Helen H. Moore's Blog, page 87

Women in tech suffer because of American myth of meritocracy

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This article was originally published on The Conversation.

The American dream is built on the notion that the U.S. is a meritocracy. Americans believe success in life and business can be earned by anyone willing to put in the hard work necessary to achieve it, or so they say.

Thus, Americans commonly believe that those who are successful deserve to be so and those who aren’t are equally deserving of their fate — despite growing evidence that widening inequalities in income, wealth, labor and gender play a major role in who makes it and who doesn’t.

And this very fact — that Americans believe their society is a meritocracy — is the biggest threat to equality, particularly when it comes to gender, as research by myself and others shows.

The meaning of "meritocracy"

Gender inequality is pervasive in American society.

Women in the U.S. continue to experience gender bias, sexual harassment and little progress in relation to equitable wages. Top positions in government and the business sector remain stubbornly male.

At the same time, 75 percent of Americans say they believe in meritocracy. This belief persists despite evidence that we tend to use it to explain actions that preserve the status quo of gender discrimination rather than reverse it.

This myth is so powerful, it influences our behaviors.

"Work harder"

Entrepreneurship is an area where the myths and realities of the American meritocracy come to a head.

In the U.S., women own 39 percent of all privately owned businesses but receive only around 4 percent of venture capital funding. Put another way, male-led ventures receive 96 percent of all funding.

Yet the meritocracy myth, which my research shows has a stronghold in the world of entrepreneurship, means that women are constantly told that all they have to do to get more of that $22 billion or so in venture capital funding is make better pitches or be more assertive.

The assumption is that women aren’t trying hard enough or doing the right things to get ahead, not that the way venture capitalists offer funding is itself unfair.

"Pipeline" problem

Another explanation for the lack of funding for women is pinned on the “pipeline” problem. That is, women just aren’t interested in the fields that form the backbone of the industry — science, technology, engineering and math.

Thus, if more women entered STEM fields, there would be more women entrepreneurs, and more money would flow to them. Pipeline explanations assume that there are no obstacles preventing women from becoming entrepreneurs in technology.

Yet, we know the opposite is true. According to technology historian Marie Hicks and her book “Programmed Inequality,” women in tech were pushed out by men.

Research I’ve conducted with management professor Susan Clark Muntean on entrepreneur support organizations, such as accelerators, shows that they often engage in outreach and recruitment tactics that benefit men rather than women. This is further supported by survey data from Techstars, one of the best-known and respected tech accelerators in the world. About 4 in 5 companies that have gone through their programs are white and almost 9 in 10 are male.

"Gender-neutral" myth

And yet these tech accelerators are guided by an implicit understanding that gender-neutral outreach and recruitment practices rather than targeted ones will bring in the “best” people. This notion is often expressed as “Our doors are open to everyone” to indicate that they do not discriminate.

Ironically, many organizations in the tech sector adopt this idea because they believe it is gender-neutral and, thus, unbiased.

Yet claiming to be gender-neutral prevents organizations from recognizing that their practices are actually biased. Most outreach and recruitment takes place through word-of-mouth, alumni referrals and personal networks of accelerator leadership, which are predominantly composed of males.

These approaches often bring in more of the same: white male entrepreneurs rather than diverse professionals. As a result, women do not have equal access to resources in entrepreneurial ecosystems.

And all this is despite the fact that data on returns show venture-backed tech startups with women at the helm outperform those led by men.

Being "gender-aware"

The first step to solving this problem is for tech startups, investors and accelerators to realize that what they call meritocracy is in fact itself gender-biased and results in mostly white men gaining access to resources and funding. By continuing to believe in meritocracy and maintaining practices associated with it, gender equality will remain a distant goal.

The next step is to move away from gender-neutral approaches and instead adopt “gender-aware,” proactive measures to change unfair practices. This includes setting concrete goals to achieve gender balance, examining the gender composition of boards, committees and other influential groups in the organization, and assessing the tools and channels used for outreach, recruitment and support of entrepreneurs.

The return on investment in gender equality is clear: Supporting and investing in businesses started by half the world’s population will create thriving societies and sustainable economies. And it starts with male allies who want to be part of the solution and recognize that meritocracy, as society currently defines it, isn’t the way to go.

Banu Ozkazanc-Pan, Visiting Associate Professor of Engineering, Brown University

Robert Mueller already has the answer to his 49 questions

AP/Carolyn Kaster/Getty/Alex Wong

Special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to ask a whole lot of questions of Donald Trump that begin with the word, “what.” What did Trump know about Michael Flynn’s phone calls to Ambassador Sergey Kislyak? What was the purpose of Trump’s private dinner with James Comey in January of 2016? What was the purpose of Trump’s calls to Comey last year? What efforts did Trump make to get Sessions not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation? What was the purpose of Trump’s criticism of Sessions?

What Mueller really wants to know is “why?” Why did Flynn call Kislyak, why did Trump have Comey to dinner, why did Trump try to change Sessions’ mind about recusal?

But asking Trump why he did anything, why he thinks one thing or another, why he said something, why he tweeted anything at all is like asking a six year old boy why he played in the mud puddle.

Because he felt like it.

Trump has structured his life around being able to do any goddamned thing he wanted to do and not being answerable to anyone but himself. All his life, he’s just gotten up in the morning and done stuff all day and then sat back and waited for someone else to clean up after him.

Buy the Plaza Hotel for a hugely inflated price when exactly no one else in New York City real estate was interested in the property? Sure! Let’s do it! Six years later, Trump sat down with about 50 bankers and lawyers in a conference room at the offices of the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. Under their guidance, he proceeded to sign over nearly everything he owned to the banks, which held over $3 billion in mortgages on Trump’s properties, $900 million of which Trump had personally guaranteed. The Plaza was sold by the banks a few years later at a loss to a Saudi prince and a Singapore hotel company for $325 million. Not a penny went to Trump, but he was spared from personal bankruptcy. Who saved Trump from himself? Fifty lawyers and bankers, all of whom wielded brooms sweeping up after the brilliant deal maker.

Trump built the Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City for $1.2 billion in 1990. It was sold last year for $50 million, exactly four cents on the dollar, when Carl Icahn let it go to Hard Rock International. What happened in the meantime? Trump bailed out of Atlantic City in 2009. His company, Trump International Resorts was in bankruptcy. Icahn bought the company out of bankruptcy and according to the L.A. Times, lost $350 million on the deal.

Who saved Trump from himself that time? Again, it was banks and lawyers and Trump’s pal Carl Icahn. You remember Carl, don’t you? He’s the billionaire Trump appointed to be his “special advisor on regulation” who resigned from the post just before an article was to be published describing how his company, CVR Energy, would profit handsomely from changes in regulatory rules Icahn had pushed for and were scheduled to change.

Most recently, Trump’s buddy Carl somehow knew to sell about $30 million in steel stocks he owned just before Trump announced tariffs that sent the price of domestic steel companies plummeting on trader’s fears of a trade war. It’s the Trump way. Clean up after Donald Trump, and you get to clean up financially later.

When Trump took office, he continued his pattern of waking up in the morning and doing anything he pleased, usually taking to Twitter in an ongoing tsunami of fits and tantrums. By far the most costly of his Twitter tantrums were his Tweets in March of last year alleging that somehow Obama “had my wires tapped.” He did this at the crack of dawn from his mock-palace, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, even calling for the congress to “investigate” this horrible Obama scandal.

Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, obliged by calling a hearing on the Trump allegations and inviting FBI Director James Comey. He testified that the FBI had been unable to find evidence that Obama had tapped Trump’s “wires.”. He added, helpfully, that the FBI had had the Trump campaign under counterintelligence and criminal investigation for more than nine months.

This led Trump to quickly and impetuously fire James Comey as FBI Director, which occasioned the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the so-called Russia investigation that has bedeviled Trump ever since.

Why did Trump thumb-thwack his tweet that Obama had tapped his wires? Because he felt like it. What did he do when the nightmare of the Mueller investigation resulted? He looked around for someone to save him. I’m the president, Trump figured. I can do what I want! My Attorney General will clean up after me!

But Attorney General Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Trump lobbied Sessions not to recuse himself and when that failed, according to the New York Times, “the president erupted in anger in front of numerous White House officials, saying he needed his attorney general to protect him. Mr. Trump said he had expected his top law enforcement official to safeguard him the way he believed Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general, had done for his brother John F. Kennedy and Eric H. Holder Jr. had for Barack Obama. Mr. Trump then asked, ‘Where’s my Roy Cohn?’”

Roy Cohn served as Trump’s fixer/lawyer and cleaned up after Trump during the 70’s and 80’s, including representing Trump and his father when they were charged by the federal government in a civil rights case with refusing to rent their properties to African Americans. Cohn died in 1986 of AIDS.

Trump apparently thought he could run the government like he ran the Trump Organization. He could wake up in the morning and do stupid shit all day, and then a bunch of lawyers and bankers would come along as they always did and clean up after him.

But now the “lawyers” were in the Department of Justice, and the “bankers” were in the Department of the Treasury, and he discovered to his horror that it wasn’t their job to clean up after the President of the United States. But he actually had a new Roy Cohn to protect him, in the person of Michael Cohen, who finds himself under investigation by the same Department of Justice Trump sought to use to defend himself. With Cohen sidelined, he reached for a new broom to clean up his mess, Rudy Giuliani, because it is likely that every single major white collar law firm in New York and Washington D.C. has turned him down.

It doesn’t matter of Robert Mueller ever sits down with Donald Trump with that big list of questions, because he’s already got the answer. Trump does stuff because he feels like it. Why did he accept Russian help to get himself elected? Because he felt like it. Why did he hire the likes of Paul Manafort to be his campaign chairman? Because he felt like it. Why did he hire Michael Flynn to be his National Security Adviser when everyone was telling him not to? Because he felt like it. Why has he told a couple thousand lies since he took office? Because he felt like it, and continues to feel like it every day.

Why did Trump run for president in the first place? Because he felt like it. But he’s finding that the White House lacks the one thing he’s needed his entire life. A broom to clean up after him.

Meet “Kitty and Ellen,” Holocaust survivors and lifelong friends

Leah Galant

The history that connects life-long friends, Kitty and Ellen, two nonagenarian survivors of the Holocaust, is unspeakably sad, but the present-day life that sparkles between them makes Leah Galant’s film “Kitty and Ellen” a joyful celebration.

You can watch the charming, full documentary "Kitty and Ellen" on Salon Premium, our new ad-free, content-rich app. Here's how. 

Salon spoke to Galant about how she came upon her inspiring subjects and the importance of filming Holocaust-themed documentaries.

How did you get to know Kitty and Ellen?

A friend of my mother told her that she attends annual trips for healing around the world run by two incredible Holocaust survivors named Kitty and Ellen. When my mom shared this information with me, I immediately reached out to them.

The Holocaust has been a subject of so many documentaries. Can you talk a bit about how you think "Kitty and Ellen" fits with this films?

I’m so happy that the Holocaust is as widely covered as it is because there are so many facets to understanding this period of time and especially the emotional impact. As the election of Trump became a clear arc in my film, it contextualized the friendship of these two women with a foreboding quality. Even though the Holocaust is a major part of the film, at the end of the day, I feel that the story boils down to the friendship of two incredible women.

At some point in the not too-far future there will be no more Holocaust survivors left alive; did that notion influence the film at all?

Unfortunately, a recent study was released that said two thirds of Millennials do not know what Auschwitz was. This is alarming but not surprising to me.

Since I am Jewish, the experiences of my ancestors feel close to home. What motivated me to make this film was the fact that my grandparents died before I could really talk to them about their experiences. Kitty and Ellen are both alive, with so much history, that telling their stories amidst this uncertain political climate became imperative.

Can you describe the animation production process?

I had a whole team for the animation.  First, I would storyboard based on what Kitty and Ellen had said.  Next, my own mother, Maria Pia Marrella, who is a talented artist and illustrator, drew up all of the visual elements. Then I prepared the elements in photoshop so that my animator, Mandy Wong, would use puppet rigging and After Effects to bring my mother’s drawings to life. I was inspired by the film “Bacon & God’s Wrath” for this animation technique.

Can you give us an update on Kitty and Ellen since the film was completed?

Kitty and Ellen are both alive and their friendship is as strong as ever. It is unclear if Ellen will be able to make the next trip but since filming Kitty has already gone on two more!

What are you working on now?

I just finished a film called “Death Metal Grandma” about another incredible Holocaust survivor named Inge Ginsberg who at the age of 97 is attempting to break out as a death metal singer. The film had its world premiere at SXSW and will play at Hot Docs. Just as I did with "Kitty and Ellen," I created this film with the support of my incredible mentor Sean Weiner at the Jacob Burns Film Center’s Creative Culture program.

Here is the trailer and for more information on screenings for both these films, and for future projects you can visit leahgalant.com.

Spend some time with two adorable, elderly ladies, "Kitty and Ellen,” on Salon Premium, our new ad-free, content-rich app.

Majority of Republicans believe Trump is a truth-teller: report

Getty/Mandel Ngan

As has been well-documented, President Donald Trump has a pathological tendency to distort the truth. However, according to a new NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll, his tendency to lie isn't tarnishing his public image — at least among Republicans polled.

According to the NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll, 76 percent of Republicans believe Trump tells the truth “most of the time.” Twenty-two percent of Republicans surveyed cited they believe he tells the truth “only some of the time or less.” Fifty-six percent of them still approve of his work as president.

On the left end of the spectrum, 94 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaners—and 76 percent of independents polled—cited they believe Trump tells the truth “only some of the time or even less frequently.”

The survey was conducted between April 20 and 27, 2018, and had a sample size of 10,163 adults.

Overall, 61 percent of Americans polled believe Trump regularly has difficulties telling the truth, yet 45 percent still approve of his job as president.

In a separate survey, the USA TODAY Trump Voter Panel—which is “a free-floating focus group” of 25 people across the country — found that a majority of them believe Trump had an affair with Stephanie Clifford (whose stage name is Stormy Daniels), despite the White House’s denials, but they do not care. Six of the seven women on the panel thought “Trump stepped out on his wife,” but excused it as typical behavior of someone with Trump’s wealth and power.

“That’s what powerful men do,” Deidra Brady told USA TODAY.

“This is typical behavior of a lot of men in powerful positions,” Margie Chandler said.

“I hate to say this, but it’s a male thing,” Patricia Shomion added “I think he’s mostly lying to himself, that he can’t bring himself out to say, ‘Well, I did, but it’s gone.’”

“We know he's no angel, and he didn't become a multi-billionaire because he's a nice guy,” John Moon, one of the men in the focus group, said. “I got over the shock of presidential affairs after Kennedy and Clinton.”

Yet Trump has become a beacon of what some call a post-truth world, a situation that is seemingly dangerous for the state of America’s democracy—as the former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discussed in an April interview with NPR’s Terry Gross.

“What are your concerns when the President tweets or says something that isn’t just not true, but a lot of people hear or read him won’t know that?” Gross asked Albright.

“I have to say on the whole issue of DACA he has so many things wrong that I wonder whether he’s deliberately lying or whether he really doesn’t understand the issue,” Albright said. “And I know I'm very worried about the fact that there are deliberate ways of misstating the issue, and then the people think, ‘If the president said it, it must be right,’ when it's just a deliberate untruth.”

As Salon writer Lucian K. Truscott IV has written, Trump’s tendency to lie predates his presidency.

“Trump has been lying for his entire life,” Truscott wrote. “He doubtlessly learned to lie early in life from his parents and then employed lying as a real estate developer in New York City. Over the years, Trump lied in every conceivable way you can think of. He lied about the number of floors in Trump Tower. He lied that he was going to build projects he never intended to build. He lied about the number of condos he sold in his buildings. He lied about the prices he got for those condos.”

Perhaps the most disconcerting fact of the poll is that a majority of Republicans polled don’t believe Trump is lying at all though. As the American partisan divide widens, it is these lies that have been — and will be — the uniting factor among Republicans.

Mike Pence praises Joe Arpaio, a convicted criminal pardoned by Trump, for championing “rule of law”

Getty/Photo Montage by Salon

Vice President Mike Pence demonstrated one of the reasons why he is no better than President Donald Trump when he praised the disgraced former Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio as "a tireless champion of strong borders and the rule of law" during an appearance on Tuesday.

"I'm honored to have you here."

Vice President Mike Pence recognizes ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio during a tax policy event in Arizona, calling Arpaio a "tireless champion of strong borders and the rule of law." pic.twitter.com/tzmS3sKPnN

— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 1, 2018

Pence's glowing words for Arpaio were offered during an event promoting Trump's tax cuts in Tempe, Arizona, according to The Washington Post. The vice president, who apparently only learned Arpaio would be present at the event a short time before it kicked off, used the opportunity to pay tribute to the former sheriff, who is very popular figure among the far right.

"I just found out when I was walking through the door that we were also going to be joined by another favorite, a great friend of this president, a tireless champion of strong borders and the rule of law, who spent a lifetime in law enforcement," Pence told the cheering crowd.

The vice president added, "I’m honored to have you here."

The obvious irony here is that Arpaio was pardoned by Trump in August because of his actual lack of respect for the law. A month earlier, Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt, because he refused to follow a court order curtailing his use of racial profiling. In her order, Judge Susan Bolton declared that "not only did (Arpaio) abdicate responsibility, he announced to the world and to his subordinates that he was going to continue business as usual no matter who said otherwise."

In thanking Trump for the pardon, Arpaio described the conviction using a label that Trump himself has employed many times when he has been accused of wrongdoing — "witch hunt."

Thank you @realdonaldtrump for seeing my conviction for what it is: a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department!

— Sheriff Joe Arpaio (@RealSheriffJoe) August 26, 2017

When pardoning Arpaio, Trump made it clear that he was doing so because he shared the man's racialized views on fighting undocumented immigration.

"Throughout his time as sheriff, Arpaio continued his life's work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now 85 years old, and after more than 50 years of admirable service to our nation, he is (a) worthy candidate for a presidential pardon," Trump explained in a statement at the time.

Although the Trump-Pence administration clearly has a very positive opinion of Arpaio, some conservatives disagree with the notion that the former sheriff should be regarded as a hero.

"Considering the type of person Arpaio has shown himself to be, everything about Pence’s introduction regarding Arpaio was appalling," Sarah Quinlan, a conservative writer at RedState, declared in response to Pence's comments. "Arpaio’s injustices and abuses of his power are well-documented, to the point that he was convicted of criminal contempt of court in 2017 (for which he was then pardoned by President Trump)."

As examples of Arpaio's abuses, Quinlan cited how Arpaio forced some inmates to live ina so-called "Tent City," often did not persue sex crimes that were reported his office, "improperly marked approximately 80 percent of cases as solved without making any arrests or proper investigations," cost taxpayers millions of dollars in wrongful death lawsuits and used racial profiling on a regular basis, in particular targeting people of Hispanic descent who he claimed (sometimes incorrectly) were undocumented immigrants.

In addition to paying Arpaio a compliment that directly contradicts what has been confirmed about the man's character and legacy, Pence's remark is also troubling because it reveals another important fact: When it comes to adhering to terrifying right-wing political views, the vice president is no better than the commander-in-chief.

Pence is perhaps best known for his staunch opposition to LGBTQ rights, which he has made into one of the defining issues of his political career. While he was in Congress, Pence opposed protections for the LGBTQ community from discrimination in the workplace and the repeal of the policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which banned gays from serving in the military. Pence also supported public funding of conversion therapy and fought to keep federal funding for HIV/AIDS treatments from being distributed to "organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the H.I.V. virus."

As governor of Indiana, Pence garnered national attention after signing a bill that made it legal for businesses to refuse to serve members of the LGBTQ community. Although Pence eventually revised the law, the popularity that the measure garnered him among the religious right helped him get tapped as Trump's running mate during the 2016 presidential election.

State lawmakers who worked with Pence while he was governor of Indiana also recalled that he was an ineffective governor.

"I think that, in my lifetime, he's probably the worst governor we ever had," Democratic Indiana State Senator Karen Tallian told Salon last year. "I think Mike Pence made a mess of everything. He would throw out these sort of bombshell ideas and then leave them for his staff people to implement. And his staff people normally made a mess."

She added, "He did not have, in my opinion, really good staff. Now later, toward the end of his term, he brought on a few good people, but during the beginning of his term he was left with Mitch Daniels' [a previous Republican governor of Indiana] second string."

Another Indiana Democrat, House Minority Leader Scott Pelath, made a similar observation to Salon.

"While Mike Pence is a danger to progressive and even moderate visions for the nation, the numbing familiarity of his boilerplate would inspire more groans than screams. Every domestic speech will contain the words 'family, faith, and freedom' surrounded by some off-the-shelf Republican notions. Sanguine aides will carefully edit his remarks and tweets until they are sufficiently empty," Pelath said.

He added, "Mike Pence is a generically hard-right leader with theocratic lapel pin. We all knew Mike Pence before he was reincarnated from several generations of past Republicans."

Boy Scouts dropping “Boys” name from older youth program

AP/Eric Gay)

The Boy Scouts of America announced Tuesday that it is dropping the "Boys" from its signature program. The older youth program, for kids between 10 and 17 years old, will be called "Scouts BSA" beginning Feb. 2019.

"As we enter a new era for our organization, it is important that all youth can see themselves in Scouting in every way possible," Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh said. The announcement comes with a new marketing campaign for the group, "Scout Me In" to promote this inclusiveness.

"The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) made history today by unveiling the new 'Scout Me In' campaign that features girls, as well as boys, in its iconic Cub Scout program for the first time," the statement says. "Starting this summer, all kids are invited to say, 'Scout Me In,' as they join the fun, adventure and character-building opportunities found in Cub Scouts."

The organization as a whole will keep "Boy Scouts of America" as its name and the name for Club Scouts, the program for kids between seven to 10 years old, will retain its name, too.

The name change indicates that the organization is continuing to embrace change and rectify its outdated (perhaps oppressive?) rules. In 2015, BSA terminated its ban on gay leaders. And in 2017, the group said it would accept transgender youth and then, later, girls into its programs.

"Since announcing the BSA’s historic decision to welcome girls into Scouting, more than 3,000 girls across the nation have already enrolled in the BSA’s Early Adopter Program and are participating in Cub Scouts ahead of the full launch later this year," the statement added.

"Cub Scouts is a lot of fun, and now it’s available to all kids," said Stephen Medlicott, National Marketing Group Director of Boy Scouts of America. "That’s why we love 'Scout Me In' – because it speaks to girls and boys and tells them, 'This is for you. We want you to join!'"

Still, the majority of Club packs and Scout troops will be single gender, according to USA Today.

BSA has seen their enrollment decline over the years. In 2012, the organization claimed it had 2.8 million youth members; now, it says it has dropped to 2.3 million. As , "The decision to open the scouting program to girls last October was both a reflection of growing progressive attitudes as well as a business decision."

Girl Scouts, by comparison, claims 1.8 million members. The organization seemed to be responding to the BSA announcement on social media. "There's no contest. Girl Scouts is the BEST organization to offer girls unparalleled opportunities to learn 21st-century skills and empower themselves with the experiences they need to succeed in life," the group tweeted.

There's no contest. Girl Scouts is the BEST organization to offer girls unparalleled opportunities to learn 21st-century skills and empower themselves with the experiences they need to succeed in life. https://t.co/D8U2mpWVT7 pic.twitter.com/vzX2gmX6nH

— Girl Scouts (@girlscouts) May 2, 2018

Girl-led. Girl-tested. Girl-approved since 1912. https://t.co/iXkXC8fm2O pic.twitter.com/ijV3STKj81

— Girl Scouts (@girlscouts) May 2, 2018

Sylvia Acevedo, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, said in a blog post on the site, "We are, and will remain, the first choice for girls and parents who want to provide their girls with opportunities to build new skills; explore STEM and the outdoors; participate in community projects; and grow into happy, successful, and civically engaged adults."

The groups, founded two years apart, have coexisted amicably until BSA began to think about opening up their programs to girls. In August, Buzzfeed published a letter from Girl Scouts of the USA's national president Kathy Hopinkah Hannan sent to BSA's national president, Randall Stephenson, and the BSA board.

"For more than 100 years, our organizations have worked in a respectful and complimentary manner, and we have been mutually supportive of one another's mission to serve America's youth," the letter said. It is therefore unsettling that BSA would seek to upend a paradigm that has served both boys and girls so well through the years by moving forward with a plan that would result in fundamentally undercutting Girl Scouts of the USA."

Kanye West suggests slavery was “a choice,” tweets false Harriet Tubman quote

AP/Evan Agostini

Kanye West went to TMZ's headquarters Tuesday to continue the self-described "free thinking" expression that has consumed his Twitter feed – and the conversation across social media. He told the newsroom, "When you hear about slavery for 400 years . . . For 400 years? That sounds like a choice."

West continued, "You were there for 400 years, and it's all of y'all. It's like we're mentally imprisoned."

Since the Chicago recording artist returned to Twitter mid-April, his tweets have largely ranged from trite to obnoxious and offensive. His endorsements of far-right pundit Candace Owens and President Donald Trump and the "Make America Great Again" movement seemed shallow, but had real-world implications. (In a recent article for Salon, D. Watkins asked, "Are Kanye's 'crazy' pro-Trump tweets just hype for a new album?") Trump later tweeted, "Kanye West has performed a great service to the black community . . ."

TMZ employee Van Lathan responded to West's deeply uninformed remark in the newsroom. "While you are making music and being an artist and living the life that you've earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives," Lathan said. "We have to deal with the marginalization that's come from the 400 years of slavery that you said for our people was a choice."

He added, "Frankly, I'm disappointed, I'm appalled, and brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something, to me, that's not real."

Rather than take in the lecture, or perhaps decide to read more on the subject, as West's comment indicates he done zero research on the myriad of ways people who were enslaved resisted daily, he doubled down on Twitter.

"To make myself clear, of course I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will," he tweeted. "My point is for us to have stayed in that position, even though the numbers were on our side, means that we were mentally enslaved."

Kanye added, "The reason why I brought up the 400 years point is because we can't be mentally imprisoned for another 400 years. We need free thought now. Even the statement was an example of free thought. It was just an idea."

To back up his claims of so-called mentally enslavement, he attributed a quote to Harriet Tubman: "I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves." The fact-checking site Snopes concluded that there is "no evidence a famous quote often attributed to the African-American abolitionist was actually spoken by her." The tweet has since been deleted.

CNN's Don Lemon responded to the tweets. "He's embarrassing himself actually," he said. "Because he doesn't know history . . . He doesn't read."

Lemon continued, "Just because people feel a certain way about slavery and about the African-American experience in this country, there's a reason why there's a consensus around that – because of facts."

And Lemon was not alone. A chorus of individuals were outraged by West's abhorrent statement, especially after the recent opening of The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery, AL, which was built on land where enslaved people were imprisoned.

Filmmaker Ava Duvernay used photos from the museum to illuminate her disgust for West's (and R. Kelly's) words.

I’ve had it with @KanyeWest + @RKelly using the imagery of lynching as rebuttals re: their dastardly behavior. Evoking racial terrorism and murder for personal gain/blame is stratospheric in is audacity and ignorance. This is what lynching looked like. How dare they? pic.twitter.com/wfobcdjiKL

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) May 2, 2018

Shame on you, @kanyewest + @rkelly. If you want to have a REAL conversation about lynching, get at me. Until then, have some respect and dignity for the dead. The murdered. You’ve gone beyond embarrassing yourselves. You’re both in territory that you don’t REALLY want to be in. pic.twitter.com/LXci0F0umc

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) May 2, 2018

According to @MemPeaceJustice, more than 4,000 black men, women and children were hung/lynched between 1877 and 1950. @kanyewest + @rkelly are using their heinous murders in tweets and press statements. Using our ancestors’ pain as punchlines. pic.twitter.com/DHlwIF5kLc — Ava DuVernay (@ava) May 2, 2018

Historian Blair L. M. Kelley further interrogated West's point with some added details that he either didn't know or neglected to consider.

Haven’t watched the whole Kanye event today, working my way up to it. I will say, that a milder version of the “slavery is a choice” argument is made by uninformed people all the time. I’ve had young men in my courses say “they never would have enslaved me.”

— Blair LM Kelley (@profblmkelley) May 2, 2018

People aren’t aware of the alienation of people ripped from their homes, abused, walked hundreds of miles across Africa, sometimes so far they ceased understanding the language spoken around them...

— Blair LM Kelley (@profblmkelley) May 2, 2018

People don’t know the brutality of the slave castles were people were held on the coasts, branded still holding out hope for escape, or reconnection with loved one.... — Blair LM Kelley (@profblmkelley) May 2, 2018

 

Could they have survived the devastation of the middle passage, packed less humanely than animals below the deck of the ship, chained to people who were sick and dying? — Blair LM Kelley (@profblmkelley) May 2, 2018

 

Could they have survived being sold like a good at market by people in a foreign land speaking a foreign tongue? Could they have survived torturous work, in scraps of clothing eating the food that was unwanted? — Blair LM Kelley (@profblmkelley) May 2, 2018 Not only did my ancestors and Kanye’s ancestors survive, they managed to make a way to make a new culture, remake family and faith. And in the process, make a culture so formidable that it continues to change the world. — Blair LM Kelley (@profblmkelley) May 2, 2018

Slavery wasn’t their choice at any step. We know that freedom was always their choice, resistance was their choice when they couldn’t escape.

— Blair LM Kelley (@profblmkelley) May 2, 2018

Denigrating their lives at this point for attention and spare change is such an embarrassment.

— Blair LM Kelley (@profblmkelley) May 2, 2018

#IfSlaveryWasAChoice later became a trending hashtag on Twitter as users mocked the absurdity of Kanye's statements.

 

White House lawyer Cobb steps down: “Ty was uncomfortable with the Mueller tweets”

YouTube/CBS News

Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer who has been a key player in managing 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue's response to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, is slated to leave his job at the end of May.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made the announcement on Wednesday after the New York Times first broke the news.

“For several weeks, Ty Cobb has been discussing his retirement. And, last week, he let chief of staff [John] Kelly know he would retire at the end of this month,” Sanders said.

Sanders to WH pool: “For several weeks Ty Cobb has been discussing his retirement and last week he let Chief of Staff Kelly know he would retire at the end of this month.”

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) May 2, 2018

According to the New York Times, Emmet Flood — who represented former President Bill Clinton during his impeachment proceedings — has been tapped to fill Cobb's shoes. The report notes, however, that a replacement has not been finalized.

Cobb joined the White House's legal team in July 2017. Flood initially turned down the position that Cobb assumed, according to Reuters.

Cobb told the New York Times that he notified Trump about his plans to retire weeks ago, and that he plans on assisting Flood’s transition.

“It has been an honor to serve the country in this capacity at the White House,” he told the Times. “I wish everybody well moving forward.”

However, there may be more behind Cobb’s pending departure. The lawyer reportedly clashed with Trump over his erratic outbursts aimed at Mueller, according to CNN.

"Ty was uncomfortable with the Mueller tweets," a source told the network.

As the Times noted, it’s unclear what motivates Flood to work with Trump’s legal team, one that has been inflicted with turnover. In mid-April, Trump recruited former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and two additional former federal prosecutors. Those onboardings followed the resignation of John Dowd in March, who reportedly disagreed with Trump on whether or not the president should have a voluntary interview with Mueller — and released a questionable statement calling for Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to end the investigation.

“I’m doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country, and because I have high regard for the president and for Bob Mueller,” Giuliani said in an interview with the Washington Post following the news.

Recently, Cobb told ABC News that an interview with Mueller was still under consideration.

"It's certainly not off the table, and people are working hard to make decisions and work towards an interview," Cobb said on ABC's "Powerhouse Politics" podcast. "And assuming that can be concluded favorably, there'll be an interview. Assuming it can't be . . . assuming an agreement can't be reached, you know then it'll go a different route."

According to Bloomberg, who spoke to two sources familiar with the matter, one reason why there has been a lot of upheaval on Trump’s legal team is because some individuals have lacked the proper security clearances needed to engage in discussions about sensitive material. Jay Sekulow is reportedly still awaiting his clearance.

Betsy DeVos complains about striking teachers during meeting with 2018 Teachers of the Year

Getty/Joe Raedle

President Donald Trump's education secretary has just made it clear to America's underpaid, striking schoolteachers that she is not on their side.

In front of more than 50 teachers named 2018 Teacher of the Year in their respective states on Monday, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos decided to take on two contentious issues in education: teachers' strikes and charter schools.

 

Although DeVos' school choice agenda was a major topic of discussion — DeVos has long been an advocate of expanding access to charter schools and private schools through voucher programs, which public school officials worry will hurt their districts — the education secretary also expressed unflattering opinions about the teachers in various states who have gone on strike.

DeVos conveyed this view in response to a question about striking teachers by Josh Meibos, Arizona's teacher of the year. After telling Meibos that she could not "comment specifically to the Arizona situation," DeVos added that she wanted to see a situation in which "adults would take their disagreements and solve them not at the expense of kids and their opportunity to go to school and learn," according to audio published by The Huffington Post.

She added, "I’m very hopeful there will be a prompt resolution there. I hope that we can collectively stay focused on doing what’s right for individual students and supporting parents in that decision-making process as well. And there are many parents that want to have a say in how and where their kids pursue their education, too."

Lest there be any doubt as to DeVos' opinion that teachers who were striking were doing so at the expense of the children, she concluded that "I just hope we’re going to be able to take a step back and look at what’s ultimately right for the kids in the long term."

Given that DeVos has a sour relationship with teachers unions and her family has long opposed the efforts of organized labor, it is perhaps unsurprising to hear her express this opinion. Nevertheless, Montana's teacher of the year Melissa Romano was clear about her dismay.

"She basically said that teachers should be teaching and we should be able to solve our problems not at the expense of children. For her to say at the ‘expense of children’ was a very profound moment and one I’ll remember forever, because that is so far from what is happening," Romano told the Post.

The Arizona teachers strike itself may actually be nearing a resolution. Teachers there demanded increases in pay and student services at a time when the Republican governor Doug Ducey and the Republican-controlled legislature seemed unsympathetic to their concerns, according to Reuters. Although a deal between Ducey and state lawmakers doesn't give them everything they said they needed, the Arizona teachers nevertheless agreed to end their strike if that deal is passed into law. The deal in question would address teachers' concerns about inadequate pay (Arizona's teachers are among the lowest paid in the country) by increasing their pay by 20 percent by the year 2020, as well as increasing funding to public schools by $371 million over the next five years. The striking teachers also wanted a pay increase for support staff and a pledge that there would be no future tax cuts unless the Arizona education system's per-student funding level is increased to that of the national average.

Although the Arizona teachers strike was the one that prompted DeVos to speak out against teachers strikes in general, the Arizona pedagogues were actually acting as part of a larger wave of teacher protests that have occurred in 2018. The strike that kicked it all off was in West Virginia, where teachers were among the lowest paid in the country. As The New York Times reported after that strike ended in March:

The strike ground the state’s public schools to a halt for nine days, a remarkable show of defiance by the teachers in a state where the power of organized labor, once led by strong mining unions, has greatly diminished. Along the way, the teachers disregarded union leaders’ advice to return to work when the governor first promised them the raise last week, deciding in meetings at malls and union halls and in Facebook groups that they would stay out until their raise was enacted in law.

After the success of the statewide strike in West Virginia, other statewide teachers strikes and protests occurred in Oklahoma and Arizona. On a smaller level, there were various strikes and protests among school staff in Colorado, Kentucky and North Carolina, as well as a strike among school bus drivers in DeKalb County, Georgia.

The movement for teachers to protest has in some ways sprung up organically. For instance, in March a teacher from Jefferson County named Hallie Jones found that a Facebook group she created to express disgust with how teachers are underpaid in her state took off on its own.

"I set up the Facebook group around 9:30 and then I was looking at it and I was really confused because it had only been 20 minutes and there were 300 or 400 members," Jones told Salon in March. "And then it jumped up to 700. And I thought, 'Oh, there's another group!' And maybe I just clicked the wrong one. But now I'm in this bigger group. But then I realized the group that I had started went viral. So I was a little freaked out and things just happened. Now I woke up this morning and there were 7,200 people in the group."

It remains to be seen how each of these different strikes will pan out — some have been resolved, others not — but one point that is clear is that DeVos and other Republican politicians won't be able to keep ducking the issue. America needs good teachers in order to produce educated, hard-working future adults, and those teachers have a right to be well-compensated for their work. If conservative politicians keep saying no to their demands, teachers will continue refusing to work for a society that has decided to not be grateful to them.

DeVos also engaged in what was described by one teacher to the Huffington Post as a “verbal sparring session” with another teacher about her favored school choice policies. Jon Hazell, Oklahoma’s teacher of the year, a Republican who voted for President Trump, told DeVos that her policies favoring alternatives to traditional public schools were taking resources away from public districts, the Post reported:

DeVos told Hazell that students might be choosing these schools to get out of low-performing public schools, he said.

“I said, ‘You’re the one creating the “bad” schools by taking all the kids that can afford to get out and leaving the kids who can’t behind,’ ” Hazell said he told DeVos in response. (Hazell said he was not referring to DeVos specifically as creating the “bad” schools but to school choice policies generally.)

Tax-funded mental health programs not always easy to find

Shutterstock/Salon

This article originally appeared on Kaiser Health News.

“I got beat up really badly out there,” says Hogden, 62. “It’s not a safe place for women.”

She landed in the hospital and then in a boarding home for adults with mental illness. But her big break came when she started volunteering for a mental health program called the Pool of Consumer Champions, run by Alameda County.

Participants, who offer each other support, also advise the county’s behavioral health division on how to better meet consumers’ needs. The county has adopted some of the group’s recommendations, Hogden says.

“People rallied around me when I was unstable and struggling with my mental health,” Hogden recalls.

She didn’t know at the time that the program was paid for by the state’s Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). But after two years as a volunteer, she became a paid staffer and learned that the program wouldn’t exist without that funding.

“I wouldn’t be where I’m at in my wellness and recovery had it not been for the Mental Health Services Act,” Hogden says.

In 2004, Californians approved the act, originally known as Proposition 63, which imposes a 1 percent tax on personal income over $1 million to help counties expand mental health care services.

The tax has raised billions, and Gov. Jerry Brown expects it will bring in roughly $1.8 billion in the coming fiscal year.

“Counties were able to take Mental Health Services Act dollars and either revamp existing programs or completely create new programs that didn’t exist at all,” says James Wagner, deputy director of Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services.

The act has been “wildly successful” at improving the ability of counties to respond to the mental health needs of their residents, he says.

But counties and the state have faced criticism from the Little Hoover Commission, an independent state oversight agency, and others for their implementation of the law. In February, a state audit accused counties of hoarding the mental health money — and the state of failing to ensure the money was being spent.

Still, there’s no question “these programs have helped hundreds of thousands of people,” says Heidi Strunk, president of the California Coalition for Mental Health.

A 2016 compilation of MHSA-funded programs across the state lists page after page of offerings that address homelessness, suicide, caregivers, veterans, children and dozens of other topics and populations, including scholarships for college students pursuing degrees in mental health.

But what’s available — and to whom — depends on your county. For instance, most programs are for low-income residents, but that’s not true across the board. Unfortunately for consumers, researching county programs and determining whether you or your loved ones qualify may not be easy.

“It’s so hard for individuals and families to know what kind of services are available, especially because there’s no statewide standard,” says Jessica Cruz, CEO of NAMI California, an advocacy group for individuals, and their families, who have been affected by serious mental illness.

“Access is an issue,” Cruz says. “There’s not one singular place to look and see what’s available.”

Strunk’s coalition is advocating for a statewide, interactive map that will allow you to click on your county and see its Mental Health Services Act programs. NAMI California, which compiled the 2016 list of programs statewide, is working on an update, but that won’t be out until this summer, Cruz says. (Check NAMI California’s website at namica.org for the update.)

“We’re still trying to resolve issues with how to get information to the public,” Strunk says.

Until there’s a central information source, you will have to use your research skills, plus a little telephone work.

To get started, Strunk suggests Googling your county’s name and the term “MHSA coordinator.” Then call that person. You can also find your county’s MHSA plan online.

Some counties have toll-free hotlines that will help connect you with appropriate programs based on your needs. (In Orange County, for example, it’s 855-625-4657. In Alameda County, dial 800-491-9099. Riverside County residents can call 800-706-7500.)

“Each county webpage looks different,” Strunk warns. “Some counties have super user-friendly landing pages, for some counties it’s buried, and some you can’t find at all.”

MHSA programs primarily serve recipients of Medi-Cal, California’s version of the federal Medicaid program for low-income residents, and uninsured people with serious mental illnesses. But there are also services for a broader range of the population.

About 20 percent of Mental Health Services Act dollars are earmarked for “prevention and early intervention,” and these are more likely to serve a wider cross section of people.

Sharon Ishikawa, Orange County’s Mental Health Services Act coordinator, points to OC ACCEPT as one example. The program provides counseling, vocational support and other services to people — and their families — who are confronting challenges related to sexual orientation and gender identity.

“It is open to anybody with or without insurance,” says Dawn Smith, a program manager who oversees several of the county’s MHSA-funded services. “They might have a really high deductible and don’t have a way to pay that or they might not be able to afford the copay.”

But the majority of participants are uninsured, Smith says.

NAMI, which has chapters across the state, operates some MHSA-funded programs on behalf of counties, and eligibility is not based on insurance status, Cruz says.

“For us, anybody’s eligible. Anybody can come to a family-to-family class. Anybody can come to a support group. You don’t have to be referred by the county,” she explains.

NAMI Orange County runs the MHSA-funded Peer Connector program, says Diana Fernandez, one of the peer mentors.

The program is for people, regardless of income, who have a family member or friend who is struggling with mental illness, a learning disorder or a behavioral problem. Participants can have a one-hour phone call each week for up to 12 weeks with peer mentors who have had personal experience finding help for themselves or loved ones, Fernandez explains.

Fernandez has five children, and two have struggled with dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Last week, Fernandez spoke with a man who told her he felt suicidal. She stayed on the phone and connected him with the county’s crisis assessment team, then waited until she knew he was on his way to the hospital.

That situation was unusual, she says. More typically, Fernandez helps parents of children who are struggling in school, or caregivers who are emotionally and physically spent.

“We assure clients that they are normal and typical for what they’re going through,” she says. “That gives them a feeling of hope they may not have had before.”