This week, we’re watching the Brexit fallout, looking at important conversations in the LGBQT community, and learning more about the mechanisms behind housing prices in San Francisco. Here on Global Comment in the coming days, we’ll have pieces on Donald Trump, a changing landscape in Kowloon, and the latest developments in opioid policy in the US in the aftermath of the CDC’s troubling new recommendations.
‘Brexit Is About Taking a Country ‘Back’‘ (Pacific Standard)
Many are drawing uneasy and eerie parallels between the rise of Donald Trump and the Brexit vote. Here’s why the two phenomena are interlinked.
How does this concern Americans? The same social changes — and nationalist pushback — have been happening here. Our immigrant population increased by one million between 2013 and 2014 alone; income inequality has, in the past decade, reached levels not seen since the 1920s; our social programs for the most vulnerable don’t hold up. This combination of factors has helped enable a presidential campaign from Donald Trump driven largely by white voters who feel “voiceless” and “powerless” in a demographically changing, economically stratified America.
‘A guy just transcribed 30 years of for-rent ads. Here’s what it taught us about housing prices.‘ (Medium)
One man went in deep on housing data in San Francisco to learn more about the factors driving extraordinarily high housing prices. What he found out was fascinating, and instructive for growing cities across the US.
Instead, I’m going to close with a lesson for cities that are adding jobs and/or wealth faster than homes but are not yet San Francisco: Portland, Seattle, Austin, Denver, Minneapolis. Maybe Oakland and Los Angeles and San Diego and DC still, too. For the love of god, keep adding homes. Keep adding homes so things don’t get any worse and you’re not trapped in a lose-lose-lose shitstorm like San Francisco.
‘Racist incidents feared to be linked to Brexit result‘ (The Guardian)
The predictable aftermath of the Brexit vote is already hitting immigrants in Britain hard, and it’s likely only going to get uglier.
‘I’ve spent most of the weekend talking to organisations, individuals and activists who work in the area of race hate crime, who monitor hate crime, and they have shown some really disturbing early results from people being stopped in the street and saying look, we voted Leave, it’s time for you to leave.’
‘Reimagining Safety for Queer and Trans Communities in Wake of Orlando‘ (Rewire)
With Pride events across the country adding law enforcement in the name of safety, many people of colour are worried, and some are actively dropping out of events and/or refusing to endorse them. If Orlando has taught us nothing, it’s that white, middle class, cisgender gay men dominate the conversation about LGBQT rights (something people should have already known), and that it’s time for that to change.
What’s missing, they said, is a conversation about why police officers make certain people feel safe, and ‘interrogating where that privilege comes from.’ In other words, there are communities who do not have to fear the police, who are not criminalized by them, and who are confident that cops will help them in need. These are not privileges experienced by many in queer and trans communities of color.
‘The Future of Europe: So What if the British Are Leaving?‘ (Spiegel)
One commentator isn’t too worried about the results of Britain’s Brexit decision.
This isn’t a matter of emotions, but a levelheaded assessment of the actual implications of Brexit. On balance, the consequences will be dramatic for Britain. But from the standpoint of the remaining 27 EU members, Britain’s withdrawal offers more opportunities than drawbacks.
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