43 seconds — Mary-Alice McNab

Hi friends -

Inspiration this week is from Melissa Orijin (article here), and her daughter Esi. Who started a toy company (Orijin Bees) that's on a mission to normalize inclusion in toys, starting with dolls, so little girls can look at a doll and say, “She looks like me.” Some of you may have seen the image floating around the internet of the young blonde girl staring up at a wall of dolls that are all BIPOC, and the caption said something about "how do you think she feels?" Exactly. It's simply inspiring that this mother saw this need, when her daughter's mood changed, and said - let's do this differently. The name of the company may reflect the family last name, but it's actually an acronym that is the inspiration:

Our Representation Is Just Inclusion Normalized, Beautifully Empowering Every Soul

I love this benchmark, and see every healthy reason for it to become a societal shift. Representation matters so greatly, in order to live in a society that affirms your existence. I can't wait for it to be unremarkable that we see BIPOC representation in books, on screens, on stages, in toys, in stories, in food, in society. Let's continue our work in this regard!

ACTION ITEMS:

EMAIL: Congress is finishing their recess right now, so let's have some emails awaiting their return. The Care For All Agenda, H.Res 180 and S.Res 85 call on the federal government to support care workers and the care economy through a guaranteed wage. Care workers are disproportionately women, POC, and immigrants who are caring for the most vulnerable members of society, yet many don’t make a living wage. It should be a no-brainer that we care for our care workers. Contact forms or Schumer, Gillibrand, Maloney (your Rep.) copy-paste script here

SIGN: become a co-sponsor of Jamaal Bowman’s proposed Broadband Justice Act, which would expand affordable broadband access to 8 million households. Let’s close the digital divide that has become more than apparent in this last year of social distance learning, working from home, and now vaccination scheduling dependent upon the internet.

SIGN – H.R. 51 is the proposed bill for D.C. Statehood. The population of Washington D.C. is higher than that of both Wyoming and Vermont, yet they don’t have a voice in our federal legislative process. The majority of the population is also Black. Let's remind ourselves that the "red states" aren't actually red, they're suppressed - and let's add a representative 51st State in the 21st century! It’s time for some Representation (remember “no taxation without representation”?) Sign here

DONATE: Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV) is a community-based organization aimed at empowering low-income Asian immigrants in New York City. Website here. We neighbors should support this rather than more cops patrolling their community.

DONATE – a rare political donation option, that I’m including to increase the number of legislators that can make changes in our systems. Also, I felt the urge to give to a "help us take down these bad guys" fund, so I rolled that energy to invest in change-makers, rather than punitive measures. I’m donating to Nina Turner’s campaign for Congress. She’s in Ohio, a teetering swing state, and it’s a special election to fill Marcia Fudge’s seat (as she was just sworn into a position in Biden’s Administration). The election is in August and she needs grassroots support.

LISTEN: 6 min clip from All Things Considered, on NPR (the page also has a transcript of the interview) talks with the newest Mayor of Ithaca and his proposal for the police department. A NY Mayor proposing to replace his police with people actually meant to reduce harm and de-escalate the situation. (Read a GQ article)

WATCH TONIGHT! Via zoom, a Town Hall with Sen. Schumer about the THRIVE agenda and the Climate & Community Investment Act (CCIA). Before his recess ends, let’s hold him accountable to his constituents!

For those of you following the Derek Chauvin trial (I can only stomach reading the headlines), you may also have been shocked to learn about the time discrepancy? I knew 8:46 was a long time, but to discover it was actually 43 seconds longer, at 9 minutes and 29 seconds, is repulsive. I won't even watch a YouTube clip if it shows those numbers... disgusting. There’s a lot shifting right now, so be kind to yourselves and one another. Things are feeling even more depressing at the gateway of re-opening than they did when lockdown began... and that’s its own head f*ck. I appreciate you all!

In solidarity and movement,

Mary-Alice