The natural environment is vital to human existence. We rely on it for oxygen, sustenance, and shelter. We crave it for sports, hobbies, and relaxation. Humans cannot live without nature because we are a part of it. Nature endured long before the evolution of homo sapiens. Yet we often treat the environment as the “other”; we act as though it is something apart from us rather than something with which we co-exist. Isn’t it time we accorded nature the rights we accord ourselves? Deep Green Resistance, an environmental grassroots organization, certainly thought so and even took legal action to make these rights a reality.
Big Tech: Where Did All the Women Go?
It’s 2019 and you are a new mom who just returned to work at Microsoft; you’ve been working there for the last six years. You see no advancement and no increase in pay or responsibilities in your future. In fact, when you tried to push for a promotion, your manager told you that he did not want to “waste” a promotion on you in case you became pregnant again. You have the same job you have had for the past six years, while your male colleagues who started at the same time are now so far ahead you could never catch up. You have thought about options to advance your career. Finding no solution, you send an email asking your female colleagues for career advice. Imagine your surprise when dozens of women reply to your email sharing their own complaints about repeated discrimination and harassment, which the Human Resources department has ignored. Would it at all surprise you to learn that something very similar actually did happen at Microsoft not too long ago? How did we get here?
The Fight Against Increasing Racial Disparities: Comcast v. NAAOM
On March 23, 2020, in Comcast Corp. v. National Association of African-American Owned Media, the Supreme Court unanimously held that racial minorities have to allege facts suggesting “but for” causation in order to bring a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 for race discrimination in contracting. This is a devastating blow to would-be civil rights litigants, particularly African Americans. Long marginalized by society due to systemic racism, many African Americans have slim to no protections under federal law and no way to enter essential sectors of public and private life, such as housing, education, healthcare, and even certain job opportunities.
Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus
The global pandemic has completely altered life as we know it in the short-term. In the long-term, a hopeful result would be openness to new political economic possibilities. Policies like modern monetary theory, single-payer healthcare, and universal basic income, seemingly beyond the pale of mainstream recognition before the pandemic, may now be given a fair shake. I want to make the case that another political-economic shift ought to be considered in light of the pandemic—economic democracy.