Lots of things happened in 2020–like, a lot a lot of things.
You’d think that staying “informed” would be easier during a world-wide lockdown/stay-inside order. Maybe it’s just us, but the availability of time isn’t the issue. The issue is the news itself-it’s becoming harder, and harder to read!
Nevertheless, she persisted.
Take a look at our top-5 highlight reads from 2020.
With love and power to the people,
Carlie
1. “Alternatives to Calling the Police for Domestic Violence Survivors” by California Health Report
The first time Cat Brooks sought help from the police to deal with her violent husband was also the last.
She was a 19-year-old college student, married to a man 10 years her senior. One night, after he beat her severely, her husband called police to their Las Vegas home.
Brooks was bruised, scratched and bleeding, and assumed officers would take her side. But her unscathed husband insisted Brooks had attacked him, a victim-blaming tactic not uncommon among domestic abusers. The officers, all of whom were white like her husband, whisked Brooks, who is Black, to jail. They released her back to her abuser the following day….
Read more here: California Health Report
2. “College Kids Pressure Corporations Into Climate Action” by Sierra Club
…“Companies are actively looking for the best talent. They will respond if people who want to work there, and employees who already work there, are asking about climate,” Weiss says. “We want to make sustainability something that people expect from companies.”
…Weihl wants to replicate that dynamic shift for climate change. He wants companies to know that if they don’t take action on climate, it will be harder to keep the employees they have, or to hire new ones.
The next step for Climate Voice: help students and employees know who isn’t doing their part. The nonprofit will be calling out specific companies this fall through social media campaigns.
Read more here: The Sierra Club
3. “I Let My Child Create Their Own Gender Identity. The Experience Has Been a Gift for Us Both” by Time Magazine
The only things we really knew about our baby is that they were human, breech and going to be named Zoomer. We weren’t going to assign a gender or disclose their reproductive anatomy to people who didn’t need to know, and we were going to use the gender-neutral personal pronouns they, them and their. We imagined it could be years before our child would tell us, in their own way, if they were a boy, a girl, nonbinary or if another gender identity fit them best. Until then, we were committed to raising our child without the expectations or restrictions of the gender binary.
… The goal of gender-creative parenting is not to eliminate gender—the goal is to eliminate gender-based oppression, disparities and violence. The aim isn’t to create a genderless world; it’s to contribute to a genderfull one. We as a society have an opportunity to shake up childhood gender socialization in a way that creates more healthy and equitable adulthoods for everyone. What have we got to lose? The patriarchy? Good riddance.
Read more here: Time
4. “In 2020, Protests Spread Across The Globe With A Similar Message: Black Lives Matter” by NPR
The Black Lives Matter movement became an international phenomenon in 2020. As protesters took to the streets in cities across the U.S. in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, Minn., so did demonstrators in other countries — all with a similar message: Black lives matter.
“There is a George Floyd in every country,” South Africa-based journalist Lynsey Chutel tells NPR’s David Greene during a recent roundtable interview.
…Demonstrations spread across Colombia in June. They were sparked by the May killing of a young Black man named Anderson Arboleda in Puerto Tejada, who was allegedly beaten to death by police for breaking pandemic rules. Activists called for justice for Arboleda and other young Afro-Latino men killed by police.
Read more here: NPR
5. “The Dr. Fauci of the 1918 Spanish Flu” by Forbes
More than a century ago, epidemiologist Dr. Thomas Tuttle prescribed face masks and social distancing to slow the influenza pandemic. He made a lot of enemies—but it worked.
…Nearly 80 years after Dr. Tuttle’s death, his legacy in fighting pandemics lives on, which might have come as a surprise to him, given the pessimism he expressed in his lifetime. In 2009, a group of researchers wrote a paper comparing existing CDC guidelines on managing pandemics to those developed during the Spanish flu. The paper noted that of all the recommendations, measures Dr. Tuttle promoted—encouraging the closing of public spaces and social distancing—were still relevant in fighting epidemics today. The report even cited findings from the 1918 December meeting Dr. Tuttle attended before insisting on the draconian health measures that got him fired….
Read more here: Forbes