Before we delve into the posts we’re reading and loving elsewhere on the internet, don’t miss Shaun Bryan’s take on Microsoft’s job fair targeting the autistic community — and how it reinforced the worst stereotypes about autistics.
And subscribe to the Global Comment podcast on iTunes or Soundcloud.
‘The Age of Grandparents Is Made of Many Tragedies‘ (Robin Marantz Henig for The Atlantic)
The number of kids being raised by their grandparents is on the rise. What does that mean for the future of the next generation?
More grandparents than ever are being put in a position like Barb and Fran—becoming full-time parents again, often with fewer resources and more health problems than they had the first time around. The arrangement is not new, of course—people raised by grandparents for at least part of their childhood include Maya Angelou, Carol Burnett, and two former presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama—but it’s more common than ever these days. (The Greek god Zeus was raised by his grandmother, too, though that was really the least she could do: Her son, Cronus, threatened to swallow the child whole.) The proportion of children living in “grandfamilies” has doubled in the U.S. since 1970, and has gone up 7 percent in the past five years alone—an increase many attribute to the opioid epidemic.
‘Silicon Valley’s “Flexibility” Fetish‘ (Julianne Tveten for the New Republic)
Silicon Valley’s gig economy thrives on ‘flexibility’ and the claim that workers like being exploited and misclassified as independent contractors because it gives them the freedom to enjoy life’s pursuits. The promise is starting to sour in the face of record profits for companies and poverty-level earnings for these ‘contractors.’
Inherent in the portable-benefits boosters’ message is that contracted gig labor is the ineluctable way of the future, and that worker-benefit structures must adapt from the traditional employer-based model. Businesses, we’re told, should have free rein to “innovate” safety-net options “regardless of the worker classification they utilize.” Just as tellingly, Uber’s benefits bid is padded with an endorsement from Nick Hanauer, a billionaire venture-capitalist who supports a $15 minimum wage as a means to forestall the “pitchforks” of the hoi polloi. The portable benefits system, in all its flexible glory, would thus preserve the labor stratification of the gig economy, simply in a marginally more palatable form.
‘Coke Claims to Give Back as Much Water as it Uses. An Investigation Shows It Isn’t Even Close.‘ (Christine MacDonald for The Verge)
Coke talks a big PR talk about being a responsible consumer of water, and replenishing the supplies it uses. A dig into the truth of the matter tells a different story, one of water waste, greenwashing, and refusal to acknowledge the truth.
There was reluctance among executives in the room to face the truly enormous consumption of water in one area: corporate supply chains, which Ndebele recalled as “the elephant in the room.” From the very first conversation, Hoekstra recalled, Coca-Cola executives recognized the water needs of its agricultural ingredients; agriculture, Hoekstra said, can contribute to more than 90 percent of water consumption in some places. (The Verge asked Coca-Cola why the company excluded its supply chain from its original plan to replenish all the water it takes to make its products, but the company did not respond.)
‘The Hole in My Soul‘ (Sara Eckel for Longreads)
Why do some people feel empty without faith to bolster them up? How do people find faith that sustains them and mitigates their feelings of isolation and distance?
Even when he wasn’t giving me a pep talk, I loved that God was just always there, filling that hollow feeling I got sometimes on a Sunday afternoon, or when doing something really boring with my family — furniture shopping or visiting the relatives who always had football on. God was always with me — filling the hole in my soul, understanding me completely, knowing I mattered.
‘The Hidden Queer History Behind “A League of Their Own”‘ (Britni de la Cretaz for Narratively)
Some of the pioneers of women’s baseball were gay, but their stories have been effectively erased. Reclaiming this queer history is a painstaking, and sometimes painful, process.
Though it was never explicitly stated, historians and players alike say the rules were in place, in part, to prevent the women from being perceived as lesbians. Many of the women actually were gay, including D’Angelo, which is another part of the story the movie didn’t tell. By not including a gay character’s story in “A League of Their Own,” the film does to the history of the league what the owners tried to do its existence — erase lesbians from the narrative.
And hey: Much like public radio, we’re listener supported. If you enjoy our work, please consider supporting us with a one time or recurring donation.
Photo: Stuart Grout/Creative Commons