11. Under the Blacklight: COVID and Disaster Capitalism

Intersectionality Matters!

Intersectionality Matters with Kimberlé Crenshaw

News

4.7 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2020

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the second episode in our new conversation series, “Under the Blacklight: The Intersectional Vulnerabilities that COVID Lays Bare” (originally aired over Zoom April 1st), five incredible change-makers join host Kimberlé Crenshaw for a conversation about building collective resistance and power in the time of COVID-19. Saru Jayaraman and Mily Treviño-Sauceda illuminate the impact of the current crisis on workers in the restaurant and agriculture industries; Naomi Klein explains how governments around the world are using this disastrous moment to push through legislation that would otherwise be roundly dismissed as dangerously authoritarian; Dara Baldwin talks about the dehumanizing and ableist rationing programs being advanced in states like Alabama, Kansas, and Washington; and Janine Jackson critiques, among other things, the corporate media’s “lives v. livelihood” framing that has dominated news cycles in recent weeks. In the coming weeks, we'll continue hosting live events that bring together artists, activists, thought leaders, scholars, service-providers and others on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. Each Wednesday we’ll bring you a virtual conversation over Zoom, which will be released as an episode of Intersectionality Matters! the following week. With: Dara Baldwin — Director of National Policy, Center for Disability Rights Janine Jackson — Program Director, Producer & Host of FAIR Saru Jayaraman — President, One Fair Wage; Co-Founder, ROC United Naomi Klein — Gloria Steinem Chair for Media, Culture and Feminist Studies, Rutgers University; author of The Shock Doctrine Mily Treviño-Sauceda — Vice President and Co-Director, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks) Produced and Edited by Julia Sharpe-Levine  Additional support provided by Andrew Sun, Emmett O’Malley, Michael Kramer, Janeen Irving  Music by Blue Dot Sessions Follow us at @intersectionalitymatters, @IMKC_podcast

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Kimberly Crenshaw, and this is Intersectionality Matters.
0:05.7	The podcast that brings intersectionality to life by exploring the hidden dimensions of today's
0:11.6	most pressing issues, from say her name and Me Too, to the war on civil rights and the global
0:17.7	rise of fascism. This is an idea travelogue. It lifts up the work of leading
0:23.3	activists, artists, and scholars, and helps listeners understand politics, the law, social movements,
0:29.9	and even their own lives in deeper, more nuanced ways. COVID-19 has changed everything, halting life as we know it in its tracks.
0:45.3	To respond to this global pandemic and to adapt to this new way of life, we're doing things a bit more DIY than usual. We're not in the studio and we're dispersed
0:57.1	all over the country, but we did want to respond to the urgent need for information, bringing to
1:03.2	you the voices of some of the leading experts to help us grapple with the new and not so new
1:08.6	dimensions of this crisis. It's in this vein that we're calling the series
1:13.6	Under the Black Light to uncover the conditions
1:16.6	that pre-existed the virus and the cracks in our social structure
1:20.6	that the virus can now exploit to wreak maximum havoc.
1:25.6	In the coming weeks, we'll be producing live conversations that bring
1:29.4	together artists, activists, thought leaders, scholars, service providers, and
1:34.0	others on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19. Each Wednesday will
1:39.2	bring you a virtual conversation over Zoom, which will then be released as an
1:43.6	episode of intersectionality matters in the following week.
1:47.0	I began the conversation by asking Saru Jayaraman, president of one fair wage, to share some of what she's been hearing from restaurant workers and others in the service industry.
2:12.0	So, first of all, I think it's super important for people to understand where workers were at in the service sector before mass layoffs occurred about a couple weeks ago.
2:21.5	You know, the restaurant industry is one of the largest and fastest growing segments of the economy with almost 14 million workers, but is also one of the absolute lowest paid.
2:29.3	And that is because of a legacy of slavery, the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, which is still $2.13 an hour.
	...

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