TAMIKA MALLORY, WARRIOR QUEEN

By Julianne Malveaux (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

Economic disparities between workers and big business owners grew enormously during the Gilded Age.

Progressive movement at the end of the nineteenth century. The overriding idea was that government should lead efforts to change society’s problems.

Teddy Roosevelt, who became president in 1901, led the progressive movement, becoming the noted “Trustbuster,” breaking up the monopolies and advocating for fair trade, pro-labor laws, and child labor restrictions.

Notably, Roosevelt and the courts broke up Rockefeller’s Standard Oil monopoly.

Unfortunately, we are currently in a second Gilded Age. In some ways, the economics of this age are worse than in the original Gilded Age. In his book, The Price of Inequality, Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz informs us that the share of national income going to the top .01 percent (some 16,000) families has risen from just over 1 percent in 1980 to almost 5 percent in 2012. This is a larger share than the top .01 percent in the Gilded Age. Inequality affects society nowadays just as it did in the original Gilded Age. And it does so in one disturbing way – health and life expectancy. Sociological studies of health and illness show that socioeconomic status (SES) is a fundamental cause of poor health. Those at the bottom end of the income ladder have more health problems.

So, economic inequalities are causing inequalities in health. Medical care improved life expectancy by about two years between 1990 and 2000. However, the life expectancy of people with low incomes has not improved.

The health effects of inequality are getting worse. We use education as a measure of SES, as it is an excellent indicator of economic well-being. In 2008, U.S. adult men and women with fewer than 12 years of education had life expectancies not much better than adults in the 1950s and 1960s, despite the signi fi cant advances in life expectancy for all.

Of course, this situation is even worse for Black Americans. In 2008, White U.S. men and women with 16 years or more of schooling had life expectancies far greater than Black Americans with fewer than 12 years of education – 14.2 years more for White men than Black men, and 10.3 years more for White women than Black women. And these gaps have widened over time.

Underscoring the effect of SES is the comparison of higher-status Blacks and Hispanics with lowerstatus Whites. Blacks and Hispanics with sixteen or more years of education lived 7.5 years and 13.6 years longer, respectively, than Whites with less than twelve years of schooling.

Although Donald Trump helped worsen this situation when he was president, it started before him and continues unabated.

We have no current socio-political movement like the Progressivism of the fi rst Gilded Age, and we have few political fi gures pushing to save us from the calamities of this Gilded Age.

Only Senator Bernie Sanders and the Congressional Progressive Caucus stand in that gap. We need to shore them up.

By John Burnett (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

Amidst Congress’ best efforts to keep the government open, it’s also hard at work to reauthorize affordable food, farmers are able to insure their crops, and ranchers can export their products to foreign markets. It’s not an understatement to say it’s one of the most important bills Congress can send to the president’s desk, which is why it is so important to get it right.

Yet, some in Congress think getting it “right” means restricting certain consumers’ food items as “wrong” to buy.

According to a recently introduced proposal, Americans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would be prohibited from purchasing snacks, fruit juice, and soda – including beverages that are low calorie or zero sugar –with their benefits. It’s the equivalent of putting the federal government in between consumers and the products they enjoy.

Bottom line: consumers deserve to have choices in the grocery store. SNAP recipients are Americans in need and are fully capable of making their own food choices, and limiting their options also stigmatizes them as incapable of responsible decisionmaking. This approach undermines the dignity and self-respect of SNAP participants, and it puts the government in the position of choosing what people can serve their families. This is a slippery slope that would open the door to a government good-food or bad-food list that could apply to other everyday

Some people first saw civil rights activist Tamika Mallory when she was one of four leaders of the 2017 Women’s March. Her activism hardly began there. From her teen years, the now 43-year-old activist was part of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. In 2013, she became NAN’s youngest executive director. In 2016, she was one of the four cochairs of the highly successful 2017 Women’s March.

In 2019, Tamika, Mysonne Linen, Angelo Pinto, and fellow women’s march cochair Linda Sarsour founded Until Freedom, a nonprofit organization for “community activism, education, and rapid response around tragedies resulting from injustice.” Mallory has earned awards and accolades from Time Magazine, Fortune Magazine, BET, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and others. She has also attracted the ire of racists and recently has received death threats that both the police and the FBI consider “credible.” While the threats don’t frighten her, they concern those who support her work. Roland Martin, the pioneering founder of the Black Star Network, featured a segment on the threats she is receiving.

Tamika is being threatened because she does not back down, warrior that she is. She spent time in Kentucky in the wake of the murder of Breona Taylor, working with Breonna’s mother, Tamika Palmer, and with the community. She was outraged, as many were, that the African-American Attorney General of Kentucky, Daniel Cameron, described Breonna Taylor’s murder as “justifiable.” Now, Daniel Cameron is

Julianne Malveaux

the Republican nominee to unseat Democratic governor Andy Beshear in a November 7 election. Tamika Mallory and her colleagues in Until Freedom have determined that Cameron will not be the governor.

Until Freedom (untilfreedom.com) launched a voter engagement campaign to register voters and educate them about the harmful impact Daniel Cameron might have on Kentucky. They opened an office in Louisville in September. And Tamika and her team have endured death threats from their opponents. These aren’t the idle death threats of phone calls and hang-ups. These death threats suggest that the Until Freedom team has been stalked and followed.

Upon their arrival in Lousiville, several hotels reported getting calls looking for Tamika Mallory and the others. They now have private security and some police protection, and, as A. Scott Bolden, a DC-based Democratic lawyer, noted on Roland Martin Unfiltered, “Tamika is a fearsome fighter. Threats aren’t going to stop her.” Still, the threats must be anxiety-producing, and the FBI must leave no stone unturned in identifying the cowards who oppose both Tamika and justice.

Because of how Cameron presented the case against the Louisville officers who murdered Breonna Taylor, no one was indicted for her death. The officers shot into her home, using a no-knock warrant as their justification. At least two grand jury members say Cameron did not present all of the facts. The Department of Justice has brought charges to a federal grand jury, and four have been indicted. Kelly Ann Goodlett has pled guilty to conspiracy because she knew there was no basis for the invasion into Breonna’s home but conspired with another officer to justify the warrant. She will be sentenced in November and faces up to 5 years in jail and up to $250,000 in fines. see Tamika, page 5A

... the threats must be anxietyproducing, and the FBI must leave no stone unturned in identifying the cowards who oppose both Tamika and justice.

The other three-- Joshua Jaynes, Brett Hankison, and Kyle Meany – were arrested and released on bond. They face trials in mid-October. Other officers were not indicted either because they did not know the warrant was faulty or “there wasn’t enough evidence” against them. In bringing indictments against the four officers, however, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke ensured that there would be at least some measure of justice for Breonna Taylor.