Clear It with Sidney | Hillman Foundation

Clear It With Sidney

The best of the week’s news by Lindsay Beyerstein

Clear It with Sidney

"This American Life" wins December Sidney Award for Exposing Racial Profiling in Housing

Nancy Updike and Nikole Hannah-Jones have won the December Sidney Award for House Rules a radio documentary by This American Life based on the Hannah-Jones’ reporting on the Fair Housing Act for ProPublica. The program explains how, starting in the 1930s, the federal government created profound racial segregation in the Northeast with discriminatory housing policies that made residents of black and integrated neighborhoods ineligible for federally-subsidized mortgages. While the federal government was nuturing the white middle class with subsidized homeownership, non-white families were left out in the cold, a legacy that is still reflected in inequality today. Read my interview with the winners for The Backstory

New York's Homeless Children

From Andrea Elliott’s stunning multi-part profile of Dasani, a preteen girl raising her seven siblings in Fort Greene. Dasani is one of New York’s 22,000 homeless children:

Adults who are homeless often speak of feeling “stuck.” For children, the experience is more like a free-fall. With each passing month, they slip further back in every category known to predict long-term well-being. They are less likely to graduate from the schools that anchor them, and more likely to end up like their parents, their lives circumscribed by teenage pregnancy or shortened by crime and illness.

[Photo credit: spotreporting, Creative Commons.]

#Sidney's Picks: Nelson Mandela, Fast Food Strikes, Donor Advised Funds

  • Thousands of fast food workers walked off the job yesterday to demand a living wage. $45 billion earmarked for charity is sitting in so-called “donor advised funds” run by big banks, and legally, it could sit there forever.

 

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]

Video: The Changing Face of Unionism

 

Marc Bussanich of Labor Press attended Hillman’s “Changing Face of Unionism” panel on Monday. Read his write-up of the panel discussion featuring Rich Yeselson, Bruce Raynor, Andy Stern, and Sarita Gupta with moderator Raj Goyle. 

Tonight: The Changing Face of Unionism

Join us tonight, Dec 2, for a panel discusion on the future of the union movement with guests Bruce Raynor, Andy Stern, Rich Yeselson, and Sarita Gupta, and moderator Raj Goyle.

A wave of protests swept Walmart on Black Friday and fast food strikes are being planned in 100 cities nationwide. The panel will discuss how campaigns by low-wage workers in the fast food and big box retail are reshaping the labor movement.

This free event is co-sponsored by the Sidney Hillman Foundation and the Rubin Foundation. Refreshments will be served. 

What: The Changing Face of Unionism: New ideas for labor in the 21st Century

When: Dec 2, 6-8pm.

Where: 17 W. 17th St, Manhattan, NY. (8th Floor)

What Part Do I Play in All of This: RSVP to alex@hillmanfoundation.org

Pre-Thanksgiving Cornucopia

 

 

[Photo credit: Brent Nashville, Creative Commons.]

Infant Blood Tests Delayed, Treatments Denied

You don’t remember this, but if you were born in the United States in the last half-century, you probably had blood drawn to screen for dozens of rare genetic disorders. When these tests pick up treatable illnesses, prompt action can prevent early death or lifelong disability. The newborn screening program saves about 12,000 babies every year. Unfortunately, as the Milwaukee Journal Sential discovered, over 100,000 tests a year are processed late, and the consequences can be deadly. 

 

[Photo credit: Keaggy, Creative Commons.]

The Racist Roots of "Knockout Game" Trend Pieces

A sensible antidote to the latest round of racially-tinged “knockout game” hysteria. 

 

[Photo credit: Eva-Lotta Lam, Creative Commons.]

#Sidney's Picks: Border Patrol Freezers & Child Labor Deaths

The Best of the Week’s News

  • Mariya Strauss profiles kids who died at work after the Labor Department squelched proposed child labor rules that would have kept them out of dangerous farm jobs.

Ohio Walmarts Host Food Drives for Their Own Employees

Two Ohio Walmarts are hosting food drives for their own associates this holiday season. “A lot of associates can’t even afford to buy a small turkey,” Ricki Hahn, a seven-year employee of Wal-Mart, told the local Fox News station that broke the story. That’s not surprising considering that more than half of all Walmart employees make less than $25,000 a year, according to the company’s CEO, a wage that would make a family of four eligible for food stamps. The food drives have ignited controversy over Walmart’s poverty wages ahead of Black Friday, which has become a flashpoint for labor unrest at Walmart stores in recent years. The employee group OUR WALMART is keeping the pressure on. The National Labor Relations Board recently handed Walmart employees a major victory, ruling that the retailer cannot retaliate against workers for protesting Walmart’s poverty wages. 

Pages