"Reverse discrimination," sleep debt, and lemonading 🍋
News at the intersection of business and feminism
No institution is immune from bias and discrimination, even those that some consider progressive. Case in point: MSNBC.
This week the “left-leaning” news outlet fired Joy Reid, who had hosted The ReidOut for the last 5 years. She was the first Black woman to ever host a prime-time cable-news show.
The move received a great deal of outrage, including from the network’s biggest star, Rachel Maddow, who said, “I think it is a bad mistake to let her walk out the door.” (There was celebration from Donald Trump—further evidence that this was an awful decision.)
In isolation, Reid’s firing would be angering. It’s far more problematic, though, when placed in context of other recent departures from MSNBC.
On Jan. 14, Rashida Jones—the first Black executive to lead a cable news network—announced she was stepping down as president of MSNBC after 4 years. Her replacement is a white woman.
Then came this week. Lester Holt announced that he’s leaving the anchor chair for NBC Nightly News after a decade (he was the first Black man in the role). And MSNBC fired Reid, as well as announcing that Alex Wagner, Katie Phang, José Díaz-Balart, Jonathan Capehart, and Ayman Mohyeldi would all be losing their shows.
All of the on-air talent are being re-assigned to other roles or programs, except Reid (the only Black woman in the group).
As this new administration wages a “war on DEI,” institutions are falling in line. We cannot count on them—not even the “liberal” ones—to fight for what’s right. And MSNBC’s blatantly racist behavior this week only proves what we already knew.
Now onto this week’s roundup…
The cost of sexually assaulting a woman on an international TV stage in front of nearly 1 billion viewers? A paltry $11 million. What an awful reminder of how little worth society gives to women.
It’s a sad sign of the times: The Supreme Court is apparently leaning towards making “reverse discrimination” cases a more common reality.
NBA legend Michael Jordan is opening a fourth North Carolina health clinic for the uninsured. While it’s always great for billionaires to spend their ridiculous wealth on the public good, healthcare access should not be determined by the ultra wealthy.
Toxic positivity sucks, but perhaps you’d be willing to give “lemonading” a try. “Creatively imagining and pursuing positive possibilities to cultivate adaptive, enjoyable experiences while maintaining a clear-eyed realism about challenges” feels pretty important right about now, eh?
If you’re among the one-third of adults who get fewer than 6 hours of sleep at night, you need to read about why sleep debt is dangerous, and an extra nap isn’t enough to solve it.
Another reason to not jump on the bandwagon of forcing employees to return to office? Task masking, a TikTok trend among workers trying to make themselves appear busier than they are.
The new administration is doing its best to fight diversity at the same time the nation is growing more diverse. Gallup announced this week that 9.3% of Americans identify as LGBTQ+ up from 3.5% in 2012 when they first measured it.
Need a cure for imposter syndrome? One of the biggest debacles in business history—the Fyre Festival—is back for a second iteration. Despite serving nearly four years for wire fraud, bank fraud, and making false statements to law enforcement for the first Fyre Festival, its founder Billy McFarland isn’t letting impostor syndrome stop him from giving it another go.
We’ve become hopelessly addicted to our devices. So much so, in fact, that nearly half of participants in a recent study chose to have an electric shock after being left alone for 15 minutes with no stimulation rather than continue to sit in boredom.
Check out the list of Time’s Women of the Year to get inspired.
This week on Messy Liberation, Becky and Taina are joined by Dra. Nicole Cabrera-Salazar to talk about science, social justice, and the importance of community.
Tomorrow (Feb. 28th) is my 50th birthday. It’s also the day of a national ‘economic blackout” — a boycott on doing any shopping. If you must shop, use cash and shop small and local. My biggest birthday wish is that everyone reading this joins in on the shopping boycott so we can make our desire for change heard by speaking in a language the oligarchs understand.
Home Kitchen in the UK is beautiful example of what’s possible when business prioritizes people over profits. Not only is the restaurant run not-for-profit, but nearly all of the staff members have experienced homelessness. Two-time Michelin-starred chef Adam Simmond could have followed the expected path of opening a fancy, profitable restaurant, but he chose to dream bigger. Kudos!
Sometimes silence is louder than words. That’s the idea of “Is This What We Want?”, a protest against proposed changes to British AI laws that would allow tech firms to use copyrighted material to help train AI models. More than 1,000 British musicians are backing the album, which includes 12 tracks of empty recording studios and performance spaces.
Thank you for being a subscriber and for reading this far. You rock!
Yours in solidarity,
Becky & Faith
PS: Don’t forget to sign up for next week’s free Smart Steps to Zero workshop with Becky & Meg Wheeler of the Equitable Money project. We’ll help you take the first steps to getting out of debt.