I’m not sure how this news brief can be both “new” and “brief” when it’s the same, ongoing story for many women. I’ll be reprimanded by my mother for spending a night out drinking late with some friends, while my brother gets a free pass because men don’t have to worry about the dangers of the night.

But I can’t blame my mother, who was taught by her mother, who was taught by her mother, in lessons that were passed down from generation to generation, that women can’t be free from being in a constant state of fear. It’s naturally ingrained in us at this point, to clutch our handbags a little tighter, to walk a little faster, to ignore the catcalls and the leers, all in an effort to stay out of harm’s way.

Because men weren’t taught how to properly behave, women have to live with the consequences.

I have to be mindful about the way I dress, since form-fitting clothing makes it hard for men to concentrate, or whose car I get into – because there’s no guarantee that the Uber I booked will get me home safe.

I was told it was my “short” dress that prompted three people to chase me through the subway. It was my friend’s fault for being out alone that caused her to be harassed on the ferry. It was her fault, never his – don’t women love to be blamed?

It’s about time we unravel the generational blame we put on our daughters, on our cousins, on our sisters, our mothers, our grandmothers, and instead hold men accountable. Unpacking the misogyny, the victim-shaming, the lies we were told time and time again to believe, will take time. But only when responsibility is rightfully taught and claimed will women finally be safe.

-Raisa Alexis Santos

Mental Health

Mental health is, in my opinion, a topic that people are now starting to really talk about. Mental health is not something people with Schizophrenia, personality disorders, or anxiety have to worry about. Mental health is something all of us have to be aware of. The reason I say this is because there seems to be this misunderstanding about mental health. Some people believe there needs to be something extremely wrong with them in order for them to seek counseling or therapy. This kind of thinking is harmful to you and to others because it downplays what could be the beginning of a serious mental health issue. If you are experiencing feelings of distress, grief, and anger because of work or personal matters and you tell yourself, “It’s not that serious everyone goes through this, I‘ll be fine,” and therefore you do not need help, you could very well be downplaying feelings that could turn into something serious. Yes, everyone goes through tough times and gets through them without the help of a therapist, but if their issues begin to interfere with major parts of their life, it is necessary to seek help. Therapy is not only a service for people who have reached a point of severe mental illness but can be used to prevent further psychological damage. Another issue that is now being discussed is Black mental health and how it is handled in and out of the Black community. The conversation around Black mental health is the suppression of emotions and not having a safe place or therapist that can truly understand Black issues. I had to take a look at my own family and the family of my friends and see if this was true for myself. In my family we have talks but never about mental health. Some but not all of us tend to shy away from discussing our emotions, this is more present in the older generation. My grandmothers, specifically my mother’s mother, rarely shares how she is feeling and how things that are clearly hurtful has affected her. I remember growing up thinking she did not have emotions so when I saw her cry for the first time in my life I was shocked. My grandfather, her husband was dying. It has been 4 years since his passing and it feels like nothing happened. I know for a fact that my grandmother is hurting but she will not speak about it. No one even feels comfortable asking her or talking about his death. My father’s mother grew up in Mississippi during a time when that state was and most likely still is overtly racist. As we all know, racism is the leading cause of deaths and trauma in the Black community and there are studies that show that collective trauma is serious. The few times I asked her about growing up in Mississippi she didn’t have much to say except that she did encounter times where she was discriminated against. And that was the end of that discussion. I do not have all the answers nor am I in a position where I can tell others how to manage their mental health. I just asked that they do. Whether you are a college student, grandparent, parent, or celebrity, check in with yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czGblnXTx8M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H96BP91-6sE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meHVNJ5Y05g

Taylor, Donald M., and Usborne, Esther . “When I Know Who ‘We’ Are, I Can Be ‘Me’: The Primary Role of Cultural Identity Clarity for Psychological Well-Being.” Transcultural Psychiatry, vol. 47, no. 1, Feb. 2010, pp. 93–111

-Kalae Mobley

More Money, More Money

On April 4, 2019, Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie Bezos announced on Twitter that they had finalized their divorce. This divorce made history as having achieved the most costly divorce settlement to date. Mrs. Bezos was left with around 4 percent of Amazon stocks, valued at a whopping $35.6 billion. The divorce made her the 3rd richest woman in the world, and the 26th richest person in the world. Jeff Bezos, fortunately kept 75 percent of the couples Amazon stocks, and this allowed him to remain the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $108 billion.

Though this story may touch some hearts, for their ability to remain respectful and cordial in the midst of a divorce (that was initiated after an affair Mr. Bezos had with a reporter), I for one am pissed. How can a single couple have so much money that even a divorce settlement could not lower their rankings on a list of the wealthiest people in the world.

Now I have to admit, I am a walking contradiction. I use Amazon all the time. I use it to buy everything from TV shows to kitty litter. It’s convenient, simple to use, and a conglomeration of all the things you don’t need in life. However, this type of impenetrable wealth makes me uncomfortable, especially when living in a world with so much poverty and wide disparities between certain demographics.

And so, I made a quick Google search on the philanthropic endeavors that Bezos has undertaken… so far I found one. According to Business Insider, in 2018 Bezos announced on Twitter that he would be “launching a $2 billion fund to support homeless families and education programs in underserved communities. The Bezos Day One Fund will form a support network for homeless families and build early education program that Bezos called “full-scholarship, Montessori-inspired preschools.” Though the contribution is not insignificant in of itself, in comparison to Bezos’ total earnings, it does appear to be a lackluster attempt to give the impression of charity.

An online article by Natasha Frost in Quartz gives an excellent analysis as to why this contribution appears inadequate:

Over the past 12 months, he doubled his net worth, at a rate completely unlike any other billionaire. Some calculations suggest his wealth may be growing at $260 million per day… There’s another important difference between Bezos and his peers. Of the top five richest Americans, only Bezos has not signed the Giving Pledge. Originally set up by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, this philanthropic effort invites billionaires to ‘publicly dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy’…[his donation] represented a commitment of about 1.3% of his total net worth at the time of the promise. For the average American family, with a median household net worth of $80,039, it’s the equivalent of a donation of just $1,040. The difference, of course, is that Bezos has more money than he—and many generations of his family—can possibly use.

Taking this into consideration, I decided to search up some statistics on global poverty. According to the World Bank, “fewer people are living in extreme poverty around the world, but the decline in poverty rates has slowed.” In 2018, around 736 million people in the world were living on less than $1.90 a day. The website provides an optimistic take in that billions of individuals worldwide have been able to escape extreme poverty over the past few decades, however, I personally don’t take relief on families living on $1.91 a day. People should have the human right of being able to feed their families, have clothes on their back, and roofs over their heads — that should be the bare minimum.

So when I hear that the richest man on Earth payed only 1.3 percent of his total worth to addressing inequality and poverty, I feel pissed. I don’t know if not using Amazon at all is the right way to address the problem with this kind of wealth and greed, but there should be stronger pressures placed on individuals like him to do something about global poverty that could make substantial improvements.

-Justine