Betsy DeVos’s Department of Education—its civil rights office (OCR) to be precise—is now, get this, investigating Yale University over a Title IX complaint alleging the institution discriminates against men.
The doctoral student who filed the complaint, one Kursat Pegkoz, doesn’t even go to Yale. Independent student newspaper Yale Daily News, which reported the story, writes that Pegkoz is attending the University of Southern California. Pegkoz has reportedly filed similar complaints against two other universities, including USC, and is in no way affiliated with Yale.
What has #MeToo actually changed? – BBC News
On 15 October, actress Alyssa Milano suggested on Twitter that anyone who had been “sexually harassed or assaulted” should reply to her Tweet with “Me Too”, to demonstrate the scale of the problem. Half a million people responded in the first 24 hours.
A barrage of allegations has since emerged against high-profile men in entertainment, the media, politics, and tech. Many deny any wrongdoing. The repercussions are still in flux, but Hollywood’s power dynamics have undoubtedly shifted.
That’s less obviously true in the world beyond, and begs the question: What’s different for the millions of ordinary people who shared their own #MeToo stories? Are the currents of the movement visible in their lives too? How far has the rallying cry been converted into real-world change?
White Woman Calls Cops on Black Real Estate Investor Inspecting House Next Door
Toward the end of the video, Hayes thanks the officers for sticking up for him in light of Karen’s madness.
“You know why the lady called the police on me,” he said in the video. “But at the end of the day, she did not just want me in her neighborhood.
“The police, they were on my side,” he added. “I’m happy to be going home now. Finna go home and see my wife. I’m about to hug her, I’m about to see my son. Maybe see another day. Didn’t go to jail.”
via White Woman Calls Cops on Black Real Estate Investor Inspecting House Next Door
University racism ‘complacency’ warning – BBC News
Baroness Amos, the UK’s first black woman university head, says there are “deep-seated prejudices and stereotypes which need to be overcome”.
“Not even 1% of UK professors are black,” she will tell a conference on university leadership.
The Office for Students says tackling such “gaps” should be a priority.
For Powerful Men, #MeToo Is About Optics
Last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo quickly took ownership over the fall of former New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who has resigned and is facing multiple criminal investigations after the New Yorker published allegations of his physical abuse against women. Cuomo, whose office has historically navigated questions of sexual harassment, “empowerment,” and women’s equality with the grace and subtlety of a dump truck careening through a bike lane, appears to believe himself up for the job.
The White House Says It Has No Idea How The Controversial Religious Leaders Were Involved In The Jerusalem Embassy Opening
Shah also did not directly address why Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner chose to receive a blessing from Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who referred to black people as monkeys during a sermon this year.
Republicans Realize Medicaid Work Requirements Are Cruel… If You’re White and Maybe Vote Republican
If you’re sensing a pattern that’s because there is one: Poor black people are screwed poor white people benefit. The transparently racist nature of these waivers would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so devastating. How about we just nix this work requirement nonsense all together and pretend none of this ever happened?
via Republicans Realize Medicaid Work Requirements Are Cruel… If You’re White and Maybe Vote Republican
Mothers Are Incarcerated at Record Rates, Yet Prison-Nursery Beds Go Empty
Prison nurseries have been proposed in other states as a way to address maternal incarceration. In 2010, the Department of Justice issued a call for proposals to develop more prison nurseries. In 2014, Wyoming built and furnished a nursery that could accommodate 11 mothers and babies. Funding and staffing shortages prevented the nursery from opening, and as of July 2017, the building sat empty. In Connecticut, where 21 babies were born to incarcerated mothers in 2013 alone, the House Judiciary Committee passed a bill to establish a prison nursery. The bill never made it to the floor for a full vote. In Oregon, where the number of women in prison has doubled in the past 15 years, there are similar efforts to establish a nursery at the state’s sole women’s prison.
But, given the strict criteria for many of these nurseries, some wonder if establishing more prison nurseries is actually the solution. Lorie Goshin, now an assistant professor at the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, has also studied alternatives to incarceration for mothers and children. “U.S. prison nurseries have very strict eligibility criteria,” she said, “similar to those that make women great candidates for community alternatives to incarceration.” Goshin points out that criminal justice reform efforts are decreasing the numbers of people imprisoned for low-level, nonviolent crimes. But, she added, “women who face incarceration may be more likely to have violent convictions. It will be important for other states to consider expanding their eligibility criteria to meet the needs of their pregnant incarcerated citizens in this changing criminal justice landscape.”
via Mothers Are Incarcerated at Record Rates, Yet Prison-Nursery Beds Go Empty
How can businesses tackle sexual harassment? – BBC News
Employment lawyer Karen Jackson left a career in the City to start her own legal practice, partly because she was a victim herself. She spells out this reluctance.
“They know there will be a big fallout from it. There will be other people at work judging them, potentially labelling them as a troublemaker and causing problems for their career.
“I have clients who can’t tell me what has happened because they feel such a sense of shame.”
One answer is independent whistle-blowing phone lines – already used by many blue chip companies.
‘Unfuckable’ Women Don’t Go on Killing Sprees
Most of these stories had common threads: Women who feel cut off from access to sex, romance, and companionship often assume that they’re broken, that the odds are stacked against them, and they’re destined to be unlucky in love for the rest of their lives. “I spent a lot of time wondering what was wrong with me, why wasn’t I good enough, why wasn’t I fun enough,” Ashley said. “It’s isolating. It’s ugly. It’s a total mindfuck. And even as I was doing all these things to change myself and improve, I still hated myself and had this nagging feeling that my effort was pretty much hopeless.” These women feel the same sense of isolation that emanates throughout the incel ecosystem.
Yet despite the universal experience of loneliness and sexual failure, there appears to be one fairly significant difference between men and women: “I’ve never gotten anything from a woman blaming men for [their loneliness],” Shechter says. “But men, yes.” Of course, not all men blame their sexual woes on women’s failure to appreciate their value, nor on a female fixation on bad boy alpha males rather than more deserving “nice guys.” But, Shechter reiterates, “women have never said that.”