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616 lines
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<title>06 April, 2021</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden’s Jobs Plan Is Also a Climate Plan. Will It Make a Difference?</strong> - The Administration has an ambitious vision for combatting global warming, but it’s only a start. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/04/12/bidens-jobs-plan-is-also-a-climate-plan-will-it-make-a-difference">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Powerful New Financial Argument for Fossil-Fuel Divestment</strong> - A report by BlackRock, the world’s largest investment house, shows that those who divested have profited not only morally but also financially. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-powerful-new-financial-argument-for-fossil-fuel-divestment">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is Biden Really the Second Coming of F.D.R. and L.B.J.?</strong> - Proposing historic legislation is not transformative; passing it is. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/is-biden-really-the-second-coming-of-fdr-and-lbj">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Randi Weingarten on Opening Schools Safely</strong> - The head of the American Federation of Teachers discusses why she’s skeptical of new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/randi-weingarten-on-opening-schools-safely">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden’s New Deal and the Future of Human Capital</strong> - The President introduced the first part of his economic program, involving airports and bridges. The second, which invests in “human infrastructure,” could define his Administration. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-populism/bidens-new-deal-and-the-future-of-human-capital">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>How Amazon and America’s one-click obsession are warping our workforce</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="An Amazon truck seen out of focus. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3ZcsMgK35HvljMLZpOYEk4HOVn0=/0x0:2667x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69082513/1232004079.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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A conversation with Alec MacGillis about his new book on Amazon and the hidden costs of its dominance.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZTRDzK">
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Bill Bodani Jr. spent most of his adult life working at Bethlehem Steel, just outside Baltimore.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AxD86W">
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Around the year 2000, an injury on the job forced him into early retirement in his mid-50s. Not too long after that, Bethlehem Steel went bankrupt and was finally dissolved in 2003. Bodani’s pension was eventually slashed from $3,000 to $1,600 a month. At 69 years old he was forced to take a job as a forklift driver at an Amazon warehouse, located in the same place the old steel mill used to sit, where he was paid roughly $12 an hour, a steep drop from his previous wage of $35 an hour.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jsQeYk">
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These are the kinds of stories you encounter in Alec MacGillis’s new book about Amazon called <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374159276"><em>Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America</em></a>. It’s not a book about the inner workings of the company or the peculiarities of its mega-billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos. Instead, it’s a book about what Amazon has done to the country, about the many ways it has transformed our economy and accelerated its most destructive tendencies.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0a4nk6">
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I reached out to MacGillis, who’s also a veteran reporter at ProPublica, to talk about the rise of Amazon and how it’s altered the geography of the country, how Amazon bullies employees and strong-arms local governments, and if he’s encouraged by the recent efforts of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22320009/amazon-bessemer-union-rwdsu-alabama">Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama</a>, to unionize.<strong> </strong>(The vote was held last Monday, and the results could come as early as this week, but possibly much later.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5n2Vf6">
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This is a conversation about the consequences of Amazon’s dominance, but it’s also a conversation about my complicity and yours. Many of us use Amazon every day, and we’re content to look the other way in exchange for what MacGillis calls “one-click satisfaction.” If nothing else, this exchange is a chance to reflect on what that says about our world and what we might do to improve it. (Amazon hasn’t responded to MacGillis’s book, but the company <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/27/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-rebuffs-warehouse-safety-concerns.html">has consistently defended</a> its working conditions and emphasized its role as a job creator — although it was <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/03/amazon-apologizes-for-tweet-dismissing-claim-workers-pee-in-bottles.html">forced to apologize</a> last week after falsely denying allegations that workers are occasionally made to urinate in bottles.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b7NakV">
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A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.
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</p>
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<h4 id="9Bf48w">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EQJowW">
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Your book is about how Amazon has essentially altered the geography of the country in terms of both wealth and power. So I’ll start there: Which parts of the country have gained, and which parts have lost?
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</p>
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<h4 id="WUI9eY">
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Alec MacGillis
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dxEBpY">
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This book didn’t start as a book about Amazon. It started as a book about our growing regional disparities. We’ve always had richer and poorer places, but the gaps have gotten so much bigger. We used to have wealth and prosperity spread out much more evenly across the country. In the mid-1960s, for instance, the 25 wealthiest cities in the country by median income included Cleveland, Milwaukee, Des Moines, and my favorite, Rockford, Illinois. And then a whole bunch of other Midwestern cities. Today, there <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/novdec-2015/bloom-and-bust/">are just a handful</a> of non-coastal cities on that list of 25.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uUoIcO">
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As recently as 1980, there were only a few parts of the country — mostly in Appalachia and the Deep South — that had median incomes more than 20 percent below the average, and then you had a small number of places that were 20 percent above the average, like DC and the New York suburbs, for example. But now <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0002716219868141">whole swathes of the country</a> are 20 percent below the average and it includes basically the entire Midwest, while huge strips of the coast are now above the 20 percent above the average.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EdGFhL">
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So the goal was to write about this massive shift. We talk a ton about income inequality, but not enough about regional inequalities. And I settled on Amazon as the perfect frame for this story.
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</p>
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<h4 id="mdAW3Q">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mmTaOe">
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Is Amazon to blame for this, or did larger forces, like globalization, make this redistribution inevitable?
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</p>
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<h4 id="8FrX0g">
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Alec MacGillis
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qfl1bN">
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Amazon is both a symptom and a cause. It’s a good frame for the book partly because Amazon is everywhere and everything is in its shadow. So it’s a metaphor in that sense. But then it’s also a cause because regional inequality is tied to the concentration of so many sectors of our economy in certain places and in certain companies.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vaqaKq">
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I like to explain this by pointing to what has happened to media. It used to be that media revenue was spread all around the country — among local newspapers, TV, radio, etc. But now with the shift to digital, we have a situation in which 60 percent of all digital ad revenue is flowing to two tech companies [Facebook and Google], both of which are based in the Bay Area.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qipMdP">
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The same thing has happened in the retail world, where the money and business activity used to be spread all around the country, but now it flows to a single company that’s based in Seattle, a town that’s now experiencing <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/seattle-hits-record-high-for-income-inequality-now-rivals-san-francisco/">incredible levels of inequality</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WvdJmJ">
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So to your question, would this be happening regardless of Amazon? It’s a big question, and my answer is twofold. Yeah, there are structural changes in the economy that definitely encourage agglomeration and a winner-take-all dynamic. But at the same time, Amazon has absolutely made things worse.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yal129">
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Amazon might say, “We just happen to be the company in this slot right now, but it could have easily been someone else.” But that overlooks the fact that this particular company, with this particular leadership, made specific decisions over the years that have made things worse, with a particularly <a href="https://fortune.com/2019/03/01/amazon-federal-corporate-income-tax/">aggressive pursuit of tax avoidance</a> at all levels, with particularly <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/3/22365330/amazon-apology-pee-bottles-worker-warehouse-union-pocan">high-pressured demands on workers at warehouses</a>, with a particular decision to put its second headquarters <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/10/amazon-reveals-the-truth-on-why-it-nixed-ny-and-chose-virginia-for-hq2.html">in the DC area</a>, one of the richest in the country, instead of trying to rebalance things.
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</p>
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<h4 id="s3kPJg">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DFJ4IO">
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There’s a lot going on there, but first I want to be super clear about the way Amazon moves into some of these communities. You describe a two-step process: Amazon upends all of these brick-and-mortar retail businesses and then swoops into the areas where the laid-off employees live and hires them as underpaid bodies in their warehouses.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EFFfKl">
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Is that basically right?
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</p>
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<h4 id="ei8DV6">
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Alec MacGillis
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n3S9rb">
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It is. And that’s what’s confounding about the response I got from them, which is, “Well, at least we’re providing jobs in these places. We’re not like Google and Facebook. We actually have a physical presence, and we’re hiring thousands of people in these communities that lack jobs.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N2DspO">
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And that’s true to a certain extent. They absolutely are employing people in numbers way beyond the other tech giants. They’re <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2019/03/30/largest-employer-each-state-walmart-top-us-amazon-second/39236965/">now second only to Walmart</a>, gaining fast for biggest employer in America. But what that overlooks is that there has been this massive wipeout of brick-and-mortar retail. We talk about coal miners getting laid off, but countless more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/11/22/if-that-was-retail-apocalypse-then-where-are-refugees/">retail workers have been laid off</a>. The professional retail clerk took more losses than any other in recent years.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="80zMdO">
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To put it simply, what you have now are the sort of jobs that once allowed a 55-year-old woman in Elmira, New York, to manage a jewelry counter at a department store being replaced by a warehouse job that pays less, involves much more strenuous working conditions, is far more socially isolating, and that same 55-year-old woman will have a much harder time hacking it.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right">
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IRaP6xxoSTWDYpqAyX74bIcM5yw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22407747/FULFILLMENT_cover.jpg"/>
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</figure>
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</div>
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<h4 id="JgmpWW">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UF1Dmo">
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You called these new Amazon jobs “strenuous” and “socially isolating” just now, but that doesn’t adequately capture it like you do in the book. We’re talking about intensely rote and inhuman work. We’re talking about a company that uses algorithms to track productivity and bathroom breaks.
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</p>
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<h4 id="M71qJ9">
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Alec MacGillis
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HyeNT6">
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These are really grueling jobs. There’s a reason why the turnover is so high. And if anything, the jobs have only gotten more rote and more repetitive and more isolated as the robots at the warehouses have gotten more automated. It used to be the iconic Amazon job was the picker who roamed the corridors looking for items, looking for the dildos. And there was a whole literature around that job. You walked so many miles a day that you wore out your shoes. But there was at least some level of autonomy and a bit of a hunt to the enterprise.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YaX8iv">
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Now the warehouses have these incredible robots that zoom around and do a lot of the legwork, and the human pickers are standing in fixed locations for their entire 10-hour shift, pulling things out of the shelves as they come to them. And it’s actually a much more rote kind of activity. And there are other jobs that are even more mechanical, where you have employees essentially standing at one conveyor belt and taking things off of it so they can put them on another belt. Over and over and over again. For basically the entire shift.
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</p>
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<h4 id="L7QHpC">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IxZ0jj">
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<a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/03/25/amazon-drivers-pee-bottles-union/">There are reports</a> of Amazon workers peeing in bottles because they don’t want to be caught taking an extra bathroom break —
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</p>
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<h4 id="j3xLEy">
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Alec MacGillis
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1eD7yw">
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Yeah, the core chapter of my book is titled “Dignity.” It’s about a man named Bill Bodani, who had to go work at an Amazon warehouse for half the wage he made at the steel mill in the exact same location. And he doesn’t have enough time to get to the bathroom often. He’s an older man, so he has to go a lot. He uses up his two short breaks over the 10-hour shift and, once in a while, he goes off in the corner with his forklift, tries to get out of view of the cameras, and takes a quick leak. It’s incredibly undignified.
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</p>
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<h4 id="dwuKV3">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yWW3VJ">
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So Amazon only gives warehouse workers two bathroom breaks per 10-hour shift?
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</p>
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<h4 id="Dem6Mx">
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Alec MacGillis
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5fiDjr">
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Right. The way it generally works is you have a short meal break halfway through your shift, and then you’re allowed two short bathroom breaks. And he just needed more. And it takes so long to get across the floor of these massive warehouses to get to the bathroom. So often, by the time you get there, you’ve all but used it up.
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</p>
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<h4 id="xYwn69">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SPJPJL">
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A big part of your book details how Amazon is able to strong-arm local governments, often forcing obscene concessions. What sorts of demands does the company make from local<strong> </strong>officials?
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</p>
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<h4 id="M8PrUp">
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Alec MacGillis
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6ftJrF">
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The company’s demands of local governments are extraordinarily aggressive. It seeks large reductions on its future tax bills, on the property taxes owed for the warehouse or data center, and sometimes also on the payroll taxes owed on the workers.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2yAIws">
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For one data center outside Columbus, Ohio,<strong> </strong>it even got the town to give it the land for it <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2014/09/09/dublin-offering-amazon-free-land-as-lure-for.html">essentially for free</a>. And it demands secrecy from the local officials. They agree to call the projects by code names and not reveal Amazon’s identity until the very last second, and to disclose no more than the bare minimum of documentation required by public information requests.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J1dwrg">
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One county official in southwest Ohio apologized to the company when a quote of hers surfaced in a local news report. She assured them that she hadn’t granted the reporter an interview, that it was just something that she had let slip out in a public meeting. And she assured them it wouldn’t happen again.
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</p>
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<h4 id="lgZXc7">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eJMNBl">
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Why is Amazon consistently able to bend state and local governments to its will, even at the expense of the people who live in these places?
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</p>
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<h4 id="xNyTQC">
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Alec MacGillis
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mj2MaT">
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It’s mostly the belief that they have no choice, that this is the only option on the table for their community. So if you’ve had your manufacturing base wiped out in Baltimore or southwest Ohio or wherever it might be, and then along comes this company that’s going to hire 2,000 people at a warehouse, it’s hard to say no.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xyaEgu">
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What’s so confounding is that it’s clear the company’s going to come there anyway. They have to fulfill their promise of one- or two-day delivery. And in order to do that, they have to be in a lot of different places. And so it’s not like Amazon can just decide to not be in Maryland and go to Alabama instead if they’re not absurdly generous with their tax subsidies, because they have to be everywhere.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xQRymr">
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What I find striking isn’t just the obsequiousness when it came to offering the subsidies to Amazon, but also the obsequiousness when it came to promising secrecy, to the point of apologizing to Amazon when they had to occasionally give information to a reporter who asked.
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</p>
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<h4 id="XK8gJa">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="isClK9">
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I want to deal with the elephant in the room, which is the role we’re all playing in Amazon’s dominance.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RyiZeT">
|
||
However destructive Amazon becomes, the one-click satisfaction it offers is probably too enticing for most people to give a shit about anything else. And the human costs of this are purely abstract for most people, just as the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-forced-uighur-labor-iphone-factory-2020-3">iPhone labor camps</a> in China are. But I suppose this is partly what makes global capitalism so powerful: it separates us from the costs of our conveniences. I’m not sure any company in human history has ever distilled this as neatly as Amazon does.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="0yAZyg">
|
||
Alec MacGillis
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JNkMv9">
|
||
I think that’s exactly right. Amazon has perfected that seamlessness. It’s just pure instant gratification. I’m holding out hope that, coming out of this year, we can jolt ourselves out of this situation we’ve been in. Whatever reservations we may have had about going all-in on the one-click satisfaction went totally out the window during the pandemic. We felt like we had permission to fully embrace it, and not just with Amazon but with other forms of our daily life and consumption.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D1qgI5">
|
||
I hope we can snap out of this on the other side of the pandemic. And I’m not an absolutist. I’m not calling for boycotts. It’s not about just full renunciation. I use Amazon if I have to, if I can’t find what I’m looking for elsewhere.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Bl1mv">
|
||
But the scale of the embrace has driven the enormous growth and power of Amazon, and I think it’s so important for us to re-engage with the physical world around us in the places we live. Both in terms of going back to our local shops and also maybe not zonking out on Netflix so much. Otherwise, there’s not going to be much of a town or city or neighborhood for us to go back to.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="xwTwTo">
|
||
Sean Illing
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y6xVJ4">
|
||
Do the <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22311708/amazon-union-alabama-vote-explained">recents efforts of Amazon employees</a> — in Alabama especially — to unionize give you much hope?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="igptmK">
|
||
Alec MacGillis
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="63k7xm">
|
||
Well, I won’t try to guess how things will turn out in Alabama. It’s going to be tough because Amazon has set the bar incredibly high in terms of expanding the pool of the electorate, which is something employers often do. They expand the pool beyond the likeliest yes voters, so that it’s tougher to get a majority. So it’ll be tough. But the fact that there is an election at all in Alabama is extraordinary.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="viE9Mc">
|
||
I tend to see all this in grand, historic terms. These Amazon warehouses are like the mass workplaces of our time. This is the place you now go if you just need a job at a given time, in a given place. You can probably get a job at Amazon. And it’s not going to pay all that much and it’s going to be really tough work, but it’s just what a lot of people now do, by the hundreds of thousands. And it’ll just keep growing and growing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y0RtkP">
|
||
And so the question is, can Amazon be the Bethlehem Steel of our time? Those steel jobs were incredibly low-paying and grueling in the early 20th century, but then the conditions greatly improved, largely through unionization, and they were transformed into middle-class careers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g0VBcY">
|
||
My hope is that the arc of history can turn one more notch, and that these warehouse workers can enjoy their own 1950s moment.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Senate Democrats can now officially pass more bills with 51 votes</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-AZNsaIa-hT1q2AgqVcSFxFJlG0=/24x0:3964x2955/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69080595/1231753601.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer holds a press conference at the Capitol on March 16, 2021. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Democrats just got an unprecedented Senate blessing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3WImn1">
|
||
Senate Democrats just got some wonky procedural news that has some pretty big implications for President Joe Biden’s agenda.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tLFShp">
|
||
On Monday night, the Senate parliamentarian — an in-house rules expert — determined that Democrats would be able to do a third budget reconciliation bill this year, a massive development that gives lawmakers more room to pass legislation without Republican support.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RkrFyu">
|
||
Already, Democrats had the ability to do two budget reconciliation bills: one focused on fiscal year 2021 and one focused on fiscal year 2022. Unlike most other bills, budget measures can pass with just 51 votes, instead of 60, which means Democrats are able to usher through the legislation they want if all 50 members of their caucus are onboard. (With the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/3/6/22315536/stimulus-package-passes-checks-unemployment">American Rescue Plan</a>, for instance, 50 Democrats were able to approve the $1.9 trillion package as part of the FY2021 budget bill, even though no Republicans backed it.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u3OM5W">
|
||
“The Parliamentarian has advised that a revised budget resolution may contain budget reconciliation instructions,” <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1379197757072801804/photo/1">said a spokesperson</a> for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a statement. “This confirms the Leader’s interpretation of the Budget Act and allows Democrats additional tools to improve the lives of Americans if Republican obstruction continues.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="urtQFu">
|
||
With the new decision from the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, Democrats can now do a third budget reconciliation bill, which means they can push through more ambitious measures as long as they are related to taxing and spending. The decision is based on MacDonough’s interpretation of Section 304 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, which allows lawmakers to revise a budget resolution before the end of the fiscal year that it covers. Given her decision, Democrats can now edit the 2021 budget resolution they already passed, and include instructions for another bill.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XXyCMW">
|
||
Schumer’s spokesperson also noted that “no decisions have been made on a legislative path forward using Section 304 and some parameters still need to be worked out.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7ixp0z">
|
||
Budget reconciliation has its limits: It can’t be used for policies like voting rights reforms or gun control, but it’s still a helpful tool that Democrats have already leveraged to pass a huge expansion of the child tax credit, enhanced unemployment aid, and another round of stimulus checks.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XBcP6g">
|
||
Democrats now have another opportunity to advance parts of their agenda that Republicans would otherwise block. And the decision to push for a workaround shows how limited Democrats’ other options are to pass their agenda.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="mro7M6">
|
||
Democrats are leaning on budget reconciliation amid disagreements over the filibuster
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CUyLKv">
|
||
Democrats’ efforts to get the most they can out of budget reconciliation underscores the political context they are operating in: namely, that they have dwindling options for passing ambitious legislation.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DtysbY">
|
||
If Democrats eliminated the legislative filibuster, all bills could then pass with 51 votes, instead of 60, removing the need to rely so heavily on budget reconciliation. But although an <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/20/22341271/feinstein-filibuster-reform-talking-joe-manchin-kyrsten-sinema-joe-biden-senate-60-votes">increasing number of Democrats</a> appear open to at least modifying how the filibuster works, the caucus doesn’t have the votes it needs to eliminate it. Since moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have been <a href="https://www.vox.com/22319564/filibuster-reform-manchin-democrats-nuclear-option">staunch in their opposition</a> to ending the rule, it seems unlikely to change in the near term, meaning most bills will need 60 votes to pass.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DJeYgZ">
|
||
To hit that threshold, Democrats will need to convince 10 Republicans to join them on most measures, an outcome that’s become increasingly unlikely for many of the party’s more ambitious bills. (On coronavirus relief, for example, Republicans’ opening bid was roughly a third of what President Joe Biden had proposed.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z9FnkH">
|
||
By pushing for a reinterpretation of Section 304, Democrats seemed to be looking for other outlets for passing legislation if those in the caucus who are against eliminating the filibuster don’t budge.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XQAfWH">
|
||
Now they have one extra shot.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="wTBozB">
|
||
Infrastructure could be Democrats’ next budget reconciliation bill
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K7zM6o">
|
||
Democrats’ attempts to clear the way for another budget bill also coincide with Biden unveiling <a href="https://www.vox.com/22361959/biden-infrastructure-jobs-plan-congress">a $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs package</a>, along with a proposal to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent to pay for it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xcIu2R">
|
||
The administration is pitching to Democrats and Republicans in Congress alike, but the prospects of getting a bipartisan bill done appear dim. In particular, Republicans are opposed to the tax increases, as well as some of the provisions of Biden’s plan that go beyond roads and bridges.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HAO24q">
|
||
The parliamentarian’s decision gives more options and chances to use reconciliation to pass their priorities with 51 votes. Biden is expected to soon announce yet another package that deals with child care and health care. Though no final decisions have been made on the process, and how these plans will merge into a budget bill, Democrats could theoretically break Biden’s infrastructure plan and his forthcoming child care and health care plan into two different reconciliation bills — sticking one in the amended 2021 resolution and putting the rest in the 2022 resolution.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WjPeSi">
|
||
There’s another option: Democrats and Republicans could pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill that deals more narrowly with roads and bridges, and then Democrats and the Biden administration put their remaining priorities into a budget reconciliation bill. Relevant House and Senate committees are currently working on a surface transportation reauthorization bill, which comes up every five years.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3ienCp">
|
||
The five-year reauthorization bills deal pretty narrowly with fixing up roads and bridges, and Republicans on the committees think the reauthorization bill should be worked on and passed in a bipartisan way.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0fKZgB">
|
||
“Our committee unanimously reported legislation to rebuild our nation’s water systems. This proves that infrastructure can and should be done on a bipartisan basis,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Health, said in a recent statement.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3FrHVq">
|
||
However, the White House views its plan as a supplement to whatever Congress does on infrastructure on its own. Biden has proposed $621 billion for spending on the nation’s roads and bridges, rail and public transit, and airports and ports.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bBjsKd">
|
||
“All elements of the plan reflect additional investment on top of existing programs and authorities,” an administration official told Vox. “On transportation infrastructure, the plan includes an additional roughly $600B above the five-year budget baseline, assuming a straight extension of FAST-Act funding levels for surface transportation programs.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L8HJWB">
|
||
The next few months of negotiations between the White House and Congress will decide a lot about just how big and bold an infrastructure bill will be. But no matter what, budget reconciliation will factor in prominently.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hjAEYM">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ADEvmL">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="rcrdeL">
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Sw8oQs">
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Trial by trauma</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/L3z2B9ej7weMubAdwmnEzSxzXLQ=/0x0:2667x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69080147/AP_21092685332127.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Attendees at the “March to Stop Police Brutality” support each other in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, on April 1. | Chris Tuite/ImageSPACE/Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The Derek Chauvin trial is retraumatizing Black Americans.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="18QyGF">
|
||
It’s been more than 300 days since Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pinned down George Floyd’s neck — but time hasn’t dampened the mental anguish of seeing a Black man die under the weight of a white man sworn to protect the public.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qjlIxO">
|
||
Instead, Chauvin’s criminal trial, which began on March 29 and is expected to continue for weeks, has only heightened the emotional toll of the disturbing event.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sswPo8">
|
||
Chauvin faces charges of manslaughter and murder, and to make their case — that Floyd died because Chauvin used excessive force — prosecutors have been relying heavily on the 9-minute, 29-second video that captured Floyd’s final moments. They’ve replayed it over and over to the courtroom, and to all those watching the proceedings live on television. The video’s been slowed down, it’s been rewound, and witnesses have been repeatedly asked to identify themselves in the footage.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jPpBYQ">
|
||
Jerry Blackwell, a lawyer for the prosecution and founder of the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers, issued a warning before he played<strong> </strong>the video<strong> </strong>for the first time: “I need to tell you, the video is graphic and can be difficult to watch. It’s simply the nature of what we’re dealing with in this trial.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5yhQpD">
|
||
But the warning was too late, a futile attempt to preserve decency. Floyd’s death and the impending trial against Chauvin loomed over the country for<strong> </strong>almost a year, amid a pandemic that’s only magnified injustice.<strong> </strong>The palpable effects of this trauma have been visible in the mental health of Black Americans, and in the witnesses taking the stand.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BwUJhL">
|
||
Charles McMillian, 61, sobbed as he listened to himself tell Floyd, “You can’t win!” as Floyd struggled under Chauvin’s knee. Donald Williams II, a 33-year-old mixed martial artist with a background in security, eventually broke down as he testified about the “blood choke” that he saw Chauvin use on Floyd. Firefighter Genevieve Hansen, 27, fought back tears as she described feeling helpless at being unable to act in her capacity as an EMT to save Floyd’s life.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gZtc6T">
|
||
Darnella Frazier, 18, who recorded the viral video while accompanied by her 9-year-old cousin — who also testified — explained how the incident has irreparably changed her life, from the way she sees Floyd in the Black men in her life to her repeated, prayer-like apologies to Floyd for not doing more.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pWz1N8PyYy3XqcZKqgE5z1elbQM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22421885/AP_21090694447654.jpg"/> <cite>Court TV/AP</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Charles McMillian, 61, sobbed as he listened to himself tell Floyd, “You can’t win!”
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rO2VuiUJqxLQQwrVBIt72HAl-5U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22421886/AP_21089543123620.jpg"/> <cite>Court TV/AP</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Donald Williams II, 33, broke down as he testified about the “blood choke” that he saw Chauvin use on Floyd.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jXjezkE_M2PSZ9zNSeyJKwhFrSc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22421887/AP_21089763800224.jpg"/> <cite>Court TV/AP</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Firefighter Genevieve Hansen, 27, fought back tears as she described feeling helpless to save Floyd’s life.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HtK6Wo">
|
||
For the public who watched Floyd’s death on their screens, the trial has been similarly retraumatizing,<strong> </strong>particularly for the Black Americans who have grown familiar with how casually America handles Black death, and who are well aware of the country’s long history of brutalizing Black people. On Twitter, some users have resorted to muting any news about the trial, in an effort to shut out more pain.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="WisQb4">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
||
I’ve watched some of the most upsetting footage from stories around the world for years, but every time the George Floyd video is played during the Chauvin trial, I now mute my computer. The cries of a dying man can be too much to bear sometimes and it’s ok to admit that.
|
||
</p>
|
||
— Hala Gorani (<span class="citation" data-cites="HalaGorani">@HalaGorani</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/HalaGorani/status/1377341199476948993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2021</a>
|
||
</blockquote></div></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zPaQWL">
|
||
“This wasn’t the first time people saw a Black man being killed by the police so there’s historical trauma here,” Howard Stevenson, a clinical psychologist who studies racial stress and racial trauma and a professor of Africana studies and urban education at the University of Pennsylvania, told Vox. “Memories of other Black men being killed by the police play in our emotional movie and we depend on those memories to make sense of traumas.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="sNdpYv">
|
||
How the trauma of Black death compounds
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ujAvkx">
|
||
In 2018, <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(18)31130-9.pdf">researchers</a> at Boston University, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital found that police killings of unarmed Black people have adverse mental health effects on Black adults who were not directly affected by the incident itself: stress, depression, and difficulties with emotions that manifested in “poor mental health days.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="11Shlv">
|
||
Black Americans have a greater and more personal understanding of systemic racism — they understand a lack of fairness, a loss of social status, diminished trust in social institutions, and prior related traumas, researchers found.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gUK11H">
|
||
“We already knew this was happening based on how people talked about it on social media,” Jacob Bor, a professor of global health at Boston University and one of the report’s authors, told Vox. “But we wanted to contribute population-level data to a phenomenon that we were already seeing. We sometimes just assume that racism causes health disparities, but when you’re not explicit, people make other interpretations like maybe it’s genetics, behavior, or culture, which is pretty wrongheaded.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yrgM8E">
|
||
For those already carrying the trauma of systemic racism, it doesn’t take much to trigger a physical and emotional response: Just hearing about Floyd or Chauvin’s trial can be enough to trigger memories of the other Black men who died at the hands of the police. And seeing video of the incident or even just listening to audio, particularly hearing Floyd’s voice and how he pleaded for his life, adds to that existing trauma.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PJuNnk">
|
||
It is a kind of trauma that builds over time, increasing with other moments of violence, from the beating of Rodney King<strong> </strong>in 1991 to the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012, and compounds with Floyd and the police killing of <a href="https://www.vox.com/21536657/philadelphia-police-shooting-walter-wallace">Walter Wallace</a> in October 2020 or the police shooting of <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/04/05/adam-toledo-shooting-chicago-police-release-video-family/7087720002/">Adam Toledo</a> just last month.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Dui4Rr">
|
||
“This is a part of our generation’s collective and ongoing trauma that was also a part of the experience that our ancestors had to undergo, only in a different iteration,” says trauma psychologist Mariel Buqué. “It’s new age terror and what happens to a person when they are terrorized to the point that they fear for their lives, and when this happens in an ongoing way by way of racist acts, is that it leaves profound fear planted in the person. And that fear, if impactful enough, can lead to the development of trauma.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q7dZhC">
|
||
This trauma manifests in psychological symptoms like numbing, dissociation, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, hypervigilance, flashbacks, agitation, self-destructive behaviors, and other common symptoms like nightmares, lack of sleep, emotional detachment, and mistrust, Buqué said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h9fX8g">
|
||
Online, countless people have explained their need to turn away from the trial when possible, so as not re-experience the pain they felt when first watching the video of Floyd’s death. “I had to mute it,” one Twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/jaywwalker1/status/1376552616348549123">wrote</a>. “But even without sound it’s the stuff of nightmares.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<aside id="QaVnAH">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="81wOiv">
|
||
When people experience racial trauma or even vicarious trauma — indirect trauma that is a result of witnessing or hearing about someone’s suffering — the effects aren’t only mental: They can present a whole host of challenges that affect the body.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H3y9HB">
|
||
“When people experience a racial encounter, something that puts so much stress on them, it always involves their bodies, but that’s rarely discussed,” Stevenson said. “Trauma is like an inability to manage stress and any healing approach that doesn’t take into account how it has changed our bodies is missing out. Understanding how our bodies react when we’re triggered by the video can help us gain control and feel less helpless.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
||
<aside id="BYDOyy">
|
||
<q>People should keep talking about Floyd’s life and his family</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1LeQUS">
|
||
During the trial, the prosecution released footage and audio that wasn’t previously widely seen by the public, like how bystanders pleaded with officers to loosen the pressure they placed on Floyd. Even if someone has seen the video of Floyd multiple times, they haven’t captured all the information about it because it’s so overwhelming, Stevenson said. “The more times you see it, the more new information you pick, only adding to the trauma.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kgjx7t">
|
||
And the weight of this feeling isn’t just personal — for example,<strong> </strong>parents have an added layer of trauma to navigate. Children are also seeing the video, hearing about Floyd’s death or even witnessing it themselves firsthand. Adults are tasked with explaining the case to children. “Many choose to look away and don’t want to talk about it to kids, or to anyone, but the fact is that it’s repeated through media,” Stevenson said. “You can go a lot of places trying to avoid it and still not be able to.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<aside id="ke8hNN">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
<h3 id="4OPzYY">
|
||
No matter the verdict, the trauma could remain
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vC8IR6">
|
||
Part of working through trauma is talking about it — and recognizing that it will take time to overcome. There’s also room to bring humanity to the situation,<strong> </strong>to promote healing, according to Stevenson.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6cRK2w">
|
||
“We need messages to counter the inhumanity of how Floyd died,” he said. This could involve thinking about how courageous Floyd was in his final moments. “Him calling out for his mother, as sad and tragic as it was, can be seen as a spiritual practice,” Stevenson said. People should keep talking about Floyd’s life and his family.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hQjDxs5l5ENznaNrzXTNp-z0lWc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22421899/AP_21092686542703.jpg"/> <cite>Chris Tuite/ImageSPACE/MediaPunch/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
For the public, who watched Floyd’s death on their screens, the trial has been similarly retraumatizing,<strong> </strong>particularly for the Black Americans who have grown familiar with how casually America handles Black death.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qzqx1g">
|
||
The eyewitnesses have already brought humanity to the stand — from the way Frazier testified to seeing her family in Floyd, to how McMillian, while testifying, still wanted to chastise Chauvin for his actions. And after holding onto the pain of these stories for nearly a year, witnesses fought back against defense lawyers who sought to categorize them as unknowledgeable, rowdy, angry, or belligerent. “You can’t paint me out to be angry,” Williams told the<strong> </strong>defense during cross-examination.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BckswS">
|
||
Though the video is a major source of trauma, Stevenson doesn’t believe we should stop sharing it, because the video represents accountability. Floyd’s loved ones originally wanted people to watch the footage to have the world see how Floyd was killed: “For so many Black families who experience this, the hardest part is about getting people to believe it happened and care,” Stevenson said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zuim0j">
|
||
Going forward, there’s also room for warning labels, particularly labels that speak to how these videos affect our emotions. “When you pick up a pack of cigarettes, they warn us that we can get lung cancer from smoking them. In this same way, we need to help people make the connection between watching these videos and how trauma shows up in our lives,” Stevenson said.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sm6cP5">
|
||
Warning labels suggest an acknowledgement that harm was done, that our country cares enough to help people heal. A warning label could also signify the recognition that there’s an urgent search for accountability that the video helps to serve.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xpO2G9">
|
||
Additionally, working through trauma on the societal level means not giving up on the search for truth and seeking justice.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GZ2Zvw">
|
||
“Retribution cannot address the horror of an inhumane tragedy,” Stevenson told Vox. “But part of the reason we need accountability and justice is for our safety from here on out.” The fear that there will be no justice is one that looks to the future — Black people watching this case are concerned about what happened to Floyd, but are also concerned about whether they’re safe in a world that doesn’t see Black people as worthy of justice.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xvNLtr">
|
||
And though the current trauma subsides over time, there is a broader context to consider. Historical traumas remain, and the Chauvin trial won’t mean police violence will end forever. “Even if this justice happens, we won’t fully get over all of the other injustices,” Stevenson said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dGXK3Eo0YBW20YQWRHyObU_Kdjo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22421910/AP_21092680851057.jpg"/> <cite>Chris Tuite/ImageSPACE/MediaPunch/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
The George Floyd Memorial at the site where he died outside Cup Foods in Minneapolis.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JLzsaR">
|
||
Overcoming trauma — and limiting future traumatic experiences — will require telling the truth about these tragedies, recognizing and acknowledging trauma’s role, and understanding that the killing of Floyd is connected to the discrimination that people of color face in hiring, or in accessing health care, for example.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="onlAbA">
|
||
In the meantime, Black and brown communities must draw strength from their cultures and communities, because with<strong> </strong>historical trauma comes historical survival, or rather, transcendence.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zmgMDr">
|
||
“No other people have faced these kinds of horrors, so if this country wants to heal, it’s got to go through the cultural practices of Black and brown people,” Stevenson said. “In our cultures and practices, we can learn a lot about navigating white supremacy and dealing with trauma. We have to recognize our culture as a healing force.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Shikha Pandey returns to top 10 in ICC Women’s ODI rankings</strong> - Smriti, Jhulan and Deepti Sharma remain static</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bio-bubble is tough but Indians more tolerant: Sourav Ganguly</strong> - ‘I have played with a lot of Englishmen, Australians and the West Indians, they just give up on mental health,’ says the BCCI president</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IPL 2021: All eyes on skipper Pant as 2020 runners-up DC look to go one up</strong> - Pant was handed captaincy a week back after Shreyas Iyer was forced out following a shoulder injury, sustained during the ODI series against England last month</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IPL 2021 team preview | Can CSK rise from unaccustomed darkness to more familiar light?</strong> - The Chennai outfit, under M.S. Dhoni, will want to banish memories of a disastrous 2020 and perform in a manner befitting its status as three-time champion</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sportstar Aces Awards 2021: the stars who picked the winners</strong> - The first-ever virtual ceremony of the Sportstar Aces Awards was successfully held between April 1 and 4. The annual event had 31 winners, across spor</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fracas over meat: police to probe complaint</strong> - Man not allowed to distribute meat to Christians in Meenangadi during Easter</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Disqualification pleas: SC nudges Goa Speaker to advance date of decision</strong> - Was the initial date scheduled for April 29 as I would retire on April 23, CJI asks S-G</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Assam Deputy Speaker quizzed, five policemen suspended for firing on crowd during 2nd phase of voting</strong> - Police sources said Aminul Haque Laskar was interrogated twice for several hours during the last 48 hours and his statements have been recorded in front of a magistrate.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>West Bengal Assembly elections | BJP men forcibly occupying booths, attacking TMC activists and candidates: Mamata</strong> - Mamata Banerjee said she has received at least 100 complaints of assault and violence since morning, and the EC has been duly informed but to no avail</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Seed traceability to be operational from kharif in Telangana</strong> - QR code on seed certified by TSSOCA, TSSDC to help trace origin of seed, quality</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Navalny: Jailed Putin critic ‘has cough and temperature’</strong> - The Russian opposition leader says three people in his prison unit are being treated for tuberculosis.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Greenland election: Melting ice and mining project on the agenda</strong> - Just 56,000 people will vote but the US, China and others have a stake in the result.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Credit Suisse axes bosses and bonuses</strong> - The Swiss bank’s risk chief is leaving after it revealed the fallout from two major clients.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Terezin: The former WW2 ghetto falling into ruin</strong> - There are concerns that historical evidence will be lost if Terezin’s buildings are not maintained.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Turkey detains admirals who criticised giant Istanbul canal</strong> - The 10 retired admirals had questioned a costly canal project backed by President Erdogan.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>NASA’s most metal mission will test new, higher-power electric thrusters</strong> - This is the first time a spacecraft has gone into deep space using Hall thrusters. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1754021">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Want to worry about the next pandemic? Spillover.global has you covered</strong> - A research collaboration has evaluated hundreds of viruses based on human risk. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1754733">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Celebrate First Contact Day with this Star Trek: Discovery S4 trailer</strong> - “Federation or non-Federation, this anomaly threatens us equally.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1754723">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Coronavirus variant that spreads easily doesn’t do so by surviving in air better</strong> - New study backs the idea that current health measures still reduce spread. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1754714">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Clarence Thomas blasts Section 230, wants “common-carrier” rules on Twitter</strong> - Thomas claims Twitter’s “right to cut off speech” may be First Amendment problem. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1754677">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>I made this up on the spot and I’m really proud of it.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
This isn’t the best joke, but I’m really proud of how it came out. My sister and I are both in town visiting our parents for the first time in years. I keep dropping bad puns and my sister keeps yelling at me.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Tonight, we were telling stories from our youth, and I told her this one. She was really invested in it and had no idea it was BS until I got to the punchline:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
When I was in college, I was really into this girl named Greta, but I was shy back then and not at all assertive. The girl and two of her friends were going to a nerdy Halloween party and decided to go as the first digits of pi. They needed someone to be the decimal, and I volunteered thinking it would give me a chance to talk to Greta. I was really excited until I got there and realized that she was the 4, which meant there was someone between us all night. I was miserable, barely spoke to anyone, and went home alone.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Thing is, the whole reason I went to the party was that I really thought she was the one.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/pmalleable"> /u/pmalleable </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ml1bn2/i_made_this_up_on_the_spot_and_im_really_proud_of/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ml1bn2/i_made_this_up_on_the_spot_and_im_really_proud_of/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Irish daughter had not been home for over 5 years. Upon her return her Father cursed her heavily.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Where have ye been all this time, child? Why did ye not write to us, not even a line? Why didn’t’t ye call? Can ye not understand what ye put yer old Mother through?”<br/> <br/> The girl, crying, replied, “Dad... I became a prostitute.”<br/> <br/> “Ye what!? Get out a here, ye shameless harlot! Sinner! You’re a disgrace to this Catholic family.”<br/> <br/> “OK, Dad... as ye wish. I only came back to give mum this luxurious fur coat, title deed to a ten bedroom mansion, plus a 5 million savings certificate. For me little brother, this gold Rolex. And for ye Daddy, the sparkling new Mercedes limited edition convertible that’s parked outside plus a membership to the country club ... (takes a breath) ... and an invitation for ye all to spend New Year’s Eve on board my new yacht in the Riviera.”<br/> <br/> “What was it ye said ye had become?”, says Dad.<br/> <br/> Girl, crying again, “A prostitute, Daddy!”<br/> <br/> “Oh! My Goodness! Ye scared me half to death, girl! I thought ye said a Protestant! Come here and give yer old Dad a hug!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/yeeting_is_fun"> /u/yeeting_is_fun </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mkr6sz/irish_daughter_had_not_been_home_for_over_5_years/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mkr6sz/irish_daughter_had_not_been_home_for_over_5_years/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He reduces height and spots a man below. He lowers the balloon farther and shouts, “Excuse me! Can you tell me where I am?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The man below says you’re in a hot air balloon hovering 30 ft above this field.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“You must be an engineer” says the balloonist
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
I am, replies to man. “How did you know?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Well”, says the balloonist, “everything you have told me is technically correct but it’s no use to anyone.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The man below says "You must be in management.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
" I am" replies a balloonist. “How did you know?” Well, says the man. You don’t know where you are, where you’re going, but you expect me to be able to help. You are in the same position you were before we met but now it’s my fault.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Perch05"> /u/Perch05 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ml1itd/a_man_is_flying_in_a_hot_air_balloon_and_realizes/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ml1itd/a_man_is_flying_in_a_hot_air_balloon_and_realizes/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>I’m not thrilled my wife is into bondage</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
but my hands are tied
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ExLaxMarksTheSpot"> /u/ExLaxMarksTheSpot </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mkovvx/im_not_thrilled_my_wife_is_into_bondage/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mkovvx/im_not_thrilled_my_wife_is_into_bondage/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Bill pulled up a stool at his favorite bar and announced. “My wife Suzie must love me more than any woman has ever loved any man!” The bartender inquired. “What makes you say that?” Bill beamed with pride, “Last week, I had to take a couple of sick days from work…”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Suzie was so thrilled to have me around, that every time a mail or delivery person came by, she’d run down the driveway waving her arms hollering, ‘My husband’s home! My husband’s home!’”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/honolulu_oahu_mod"> /u/honolulu_oahu_mod </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mki4jh/bill_pulled_up_a_stool_at_his_favorite_bar_and/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mki4jh/bill_pulled_up_a_stool_at_his_favorite_bar_and/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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