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Page 2 The Skanner August 9, 2017 ® Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Opinion Despite Unequal Treatment, Black Women Will Rise Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Melanie Sevcenko Reporter Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2017 MERIT AWARD WINNER The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com Many women’s organiza- tions commemorate Equal Pay Day, which this year was April 5. It meant that wom- en, in general, would have had to work all of 2016, and until April 5, 2017, to earn the same amount of money that a White man earned in 2016. Few will recognize July 31, 2017, the day that the pay for African American women catch up to the 2016 earnings of White men — seven extra months. Hispanic women will have to work until October, or nearly 10 extra months, to earn the same money White men earned last year. I wonder about our “wom- en’s coalitions” when major- ity women’s organizations, like the National Organiza- tion for Women, are basical- ly silent on Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. I wonder how much Black women’s issues really matter to majority women’s organizations. It matters when they want to present a multiracial, multi- cultural “united front” at a Women’s March, but less so at other times. The lesson, Black women, is a lesson some sisters re- member from 1991, when Anita Hill testified during the Clarence Thomas confir- mation hearings. People had all kind of explanations for Hill’s testimony, most of them woefully wrong and viewed Julianne Malveaux NNPA Columnist through a lens, darkly. Led by feminists Elsa Barkley Brown, Deborah King and Barba- ra Ransby, more than 1500 women raised enough money to pay for an ad in the New York Times on November 17, 1991. The ad, titled “African American Women in Defense of Ourselves” (AAWIDO), re- minded Black women that no one should speak for us, ex- cept us. No one can be relied on to defend us, except us. And no one can be depended on to celebrate us, but us. No one can lead advocacy for our equal pay, but us. I’m not dismissing our al- lies — “woke” men of color, especially Black men, “woke” White women and other women of color — I’m just say- ing we can’t count on every- body to be woke. Evidence: How much noise did majority group’s make on Black Wom- en’s Equal Pay Day? And in the Reign of Igno- rance, there is likely to be even less noise, as the House Ap- propriations Committee has actually proposed defunding a program that collects salary data from employers. With- out the data, we won’t know the extent of pay discrimina- tion. We know plenty now. We know that Black women earn 63 cents for every dol- lar paid to White men; White women earn 80 cents for ev- ery dollar White men make. We know that Black women in Louisiana earn the least com- “ No one can be relied on to defend us, except us pared to White men, about 48 cents on the dollar. In compar- ison, Black women in Missou- ri, Tennessee, Maryland and Pennsylvania earn 68 cents for every dollar a White man earns. Whatever we earn, it ain’t equal. Under President Barack Obama, the Equal Employ- ment Opportunity Commis- sion established requirements to provide pay transparency. Businesses with more than 100 employees were required to start releasing salary data in March 2018. And now, the Republican Congress says that no resources may be used to collect this very necessary data. It reminds me of the old folks who used to say, “you don’t miss what you can’t mea- sure.” But we can measure the pay inequity, and we can see it in the quality of women’s lives. We might not be able to point a finger at one compa- ny or another (Republicans are also likely to make class action lawsuits more chal- lenging), but we have enough aggregate data to know that there is pervasive gender dis- crimination in the workplace, and that Black women shoul- der an extra burden. Not only do African Amer- ican women earn less, but we also catch more shade because of our skin color, be- cause of who we are and what we represent. Former First Lady Mi- chelle Obama has spoken out, though very gently, about the racism she experienced while in office. At a recent gathering in Colorado, she spoke about the many “cuts” she experi- enced, and told The Denver Post that “The shards that cut me the deepest were the ones that intended to cut,” refer- ring to comments about her looks, and especially those that referred to her as “an ape.” She said she was dis- mayed in “knowing that after eight years of working really hard for this country, there are still people who won’t see me for what I am because of my skin color.” Read the rest of this commentary at TheSkanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2017 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS d ay ! • L i ke u s o n F ebo m me • nts TheSkannerNews o k • learn • co in y o u r c o m m u n to y • ac it Updated daily. Trump’s Circus in the White House Continues I n only six months in the White House, the Trump Administration has deliv- ered the shortest tenure of any White House Chief of Staff in United States history (189 days) and the shortest tenure for a White House Communications Director (10 days). President Trump’s for- mer National Security Advi- sor Michael Flynn, holds the record for the shortest tenure of any National Security Ad- visor in U.S. history (24 days). On July 21, Anthony Scar- amucci made his debut as the new White House Com- munications Director in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House. It was a smooth-talking, per- sonality-driven press confer- ence; Scaramucci showed all the signs that he was ready for prime time as newly-ap- pointed White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stood nearby. The po- litical commentator and cap- ital management executive took question after question and many political observers called Scaramucci Trump’s “Mini Me.” The conservative New York Post ran a cover that depicted the jungle-set reality TV show “Survivor” featuring several current White House employ- ees including Counselor to President Trump Kellyanne Lauren Victoria Burke NNPA Columnist Conway; then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus; senior advi- sor to President Trump Jar- ed Kushner; and then-White House Communication Di- rector Anthony Scaramucci. “ Trump’s skills as an al- leged master of negotiation are yet to be seen during his time in the White House It turns out the cover was ex- tremely well timed. On July 26, Scaramucci went on a profanity-laced tirade during a phone call with Ryan Lizza, a Washington corre- spondent for The New York- er magazine; the investment banker-turned White House insider threatened “to fire the entire White House com- munications staff ” and called Priebus “a f---ing paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac.” Priebus resigned on July 28. On Monday, July 31 Scaramuc- ci was gone, too, even though his first official day would have been August 15. CNN.com reported that, “Scaramucci is the third White House communica- tions director to leave the post that had been vacant since late May, when Mike Dubke left after about three months on the job. Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary, also assumed some of the communications direc- tor role before he resigned when Scaramucci was hired July 21.” The article continued: “In addition to Priebus, Katie Walsh, the former White House deputy chief of staff, left the administration in March, and Michael Short, an assistant press secretary, resigned earlier this month when it became clear Scara- mucci was going to fire him.” The revolving staff door in Trump’s immediate orbit could not be consoling to any- one hoping that his adminis- tration, nearly 200 days into the job, would achieve some sense of stability. The Trump staff rollercoaster can’t be calming to foreign leaders, either, who have relied on the U.S. for decades. The staff shakeups fly in the face of one of President Trump’s biggest claims of his 2016 presidential campaign: That he was an incredibly suc- cessful, billionaire real estate mogul driven by “The Art of the Deal.” Trump’s skills as an alleged master of negotiation are yet to be seen during his time in the White House. Trump’s biggest and most embarrassing legislative fail- ure, to date, occurred on July 27 after the Senate failed to vote on a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act. The vote failed after Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) walked in through a Senate lobby and at the front of the chamber, as other senators and congres- sional staffers milled about, lifted his hand and quickly pointed his thumb down. Sen- ate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) looked on in dismay. Republicans control the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and White House, but with Trump’s combusti- ble managerial style, it feels as if Republicans are in con- trol of nothing. Now that President Trump has named retired four-star Marine General John Kelly as his new Chief of Staff, the be- leaguered reality TV star will have yet another shot at try- ing to run the country with some semblance of order. nt • lo c a l n e w s • eve
