Mabon marks the middle of the harvest cycle, a time when we are called to reflect upon and recognize the bounty that Mother Earth has brought to us over the past year. This is a time when we express great gratitude for a bountiful harvest and start to stock our pantries for the colder months ahead.

Compassion and empathy grow from the seeds of understanding.

To develop understanding we need to develop our capacity to reflect...

And to reflect we will need to be able to remember. And to remember we will need to forgive. And to forgive we need to be able to reconcile. Thus, this is the path to transforming conflicts, bringing peace with justice and building a better world: compassion, empathy, reflection, remembrance, forgiveness and reconciliation.

These are the values I learnt from the “Story of Coventry and Coventry Cathedral” which is the spirit my Autumn Equinox Story:

Coventry and I: The story of a boy from Iran who became a man in Coventry

As many of us have transitioned our work from the fields to more modern methods of harvesting and creating bountiful existences, the Autumn equinox can be viewed as a magical time to honour our growth and abundance from a spiritual, professional, financial and relationship perspective. Finding ways to give thanks to yourself for all you have achieved over the past year is an important part of your journey. The more gratitude you give, the more reasons you will find you have to be grateful.

Photo: plus.google.com

“It’s moral, feels great and keeps you healthy. But being grateful isn’t just good for you – it might hold the key to a more peaceful world”

“All the members of human society stand in need of each other's assistance.”- Adam Smith

In Praise of Gratitude

“What does Spirituality Mean to You?”

A way to tap into the spirituality of this Autumn equinox is to set aside a dedicated time of reflection and gratitude. Reflect on where you were this time last year in each area of your life that you find relevant; self-love, partnerships, work, etc.  Honour your journey and symbolize your gratitude with the simple lighting of a candle or new addition to your altar, such as a crystal that inspires and speaks your reflective energy. You can even do something a little less woo-woo like place a pumpkin on your doorstep to honour the abundance you have manifested.

Light a Candle for a Simple Life

"Simplicity is the sign of mastery. You’ve not avoided the difficulties, you’ve solved them. And then everything falls neatly (and with apparent ease) into place. True work, we might say, is making the simple feel easy."

Light a Candle for Storytelling

‘As it has been said, Storytelling has the capacity to touch our deepest emotions and it can allow us to peer at beauty.  We glance at our own creativity and breathe our own thoughts.  But more than that: Storytelling is also a wonderful path to set ourselves free, by opening our hearts to others and letting them in; becoming one with one another…’

Better to Light a Candle than to curse the darkness

Further to, the Autumn equinox is a time when both the days and nights are equal in length, inviting us to recognize what areas in our lives are craving balance. For example, if you have been scurrying away during the harvest season and running yourself a bit ragged, you are invited to surrender to your body’s important need for rest and recovery. These next couple days are a magical time to call balance into your life through self-care and meditation. We happen to love that we are in a resting period of the moon’s cycle (Gibbous) during this equinox, which allows us to pass our trust over to the universe that everything is happening exactly as it should.

Enjoy this Autumn equinox. Rest and prepare for the next phase of your journey.’-Excerpt from Age of Lapin, 21 September 2018

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Autumn Equinox: A Time To Reflect, A Time To Learn

Photo: pinterest

“In compassion and grace, be like the sun...
In concealing other's faults, be like the night...
In generosity and helping others, be like a river...
In anger and fury, be like dead...
In modesty and humility, be like the earth...
In tolerance, be like the sea...
Either appear as you are, or be as you appear..”- Rumi

“The Peace of Wild Things”

“When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”-Wendell Berry

“Humans are part of the natural world, and nature has a human character: There’s this false divide that we have set up, and it doesn’t exist. Nature goes through exactly the same emotions and narrative that we do. It has tragedy, it has love, happiness and sadness.”

“I think something we really struggle with in modern society is that we tend to see nature as something ‘other’ – as if we are over here, and nature is over there.” 

“We are so interconnected with our ecosystem and the further we distance ourselves from it, the more depressed and stressed we become and the more disconnected we feel with our natural rhythm.”

“A forest doesn’t just look beautiful; you can smell the cycle of life, too: leaves decaying, flowers growing. You can stand in a forest and feel life going on around you.”- Tiffany Francis-Baker, a Forestry Commission writer in residence

Today, at this spiritual moment, it remains important to mark the balancing of the year and to give thanks for the changing expressions of Mother Earth- our source of life.

Below, I invite you to join me in our celebration of thanksgiving for our sacred Earth and Mother Nature and see a sample of our offerings which I hope you will find inspiring:    

Are you physically and emotionally drained? I know of a good and cost-free solution!

On the 250th Birthday of William Wordsworth Let Nature be our Wisest Teacher

Saving the Web of Life: The Time is now to Tune into Peace, Love and Wisdom with a Spiritual Revolution 

Mother Nature Crying: Fools and Heartless those who do not see the tears

 Mother Earth is Crying: A Path to Spiritual Ecology and Sustainability

Why should we all become mother nature and sacred earth guardians

Nature the Best Teacher: Re-Connecting the World’s Children with Nature 

A Sure Path to build a Better World: How nature helps us feel good and do good

Season of Creation: Walking Together, Sowing Seeds of Hope

Love Letter to the Earth

In Praise of Frugality: Materialism is a Killer

There is more in less: The Evolution of Simplicity

Simplicity: it’s our true guide to a better life

The beauty of living simply: the forgotten wisdom of William Morris 

'If This Time' Has Taught me Anything

To Heal the World and People We Need to Save the Commons from Plunder

The healing power of ‘Dawn’ at this time of coronavirus crisis 

Playing for Change: How music can change the world!Spirituality and Environmentalism: Healing Ourselves and our Troubled World

The Inspiring Story of a Giant Sequoia (Mammoth Tree) of California

Rethinking Education at the Time of Coronavirus Crisis: The Time is Now to Explore the Benefits of Nature-Based Education in Our Teaching Models

The Sweetness of Being Human: ‘We have all of us one human heart.’

Crisis after Crisis: Ten Steps to Save the World