Celebrating Women’s History Month

This week in North Philly Notes, we celebrate Women’s History Month with a selection of recent, forthcoming, and classic Women’s Studies titles. Take 20% off our Women’s Studies titles this month using the code TWHM23 at checkout! And view all of our Women’s Studies titles here.

New and recent titles

Gendered Places: The Landscape of Local Gender Norms across the United States, by William J. Scarborough

Every place has its quirky attributes, cultural reputation, and distinctive flair. But when we travel across America, do we also experience distinct gender norms and expectations? In his groundbreaking Gendered Places, William Scarborough examines metropolitan commuting zones to see how each region’s local culture reflects gender roles and gender equity.

Ethical Encounters: Transnational Feminism, Human Rights, and War Cinema in Bangladesh, by Elora Halim Chowdhury

Ethical Encounters is an exploration of the intersection of feminism, human rights, and memory to illuminate how visual practices of recollecting violent legacies in Bangladeshi cinema can conjure a global cinematic imagination for the advancement of humanity. By examining contemporary, women-centered Muktijuddho cinema—features and documentaries that focus on the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971—Elora Chowdhury shows how these films imagine, disrupt, and reinscribe a gendered nationalist landscape of trauma, freedom, and agency.

Are You Two Sisters?: The Journey of a Lesbian Couple, by Susan Krieger

Are You Two Sisters? is Susan Krieger’s candid, revealing, and engrossing memoir about the intimacies of a lesbian couple. Krieger explores how she and her partner confront both the inner challenges of their relationship and the invisibility of lesbian identity in the larger world. Using a lively novelistic and autoethnographic approach that toggles back and forth in time, Krieger reflects on the evolution of her forty-year relationship.

Feminist Reflections on Childhood: A History and Call to Action, by Penny A. Weiss

In Feminist Reflections on Childhood, Penny Weiss rediscovers the radically feminist tradition of advocating for the liberatory treatment of youth. Weiss looks at both historical and contemporary feminists to understand what issues surrounding the inequality experienced by both women and children were important to the authors as feminist activists and thinkers. She uses the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Simone de Beauvoir to show early feminist arguments for the improved status and treatment of youth. Weiss also shows how Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a socialist feminist, and Emma Goldman, an anarchist feminist, differently understood and re-visioned children’s lives, as well as how children continue to show up on feminist agendas and in manifestos that demand better conditions for children’s lives.

Women’s Empowerment and Disempowerment in Brazil The Rise and Fall of President Dilma Rousseff, by Pedro A. G. dos Santos and Farida Jalalzai

In 2010, Dilma Rousseff was the first woman to be elected President in Brazil. She was re-elected in 2014 before being impeached in 2016 for breaking budget laws. Her popularity and controversy both energized and polarized the country. In Women’s Empowerment and Disempowerment in Brazil, dos Santos and Jalalzai examine Rousseff’s presidency and what it means for a woman to hold (and lose) the country’s highest power. The authors examine the ways Rousseff exercised dominant authority and enhanced women’s political empowerment. They also investigate the extent her gender played a role in the events of her presidency, including the political and economic crises and her ensuing impeachment.

Motherlands: How States Push Mothers Out of Employment, by Leah Ruppanner

In the absence of federal legislation, each state in the United States has its own policies regarding family leave, job protection for women, and childcare. No wonder working mothers encounter such a significant disparity when it comes to childcare resources in America! Whereas conservative states like Nebraska offer affordable, readily available, and high quality childcare, progressive states that advocate for women’s economic and political power, like California, have expensive childcare, shorter school days, and mothers who are more likely to work part-time or drop out of the labor market altogether to be available for their children. In Motherlands, Leah Ruppanner cogently argues that states should look to each other to fill their policy voids. 

Good Reasons to Run: Women and Political Candidacy, edited by Shauna L. Shames, Rachel I. Bernhard, Mirya R. Holman, and Dawn Langan Teele

After the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, a large cohort of women emerged to run for office. Their efforts changed the landscape of candidates and representation. However, women are still far less likely than men to seek elective office, and face biases and obstacles in campaigns. (Women running for Congress make twice as many phone calls as men to raise the same contributions.) The editors and contributors to Good Reasons to Run, a mix of scholars and practitioners, examine the reasons why women run—and do not run—for political office. They focus on the opportunities, policies, and structures that promote women’s candidacies. How do nonprofits help recruit and finance women as candidates? And what role does money play in women’s campaigns?

Forthcoming this Spring

Political Black Girl Magic: The Elections and Governance of Black Female Mayors, edited by Sharon D. Wright Austin

Political Black Girl Magic explores black women’s experiences as mayors in American cities. The editor and contributors to this comprehensive volume examine black female mayoral campaigns and elections where race and gender are a factor—and where deracialized campaigns have garnered candidate support from white as well as Hispanic and Asian American voters. Chapters also consider how Black female mayors govern, from discussions of their pursuit of economic growth and how they use their power to enact positive reforms to the challenges they face that inhibit their abilities to cater to neglected communities.

Solidarity & Care: Domestic Worker Activism in New York City, by Alana Lee Glaser

The members of the Domestic Workers United (DWU) organization—immigrant women of color employed as nannies, caregivers, and housekeepers in New York City—formed to fight for dignity and respect and to “bring meaningful change” to their work. Alana Lee Glaser examines the process of how these domestic workers organized against precarity, isolation, and exploitation to help pass the 2010 New York State Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, the first labor law in the United States protecting in-home workers.

Classic Titles

Gross Misbehavior and Wickedness: A Notorious Divorce in Early Twentieth-Century America, by Jean Elson

The bitter and public court battle waged between Nina and James Walker of Newport, Rhode Island, from 1909 to 1916 created a sensation throughout the nation, with lurid accounts of their marital troubles fueling widespread gossip. The ordeal of this high-society couple, who wed as much for status as for love, is one of the prime examples of the growing trend of women seeking divorce during the early twentieth century. Gross Misbehavior and Wickedness—which takes its title from the charges Nina levied against James for his adultery (with the family governess) and extreme cruelty—recounts the protracted legal proceedings in juicy detail.

Fireweed: A Political Autobiography, by Gerda Lerner

In Fireweed, Gerda Lerner, a pioneer and leading scholar in women’s history, tells her story of moral courage and commitment to social change with a novelist’s skill and a historian’s command of context. Lerner’s memoir focuses on the formative experiences that made her an activist for social justice before her academic career began. Lerner insists that her decades of grassroots organizing largely account for the theoretical insights she was later able to bring to the development of women’s history.

Yes, It Was a Great Super Bowl, but…

This week in North Philly Notes, Chuck Cascio, editor of Never Ask “Why“, about the National Football League Players’ Association, reflects on Super Bowl LVII.

     Most of us will agree that Super Bowl LVII was a great game! Naturally, my many dear friends who are Eagles fans will think differently (Ed Note: We do!) Nonetheless, the game provided many memorable individual athletic performances (Hurts and Mahomes in particular) and societal impact signs (first Super Bowl ever featuring two Black starting quarterbacks; many players wearing notations on their helmets about social causes; clear attempts to draw attention to minorities in attendance; references to Black History Month). 

     But fans of this sport that attracts more attention than any other sport in America, this single game that drew approximately 113 million viewers, this unique league that grosses approximately $18 billion per year…fans of this deeply-rooted American phenomenon need to acknowledge that in order to survive, the game must evolve. And to continue to grow and adapt, NFL leaders must consistently remember the roots of the game.

     Please know: I too love the game. I played it in my youth. I have followed it closely since my boyhood days in Brooklyn through my adult life in the DC area. But it was editing Never Ask “Why”: Football Players’ Fight for Freedom in the NFL, by the late Ed Garvey (head of the National Football League Players Association from 1971-1983), that has increased my awareness of the importance of football’s ongoing need to adapt.

     The book serves as a reminder of the struggle of race, wealth, labor, and equality in this sport, and in America. Today approximately 60% of the NFL players are Black, yet it is a sport in which owners often treated Black players—and too often all players—with disdain.

     While working on Never Ask “Why”, I remembered that I always knew that those “Whites Only” signs I saw in the South on everything from restrooms and water fountains to hotels and restaurants reflected discrimination that was prevalent throughout society. And when I covered the Washington football team for various publications in the 1970s, it was evident that the same racial animus extended into every area of the sport. 

     My friend, the late Brig Owens, a Washington football Ring-of-Fame player with whom I wrote the book Over the Hill to the Super Bowl—his diary of Washington’s 1972 Super Bowl season—had been an outstanding quarterback for the University of Cincinnati in the early 1960s. However, when Brig was drafted into the NFL, he was told that he could not play quarterback because he was Black; instead, he would be moved to safety because of his speed. Yes, Brig became a great safety, but his treatment when drafted exemplified the thinking in a league that discriminated against Black players in various “key” positions.

     In the 1970s, when Ed Garvey led the NFLPA, players constantly battled with owners over what should seem like basic rights—salary negotiation, health insurance, pensions. However, during that time owners simply placed their power in the hands of NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, who had control over most decisions through something called the Rozelle Rule. Under Ed’s leadership, it took strikes, lawsuits (including one in particular by all-pro player John Mackey), protests (“No Freedom, No Football” became the slogan of striking, picketing players, and their supporters), and more than a decade of often frustrating negotiations with owners to eventually reach some areas of compromise.

     Today, there is a tendency to assume that football players “have it made” given the publicity around major contracts, the average salary of approximately $2.7 million, and the median salary of approximately $870,000.  In addition, today’s players receive health insurance (with some limitations) and retirement (with other limitations) so it is often assumed that players are more than comfortable. 

      However, fans often miss that the average career of a professional football player is just a little over three years and that the extremely high salaries we hear about raise the overall average disproportionately. Also often lost in the excitement of the games, especially the super-hyped Super Bowl, is that the game is increasingly dangerous. 

       It is necessary for the NFL to continue to make adjustments for the safety of players, who are the actual performers and are bigger, faster, and stronger than ever. Their strength and aggressiveness often attract the most attention from fans, coaches, and media. That is all fine as long as the game adapts to these factors, but adaptation is an ongoing process.

     As we reflect on this past season and await the next, let’s continue to admire the physicality of the game and respect the many exciting elements of each play—the coordination, timing, speed, strength, teamwork, and fortitude that players exhibit. But let’s also recognize that the players are the performers, the entertainers, the ones taking risks on every play, so the game needs constant upgrading to support them.  

     As Hall of Fame NFL player Judge Alan Page writes, in part, in his foreword for Ed Garvey’s book Never Ask “Why”

     “These pages show Ed’s passion and commitment to the belief that players were workers whose performance was integral to the success of the business of football and who were due appropriate compensation, health protection, a pension, and other benefits. The goal he pursued was for players to receive a fair share of the wealth they were an integral part of creating…He believed that by sharing the wealth in an equitable manner, players would become true professionals and the game itself would be better. Ed was correct…”

(C) 2023 Chuck Cascio, all rights reserved.

Thoughts? Email chuckwrites@yahoo.com

A Q&A with Faith Ryan, Temple University Press’ new Production Assistant

This week in North Philly Notes, we get to learn more about Temple University Press’s new production assistant, Faith Ryan. Faith comes to Temple after having worked most recently as an Associate Project Manager at Vista Higher Learning in Boston. She received her BA in Writing, Literature, & Publishing from Emerson College in May of 2016.

 

What were your past publishing jobs?

During college and for a while after graduating, I worked as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader, reviewing Wiley journals and books for Delta Education. Most recently, I was an Associate Project Manager at Vista Higher Learning, a world languages textbook publisher based in Boston. Over my four years at Vista, I managed countless Spanish and French textbooks (elementary through collegiate level) and did support work on a few German and Italian titles.

What book(s) are you currently reading?

Currently, I am reading The Empire of Gold, by S. A. Chakraborty, and We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China’s Surveillance State, by Kai Strittmatter.

What’s the last great book you read?

Yerba Buena, by Nina LaCour. It’s a wonderful read. I can’t remember the last time I read a book with such clear and realistic characterizations. No part of the book felt contrived, as is typical of romances, and I was impressed by how honest and moving I found the characters’ struggles.

What book made the greatest impact on you?

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, by Barbara Demick. I picked it up way back in high school and I still think about it to this day. It’s an incredible piece of reporting, and is the standard against which I judge every other nonfiction book I read.

Which writers do you love (or hate) the most?

Geraldine Brooks and Tracy Chevalier are both longtime favorites of mine. I love nothing more than to disappear into a slow, well-written historical novel, and they’re some of the best in the business as far as I’m concerned. Year of Wonders, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and The Last Runaway are my favorites from them.

When and how do you read?

I read constantly: mornings, evenings, lunchtime. Sometimes I’ll read all day on the weekends if it’s a particularly good book and I don’t have anything on the schedule. Mostly I read physical books, either ones I’ve purchased or borrowed through the library, though sometimes I’ll listen to audiobooks if I’m traveling.

What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves?

I have to go with Sam Anderson’s Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis. Despite never having set foot in the state of Oklahoma and having zero interest in basketball (a major through line of the book), I loved Boom Town. The book is just as wild and winding as its subtitle—and very entertaining.

Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine?

This is a bit of an impossible question, as heroic characters don’t interest me much… But I’ll go with Belle from Beauty and the Beast if only because I, too, would love to read all day and be gifted my own personal library.

What Temple University Press book has particular meaning to you?

Yasemin Besen-Cassino’s The Cost of Being a Girl: Working Teens and the Origins of the Gender Wage Gap. Like all working women in America, I’m very aware of the pay disparity between men and women. And like most adults, I mostly think of it in terms of its deleterious effect on adult women—but of course this issue affects teenage girls as well. As Besen-Cassino’s book lays out, the long-lasting consequences are not only financial but psychological as well.

What Temple University Press book would you recommend to someone?

I would recommend Miriam Frank’s Out in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America. LGBTQ+ people have always been at the forefront of battles for social change, and of course the history of unions is no different. I think it’s important all working people know how their rights came to be, especially as queer figures aren’t often highlighted in traditional histories.

What book will you read next?

Next, I am planning to read We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland, by Fintan O’Toole. I heard him speak when I was volunteering at the Free Library several months ago and he gave an absolutely brilliant talk. I’ve since read a few of his New Yorker articles and I love his style. I’ve been looking forward to sitting down with his book for a long while now.

What three writers would you invite to a dinner party?

Usually I’m more interested in a writer’s creations than the authors themselves (real people tend to disappoint), but there is one writer I could listen to talk about both their books and their life for dinner, dessert, and drinks after: R. F. Kuang, author of The Poppy War series and Babel. Her ability to churn out one fantastic book after another while simultaneously completing degrees at places like Oxford and Cambridge is a mystery to me. I’d love to have her talk my ear off for an evening.

Listening to What Workers Say

This week in North Philly Notes, Roberta Iversen, author of What Workers Say, provides stories and voices from the labor market on the chronic lack of advancement.

A common question when meeting someone new is asking them, “What do you do?”

People’s work, and the labor market more broadly, occupy millions of people’s lives in the U.S. and around the globe. But why is “What do you do?” often the first question? Of course it’s partly because most people need the money that work provides—and often need more money than their particular labor market job offers. It’s also because what we “do” is often shorthand to others for “who we are.”

Yet “who we are” does not begin to touch the lack of opportunity in many of today’s labor market jobs, whether in manufacturing, printing, construction, healthcare, clerical work, retail, real estate, architecture, or automotive services. These are occupations and industries that have employed nearly two-thirds of the U.S. workforce since 1980, as workers in these areas since the 1980s until today vividly describe in What Workers Say. I talked to 1,200-plus people at length for this book since the early 1980s, some of them repeatedly, regardless of what occupation they hold or industry their job is in. They have all recognized that there’s little to no opportunity for promotion or advancement in their jobs, despite the fact that people, their communities, their families, and their country as a whole, need what these workers do. At the same time, too many of them are also not paid a living wage.

The workers in the above-mentioned occupations and industries—regardless of socioeconomic characteristics—typify the types of struggles, discouragement, and on-the-job injuries that continue to affect millions of workers in the U.S. and elsewhere. Just as Studs Terkel’s Working (1972) valuably introduced the populace to what many jobs and occupations were like across the U.S. up to the early 1970s, the workers in What Workers Say describe their jobs and occupations from 1980 to today—a period of rapid and tumultuous labor market change. For example, Tisha [a chosen pseudonym, like all of the worker’s names] in manufacturing, Joseph and Randy in construction work, and Kevin in a printing job, are among those workers who vividly illustrate the shift to service occupations from the earlier, higher-paying manufacturing occupations.

In one of the most dramatic examples of this shift, 40-year-old, African American, Hard Working Blessed, experienced multiple eye injuries on his manufacturing job, which resulted in demotion and severe wage reduction. He ended up as a Fast Food Manager, with lower pay and a job that did not make use of his extensive work experience in manufacturing. Clerical workers, such as Roselyn, Wendy, Ayesha, Susan and others similarly describe struggling with frequent recessions and layoffs over the period. Others, including Noel, Tom, and Shanquitta (for a period), describe frequent job disruptions and store closures from the increase in offshoring jobs to countries that pay workers even less than the U.S. does. And many healthcare workers, such as Laquita, Tasha, Martina, and Annie and others experience “credential creep,” where higher-level education became a hiring requirement, even though the demands of the job were suited perfectly to these applicants’ current credentials. This, of course, resulted in new forms of inequities in hiring.

In short, the workers tell the real story about today’s jobs so others can know what these jobs are really like. The richness and depth of the workers’ words help readers to understand that the formal definition of “unemployment” is very strict and does not cover many people who have been laid off or who aren’t able to look for work. Their words also illustrate the fact that since the 1980s there often haven’t been enough jobs for all who want labor market work, and that the default social policy response to low pay has been person-oriented: that more education and more skills are what is needed for greater equity in the labor market. In some cases, the coronavirus pandemic has illuminated the low-pay issue, to the benefit of current workers, but not in all cases and not necessarily to the level of a living wage. These workers also vividly describe what they’d really like to be doing, which leads in the final chapter to a solution that I call “compensated civil labor.” 

Drawing on German sociologist, Ulrich Beck’s idea of civil labor, I add “compensated” to the idea of civil labor. Compensated civil labor expands what we think of as work, how we do work, and particularly, how we do paid work. Compensated civil labor would allow the many people like Teresa to work at her rental car company part-time and satisfy her “heart-string” (aka her passion) of part-time food catering to her church, children’s school, and community and also be compensated for doing it. Compensated civil labor could also enable expansion of the notion of “work” well beyond the labor market in ways that can tap into today’s workers’ desire to engage in environmental protection activities, broader family participation, community contribution, and the like. In short, compensated civil labor would mean compensating people for their non-labor-market work, whether by actual money, exchange, or other forms of compensation. Data in the 2000s from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Employment Statistics Survey and the Current Population Survey, together with numerous existing civic examples, aim to stimulate civic leaders, philanthropic foundations, educators and others to consider compensated civil labor, which could benefit workers, families, communities, and countries alike.

Celebrating Women’s History Month

This week in North Philly Notes, we celebrate Women’s History Month. Use promo code TWHM22 for 30% off all our Women’s Studies titles. Sale ends March 31, 2022.

New Titles

Elaine Black Yoneda: Jewish Immigration, Labor Activism, and Japanese American Exclusion and Incarceration, by Rachel Schreiber, recounts the remarkable story of a Jewish activist who joined her incarcerated Japanese American husband and son in an American concentration camp.

Are You Two Sisters: The Journey of a Lesbian Couple, by Susan Krieger, authored by one of the most respected figures in the field of personal ethnographic narrative, this book serves as both a memoir and a sociological study, telling the story of one lesbian couple’s lifelong journey together.

From our Backlist:

Anna May Wong: Performing the Modern, by Shirley Jennifer Lim, shows how Anna May Wong’s work shaped racial modernity and made her one of the most significant actresses of the twentieth century.

The Cost of Being a Girl: Working Teens and the Origins of the Gender Wage Gap, by Yasemin Besen-Cassino, traces the origins of the gender wage gap to part-time teenage work, which sets up a dynamic that persists into adulthood.

Feminist Post-Liberalism, by Judith Baer, reconciles liberalism and feminist theory.

Feminist Reflections on Childhood: A History and Call to Action, by Penny A. Weiss, recovers a history of feminist thought and activism that demands greater voice and respect for young people.

Good Reasons to Run: Women and Political Candidacy, edited by Shauna L. Shames, Rachel I. Bernhard, Mirya R. Holman, and Dawn Langan Teele, how and why women run for office.

Gross Misbehavior and Wickedness: A Notorious Divorce in Early Twentieth-Century America, by Jean Elson, a fascinating story of the troubled marriage and acrimonious divorce of Nina and James Walker elucidates early twentieth-century gender and family mores.

Motherlands: How States Push Mothers Out of Employment, by Leah Ruppanner challenges preconceived notions of the states that support working mothers.

Savoring the Salt: The Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara, edited by Linda Janet Holmes and Cheryl A. Wall, an anthology that celebrates the life and work of a major African American writer.

Their Day in the Sun: Women in the Manhattan Project, by Ruth H. Howes and Caroline C. Herzenberg, tells the hidden story of the contribution of women in the effort to develop the atomic bomb.

Undermining Intersectionality: The Perils of Powerblind Feminism, by Barbara Tomlinson, a sustained critique of the ways in which scholars have engaged with and deployed intersectionality.

Women Take Their Place in State Legislature: The Creation of Women’s Caucuses, by Anna Mitchell Mahoney, investigates the opportunities, resources, and frames that women utilize to create legislative caucuses.

Women’s Empowerment and Disempowerment in Brazil: The Rise and Fall of President Dilma Rousseff, by Pedro A.G. dos Santos and Farida Jalalzai, explains what the rise and fall of Brazil’s first and only female president can teach us about women’s empowerment.

The (real) cost of living with dignity

This week in North Philly Notes, Lisa Iezzoni, author of Making Their Days Happen, writes about the personal and political implications of home-based supportive services and the workforce available to meet this need.

Although it sounds like hyperbole, Nelita kept my friend Michael alive. Michael is completely paralyzed below his neck from primary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), but he  has a happy life. Because of disability, he had to retire from being a physics professor and lives alone, in a modest home adapted for disability accessibility. Nevertheless, when we met in 2009, his power wheelchair had over 2,500 miles on its odometer, and if the weather cooperated, he spent his days rolling about his community, doing errands, auditing classes at the local university, and taking the train into nearby New York City to visit museums, attend concerts, or ride through Central Park. Michael couldn’t do any of this without Nelita.

Michael needs support for all activities of daily living (ADLs)—feeding, bathing, toileting, dressing, and moving in and out of his wheelchair—and Nelita was his primary personal care assistant (PCA). She arrived every morning at 6:00 am; got him out of bed using his automated, ceiling-mounted lift; assisted him with toileting, showering, and shaving; dressed him; got him set up in his power wheelchair, with its complicated electronics; made and fed him breakfast; and tidied up his bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen before rushing off, with kind parting words, to her second job (a Haitian immigrant, Nelita always juggled two or three jobs). Nelita worked for one of those franchise home-based personal care agencies with a warm and fuzzy name that have sprung up nationwide, and she received a fraction of the hourly fee Michael paid them. When, after several years, Michael’s MS progressed and he needed more PCA hours, he could no longer afford the agency. He finally enrolled in a tightly managed care insurance plan that covered his PCAs, and Nelita changed jobs to stay with him. She—and a team of other PCAs—not only keep Michael alive but support his ability to live his life as he wishes, with dignity.

Nelita, in turn, found her work with Michael personally rewarding. She knew that Michael valued her immeasurably and could not get by without her support. But personal assistance services jobs typically have low wages, meager benefits, scant societal respect, and are viewed as low skilled “women’s work.” However, providing personal care assistance is physically and emotionally demanding and requires navigation of complex and intimate relationships with consumers. It also demands keen observational skills and judgment. PCAs can identify consumers’ new health problems early, thus sometime preventing worsening disease and hospitalization. Nevertheless, by standard metrics, providing personal care assistance—which keeps people with significant disability alive and living with dignity—engenders little dignity for its practitioners, who are predominantly women, people of color, and often immigrants. Immigrants especially risk exploitation from private-pay consumers desperate for ADL supports but unwilling or unable to pay even the routine low wages.

Today, about 17 million Americans living in their homes need assistance with daily activities because of disability. These numbers will grow as baby boomers age. Most people receive assistance from family member or friends. However, as for Michael, when no one is available to provide this support, paid PCAs fill the need. In 2019, approximately 2.3 million workers provided home-based care, broadly defined, and job positions are expected to climb substantially in coming years. But the PCA workforce, with its low wages and high turnover (exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic), cannot keep pace with increasing demand.

Much has been written about the impending gap between the need for home-based supportive services and the workforce available to meet this need. Over the last two decades, blue ribbon commissions of experts have convened to discuss this and other imminent crises of long-term services and supports in America. Yet something has been missing from their copious reports and pronouncements: the voices of PCA consumers with significant disability and of PCAs. Also missing were detailed descriptions of exactly how consumers and PCAs approach their intimate interactions in consumers’ bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and behind closed doors, and what dignity looks like day-to-day to consumers and to workers.

A reality in the U.S. is that money is the starting point for achieving the dignity objectives for both PCA consumers and PCAs. Many Americans erroneously believe that Medicare—federal health insurance for older people and former workers under age 65 with disability—pays for in-home ADL supports. It does not, except in narrow circumstances. Many consumers can only obtain the services they need by getting Medicaid (the joint federal-state health insurance program for low-income people), a difficult process with benefits varying widely across states. Even in more generous states, Medicaid budget limitations and complex policies mean that today about 800,000 people are on waiting lists to receive home-based services under Medicaid. President Biden’s Build Back Better plan—passed by the U.S. House of Representatives but currently stalled in the Senate—includes funding to provide in-home supports to older people and people with disability and to increase wages of home care workers. Build Back Better focuses on Medicaid-funded home-based supports, so it will not assist everyone needing these services, but it is a start.

To introduce the missing voices mentioned above, Making Their Days Happen uses interviews of PCA consumers and PCAs to tell their stories, putting these essential ADL support activities into current health and labor policy contexts. It also provides advice for people who might need personal care assistance services for themselves or a family member. Like any intensely intimate human interactions, providing and receiving ADL support can be interpersonally complex. Although PCA consumers and PCAs approach these services from different perspectives, both the benefits and challenges of paid personal care assistance distill down to a single word, dignity. For PCA consumers with significant disability, despite their physical vulnerabilities, dignity means having their wishes respected, all the way from how mundane ADL tasks are performed to supporting their preferences for how they live their lives, participate in community activities, and maximize their quality of life. For PCAs, dignity means societal recognition and respect for the crucial work they perform, plus a living wage, paid sick leave and vacations, safe working conditions, and the training and skills advancement to build a career.

Kalfou: A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies, Volume 8, Issues 1 and 2; Spring and Fall 2021

This week in North Philly Notes, we present the new issues of Kalfou.

PROLOGUE
The Last Straw • Cherríe Moraga 9
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SPECIAL ISSUE: “The Enduring Dangers of Essentializing Labor and Laborers”
GUEST EDITORS: Abigail Rosas and Ana Elizabeth Rosas

FEATURE ARTICLES
Introduction: The Enduring Dangers of Essentializing Labor and Laborers
• Abigail Rosas 19
Essential Only as Labor: Coachella Valley Farmworkers during COVID-19
• Christian O. Paiz 31
Living Barriers and the Emotional Labor of Accessing Care from the Margins
• Elizabeth Farfán-Santos 51
The Cost of Freedom: The Violent Exploitation of Black Labor as
Essential to Nation Building in Jamaica and the United States of America
• Janelle O. Levy and Damien M. Sojoyner 67

IDEAS, ART, AND ACTIVISM
TALKATIVE ANCESTORS
Toni Morrison on the Agenda of Displacement 85
KEYWORDS
The “Essential Worker” in the Time of Corona: Ethnic Studies and a Legacy
Canceled in the Napa Valley • Lilia Soto 86
LA MESA POPULAR
Essentially Surplus: The Struggle for the California Domestic Worker Bill of
Rights (AB 241) and the Afterlife of Reproductive Slavery • Salvador Zárate 106
ART AND SOCIAL ACTION
To Care, to Belong: Art-Work in Community during the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Misael Diaz and Amy Sanchez Arteaga 126
MOBILIZED 4 MOVEMENT
The Church Is Essential: COVID-19 and the Hyperlocal Politics of Mutual Aid
in Black and Latina/o Churches • Felipe Hinojosa 140
TEACHING AND TRUTH
Beyond Essential Workers, Toward Globalized Mortals in and beyond the
Ethnic Studies Classroom during the Early Months of the COVID-19
Pandemic • Mario Alberto Obando 154

IN MEMORIAM
Clyde Woods: The People’s Prof! • Steven Osuna 168

REVIEWS
Bans, Walls, Raids, Sanctuary: Understanding U.S. Immigration for the
Twenty-First Century, by A. Naomi Paik • Laura D. Gutiérrez 173
Badges without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed
American Policing, by Stuart Schrader • David-James Gonzales 177
————————
SPECIAL ISSUE: “Impossible Chronos: The Gendered Necropolitics
of COVID-19 and the Atemporal Apocalypses”
GUEST EDITORS: Terrance Wooten and Jaime A. Alves

FEATURE ARTICLES
Blue Pill, Red Pill: The Incommensurable Worlds of Racism and
Antiblackness • João Costa Vargas 183
Global Capitalism, Racism, and Social Triage during COVID-19
• Matthew B. Flynn 206
Essential, Yet Expendable: Brazilian Black Women and Domestic Work
in the Age of COVID-19 • Jaira J. Harrington 221
Radical Mutual Aid, International Working-Class Struggle, Antiracist
Organizing: An Interpretation of Club Cubano Inter-Americano’s
History • Daniel Delgado 237
“Metamorphic Liberation”: Radical Self-Care and the Biopolitical Agency
of Black Women • Mako Fitts Ward 256

IDEAS, ART, AND ACTIVISM
TALKATIVE ANCESTORS
Leith Mullings on the New Hidden Forms of Structural Racism 274
LA MESA POPULAR
COVID-19, Life, and Re-existence in an Afro-Colombian Community
• Ángela Mañunga-Arroyo, Debaye Mornan-Barrera, and Juan David Quiñones 275

MOBILIZED 4 MOVEMENT
Resisting Colonial Deaths: Marginalized Black Populations and COVID-19
in Brazil and Kenya • Wangui Kimari and Amanda Pinheiro de Oliveira 285

TEACHING AND TRUTH
Enduring the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Imperatives in
the Defense of Black Lives in Brazil • Raquel Luciana de Souza,
Débora Dias dos Santos, and Wellington Aparecido S. Lopes 297

IN MEMORIAM
White Apocalypses, Global Antiblackness, and the Art of Living through
and against Death-Worlds • Terrance Wooten and Jaime A. Alves 316

REVIEWS
Red Line Lullaby, directed by Yehuda Sharim • Frances R. Aparicio 332
Red Line Lullaby, directed by Yehuda Sharim • Amanda Ellis 335
There’s Something in the Water, directed by Elliot Page and Ian Daniel
• Chris Benjamin 338
————————
EPILOGUE
Sadness against Capital: A Lyric • Jason Magabo Perez 345

Announcing Temple University Press’ Spring 2022 Catalog

This week in North Philly Notes, we are pleased to present our forthcoming Spring 2022 titles (in alphabetical order).

Africana Studies: Theoretical Futures, edited by Grant Farred
A provocative collection committed to keeping the dynamism of the Africana Studies discipline alive

Beethoven in Beijing: Stories from the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Historic Journey to China, by Jennifer Lin, with a foreword by Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin

An eye-opening account of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s unprecedented 1973 visit to the People’s Republic of China

Before Crips: Fussin’, Cussin’, and Discussin’ among South Los Angeles Juvenile Gangs, by John C. Quicker and Akil S. Batani-Khalfani

A historical analysis of South Los Angeles juvenile gang life as revealed by those who were there

Elusive Kinship: Disability and Human Rights in Postcolonial Literature, by Christopher Krentz

Why disabled characters are integral to novels of the global South

Ethical Encounters: Transnational Feminism, Human Rights, and War Cinema in Bangladesh, by Elora Halim Chowdhury

Illuminates how visual practices of recollecting violent legacies in Bangladeshi cinema can generate possibilities for gender justice

Exploring Philly Nature: A Guide for All Four Seasons, by Bernard S. Brown, Illustrations by Samantha Wittchen

A handy guide for all ages to Philly’s urban plants, animals, fungi, and—yes—even slime molds

If There Is No Struggle There Is No Progress: Black Politics in Twentieth-Century Philadelphia, edited by James Wolfinger, with a Foreword by Heather Ann Thompson

Highlighting the creativity, tenacity, and discipline displayed by Black activists in Philadelphia

It Was Always a Choice: Picking Up the Baton of Athlete Activism, by David Steele

Examining American athletes’ activism for racial and social justice, on and off the field

Just Care: Messy Entanglements of Disability, Dependency, and Desire, by Akemi Nishida

How care is both socially oppressive and a way that marginalized communities can fight for social justice

Letting Play Bloom: Designing Nature-Based Risky Play for Children, by Lolly Tai, with a foreword by Teri Hendy

Exploring innovative, inspiring, and creative ideas for designing children’s play spaces

Loving Orphaned Space: The Art and Science of Belonging to Earth, by Mrill Ingram

Providing a new vision for the ignored and abused spaces around us

Model Machines: A History of the Asian as Automaton, by Long T. Bui

A study of the stereotype and representation of Asians as robotic machines through history

Public Schools, Private Governance: Education Reform and Democracy in New Orleans, by J. Celeste Lay

A comprehensive examination of education reforms and their political effects on Black and poor public-school parents in New Orleans, pre- and post-Katrina

Regarding Animals, Second Edition, by Arnold Arluke, Clinton R. Sanders, and Leslie Irvine

A new edition of an award-winning book that examines how people live with contradictory attitudes toward animals

School Zone: A Problem Analysis of Student Offending and Victimization, by Pamela Wilcox, Graham C. Ousey, and Marie Skubak Tillyer

Why some school environments are more conducive to crime than safety

Warring Genealogies: Race, Kinship, and the Korean War, by Joo Ok Kim

Examines the racial legacies of the Korean War through Chicano/a cultural production and U.S. archives of white supremacy

Water Thicker Than Blood: A Memoir of a Post-Internment Childhood, by George Uba

An evocative yet unsparing examination of the damaging effects of post-internment ideologies of acceptance and belonging experienced by a Japanese American family

What Workers Say: Decades of Struggle and How to Make Real Opportunity Now, by Roberta Rehner Iversen

Voices from the labor market on the chronic lack of advancement

Announcing Temple University Press’ Fall Catalog

This week in North Philly Notes we showcase the titles forthcoming this Fall from Temple University Press

“Beyond the Law”: The Politics of Ending the Death Penalty for Sodomy in Britain, by Charles Upchurch, provides a major reexamination of the earliest British parliamentary efforts to abolish capital punishment for consensual sex acts between men.

Are You Two Sisters?: The Journey of a Lesbian Couple, by Susan Krieger, authored by one of the most respected figures in the field of personal ethnographic narrative, this book serves as both a memoir and a sociological study, telling the story of one lesbian couple’s lifelong journey together.

Asian American Connective Action in the Age of Social Media: Civic Engagement, Contested Issues, and Emerging Identities, by James S. Lai, examines how social media has changed the way Asian Americans participate in politics.

The Civil Rights Lobby: The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Second Reconstruction, by Shamira Gelbman, investigates how minority group, labor, religious, and other organizations worked together to lobby for civil rights reform during the 1950s and ’60s.

Elaine Black Yoneda: Jewish Immigration, Labor Activism, and Japanese American Exclusion and Incarceration, by Rachel Schreiber, tells the remarkable story of a Jewish activist who joined her imprisoned Japanese American husband and son in an American concentration camp.

Fitting the Facts of Crime: An Invitation to Biopsychosocial Criminology, by Chad Posick, Michael Rocque, and J.C. Barnes, presents a biopsychosocial perspective to explain the most common findings in criminology—and to guide future research and public policy.

From Improvement to City Planning: Spatial Management in Cincinnati from the Early Republic through the Civil War Decade, by Henry C. Binford, offers a “pre-history” of urban planning in the United States.

Gangs on Trial: Challenging Stereotypes and Demonization in the Courts, by John M. Hagedorn, exposes biases in trials when the defendant is a gang member.

Invisible People: Stories of Lives at the Margins, by Alex Tizon, now in paperback, an anthology of richly reported and beautifully written stories about marginalized people.

Islam, Justice, and Democracy, by Sabri Ciftci, explores the connection between Muslim conceptions of justice and democratic orientations.

The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia: History, Culture, People, and Ideas, edited by Andrea Canepari and Judith Goode, provides essays and images showcasing the rich contribution of Italians and Italian Americans to Global Philadelphia.

Making a Scene: Urban Landscapes, Gentrification, and Social Movements in Sweden, by Kimberly A. Creasap, examines how autonomous social movements respond to gentrification by creating their own cultural landscape in cities and suburbs.

Making Their Days Happen: Paid Personal Assistance Services Supporting People with Disability Living in Their Homes and Communities, by Lisa I. Iezzoni, explores the complexities of the interpersonal dynamics and policy implications affecting personal assistance service consumers and providers.

The Many Futures of Work: Rethinking Expectations and Breaking Molds, edited by Peter A. Creticos, Larry Bennett, Laura Owen, Costas Spirou, and Maxine Morphis-Riesbeck, reframes the conversation about contemporary workplace experience by providing both “top down” and “bottom up” analyses.

On Gangs, by Scott H. Decker, David C. Pyrooz, and James A. Densley, a comprehensive review of what is known about gangs—from their origins through their evolution and outcomes.

Pack the Court!: A Defense of Supreme Court Expansion, by Stephen M. Feldman, provides a historical and analytical argument for court-packing.

Passing for Perfect: College Impostors and Other Model Minorities, by erin Khuê Ninh, considers how it feels to be model minority—and why would that drive one to live a lie?

Pedagogies of Woundedness: Illness, Memoir, and the Ends of the Model Minority, by James Kyung-Jin Lee, asks what happens when illness betrays Asian American fantasies of indefinite progress?

Slavery and Abolition in Pennsylvania, by Beverly C. Tomek, highlights the complexities of emancipation and the “First Reconstruction” in the antebellum North.

Vehicles of Decolonization: Public Transit in the Palestinian West Bank, by Maryam S. Griffin, considers collective Palestinian movement via public transportation as a site of social struggle.

Who Really Makes Environmental Policy?: Creating and Implementing Environmental Rules and Regulations, edited by Sara R. Rinfret, provides a clear understanding of regulatory policy and rulemaking processes, and their centrality in U.S. environmental policymaking.

Celebrating Women’s History Month

This week in North Philly Notes, we celebrate Women’s History Month. Use promo code TWHM21 for 30% off all our Women’s Studies titles. Sale ends April 15, 2021.

Anna May Wong: Performing the Modern, by Shirley Jennifer Lim, shows how Anna May Wong’s work shaped racial modernity and made her one of the most significant actresses of the twentieth century.

The Cost of Being a Girl: Working Teens and the Origins of the Gender Wage Gap, by Yasemin Besen-Cassino, traces the origins of the gender wage gap to part-time teenage work, which sets up a dynamic that persists into adulthood.

Feminist Post-Liberalism, by Judith Baer, reconciles liberalism and feminist theory.

Feminist Reflections on Childhood: A History and Call to Action, by Penny A. Weiss, recovers a history of feminist thought and activism that demands greater voice and respect for young people.

Good Reasons to Run: Women and Political Candidacy, edited by Shauna L. Shames, Rachel I. Bernhard, Mirya R. Holman, and Dawn Langan Teele, how and why women run for office.

Gross Misbehavior and Wickedness: A Notorious Divorce in Early Twentieth-Century America, by Jean Elson, a fascinating story of the troubled marriage and acrimonious divorce of Nina and James Walker elucidates early twentieth-century gender and family mores.

Motherlands: How States Push Mothers Out of Employment, by Leah Ruppanner challenges preconceived notions of the states that support working mothers.

Savoring the Salt: The Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara, edited by Linda Janet Holmes and Cheryl A. Wall, an anthology that celebrates the life and work of a major African American writer.

Their Day in the Sun: Women in the Manhattan Project, by Ruth H. Howes and Caroline C. Herzenberg, tells the hidden story of the contribution of women in the effort to develop the atomic bomb.

Undermining Intersectionality: The Perils of Powerblind Feminism, by Barbara Tomlinson, a sustained critique of the ways in which scholars have engaged with and deployed intersectionality.

Women Take Their Place in State Legislature: The Creation of Women’s Caucuses, by Anna Mitchell Mahoney, investigates the opportunities, resources, and frames that women utilize to create legislative caucuses.

Women’s Empowerment and Disempowerment in Brazil: The Rise and Fall of President Dilma Rousseff, by Pedro A.G. dos Santos and Farida Jalalzai, explains what the rise and fall of Brazil’s first and only female president can teach us about women’s empowerment.