Category: Diversity

The importance of supporting diversity

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Climate Change Diversity Government Savannah

Savannah’s Springfield Canal stormwater project likely casualty of Trump cuts

White House 404 page for what used to be the web site for the Justice40 Initiative
No one home

Trump’s first action on becoming President was a wholesale revocation of several Biden Executive Office actions, leading to closure of many vital programs. One of these programs is called the Justice40 initiative.

For the first time in our nation’s history, the Federal government has made it a goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

By killing the Executive Order that created this initiative, Trump has likely also killed all FEMA funding for a Savannah project to manage stormwater flooding in the Springfield Canal area.

The Justice40 Initiative was a way of allocating resources to historically underserved communities, such as the Carver Village and Cloverdale neighborhoods near the Canal. It wasn’t race-based and in fact made a point of excluding race in its criteria. However, it is a fact that many of the underserved communities in this country are made up of people of color. And because the majority of communities of people of color will benefit, the funding is targeted. The existence of “DEI” is the excuse, but really it is withholding funds that don’t benefit majority white people.

Currently, freezing of these funds is being held up by a court order, though the enforcement of the order is hit and miss. However, because of the association of the funds with environmental justice (“DEI”), and climate change, there’s a strong likelihood the funding will be lost.

It’s difficult to discern from the state of chaos currently in effect in the government, but the funding for the Basin flood control may already have been rescinded.

The state of Georgia, being Republican-led, didn’t join with the other states who have sued the Trump administration to ensure that funding that is promised is delivered. And the states lawsuit court order only extends to the Democrat-led states who filed the complaint However, thankfully,  nonprofits also sued to stop the funding freeze, and this may protect the funding for the project. For now.

If the funding is terminated, Savannah will likely have to sue directly to attempt to enforce the previously approved support, or perhaps get funding from the state of Georgia, instead.

Or wait another four years for a different President.

 

 

 

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Diversity Photography

Silent Sunday June 2 2024

A man and a woman, both wearing bright blue shirts, looking at the camera and holding up a sign. The sign is painted in brilliant rainbow colors with the words, "gay rights are civil rights."
Pride Parade 2005
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Connecting Diversity Weblogging

Marriage equality and one bright moment in 2004

The Supreme Court decided in June, 2015 that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples. The decision was Obergefell v Hodges, and the was one of the most definitive for civil rights in the last century.

A few short years later, this decision, like that for Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed rights to healthcare, is under threat with a Supreme Court more interested in forcing a narrow, restrictive ideology than the law. In response Congress just passed the Respect for Marriage Act. Though the protections aren’t as comprehensive as the Obergefell decision, at a minimum this Act ensures that same-sex marriages would be recognized by both federal and state government, though it could not force states to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples.

Perhaps at a minimum, it will provide a warning to the Supreme Court that no, they won’t be allowed to turn back the clock, and they’ll leave Obergefell alone.

Serendipitously, this week while I was recovering old weblog posts from the Wayback Machine, I recovered one titled “No other word works but great.” I wrote it February 18, 2004 and it was about that brief and shining time when Gavin Newsome and the city of San Francisco, in an act of civil defiance, issued marriage certificates for same-sex couples.

As I wrote at the time:

This news coming out of San Francisco, is the first news I’ve heard in a month, over a month, of the triumph of the human spirit, the fire of those who will not accept the dictates of a hypocritical society, and the goodness of people reaching out to other people.

Enjoy this flashback, and think on how far we’ve come, and what we can’t lose.

Update:

The follow up longer essay I promised, also recovered from the Wayback Machine: For those who inhabit the empty spaces of the coloring book.

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Diversity

JK Rowling is a bigot

Politico has a new story about JK Rowling and her battles with the trans community.

I liked the Harry Potter books and the Fantastic Beasts movies, but I’m not a fan of Rowling. Or that sad excuse for a human being the NY Times let write an awful piece this week.

These people are using the fight for women’s rights as a transphobic attack. They’re no longer even hiding it.

I had thought we, who have long fought for equality, would be better than this. Evidently, not.

Here are two terms for you: AFAB and AMAB.

They stand for assigned female at birth and assigned male at birth. They’re inclusive terms that can be used in debates such as those around the right to control our access to abortion, to pregnancy prevention aids, and to healthcare used to treat gender dysphoria.

If we want to include cis women, transmasculine, and non-binary in a discussion—and we do when it comes to the harm tossing Roe aside does—then AFAB will do until something better comes along.

I am a woman. I am a cis woman. I use she/her as my pronouns. Even fitting society’s stereotypical model of a ‘woman’, it is still a fight being the person who I am. I can’t even imagine how much harder it is being someone who does not identify themselves the same way, but is facing the same, or worse, healthcare restrictions. The least I can do is make sure when talking about abortion rights, we’re all included.

We’re all being hurt by the same people: those who value power over humanity. I’d be a pretty sad excuse for a human being if I allowed this.

So, sorry that Rowling gets her feels hurt. She’s a bully, and a bigot.

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Diversity Technology

Robert Scoble: Tech’s Weinstein moment

Earlier today I was stunned to read about the accusations of sexual harassment against Robert Scoble.  We aren’t friends, but we have friends in common and we have interacted remotely in the past.

I had no idea, no clue, that Scoble had harassed women. There are some people you might suspect of doing so, and some people you don’t, and before today I would have listed Scoble in the latter category. It just goes to show that on the internet, people don’t always know you’re a dog.

Continue reading “Robert Scoble: Tech’s Weinstein moment”