Who Cleans the Country?
The Covid-19 pandemic has wrought vast changes in US lifestyles, but one aspect remains unchanged: housework is still a mostly a female domain and minorities and immigrants clean up the country, said Nicole Froio, a Colombian-Brazilian journalist researcher and author of the recent article, “The Pandemic Housework Dilemma Whitewashed.” “Housework is not seen as productive work – it’s seen as maintenance,” said Froio. The people that do the cleaning are devalued.
Latinos and the Shrinking White Majority
The Census Bureau predicts that Anglo whites will become a minority in the US by 2145. But, what if significant numbers of Latinos embrace whiteness, and Anglo whites welcome them into the fold? “We see that happening already with the Ted Cruzes and Marco Rubios of the world,” said Dr Shantee Rosado, a professor of Afro-Latinx Studies at Rutgers University, whose book project is titled “Latinxs and the Emotional Politics of Race and Blackness in the U.S.” At the same time, however, “there is a push to say that race matters, mainly among indigenous and Black Latinos,” said Shantee.
Massive Resistance to Austerity Regime in Colombia
Broad sectors of Colombian society continue a national strike against the US-backed regime’s attempt to impose harsh austerity measures. “What we have seen is a very strong unification between the many sectors – health, labor, women, indigenous, African descendants. All of them are protesting this criminal government,” said Charo Mina-Rojas, of the Black Communities Process organization, speaking from a roadblock outside the largely Black city of Cali. Police and paramilitaries have killed scores of young Black protesters in the coastal cities.
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.