We Fight the Good Fight

While they say crazy things about women and race

We all knew it was coming but it sure is gross and weird to watch Republican men and pundits slut shame the vice president of our country. I saw a truck sporting the “Joe and the Hoe Gotta Go” on the road in Greenville yesterday, so clearly the misogynoir resonates with the base, which of course is no surprise. Misogynoir is a term used to describe the intersection of racism and misogyny that is often leveled at Black women, and was coined by communications professor Moya Bailey (recommend her work Misogynoir Transformed).

It’s gross, and like the girls and women in their lives see this, right?!

Despite the expected attacks, I’ve been really encouraged to see people on the left understanding the assignment, and finally following the lead of Black women. After the highly successful Win with Black Women and Win with Black Men Zoom calls, we’ve seen many subsequent groups organizing their own fundraising and voter outreach. I was admittedly nervous about the white groups—would they be cringe? Could they acknowledge white privilege? But apparently people have been doing the reading, and the parts of the white women call I was on were really encouraging.

@jayjayghatt2What a week it haa been!! Starting with 44K Black Women on a Zoom mobilizinz, organizing, raising $1.2M in a day, followed by Black men and white women breaking the Zoom record of over 100K ans first donation being $50k! This is just the beginning and everytime JD Vance opens his mouth, we identify a new community to have a zoom for! The Swifties are coming & there has been record voter registration!

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And listen, for those of us in states with abortion bans (Iowa now recently joining the list, I’m so sorry), electing Harris and getting federal protections in place are the only way we will be able to regain those rights. In South Carolina, there is no option to put abortion access directly on the ballot and bypass the legislature, so barring massive turnout that can overcome the gerrymandered state districting and drive these women haters out of office, we’re probably stuck with the anti-abortion majority for the foreseeable future.

I’m hoping we can win enough seats to block the most terrifying legislation, like the Prenatal Equal Protection Act that Rob Harris proposed that would subject women having abortions to the death penalty, something even more horrific now that the SC Supreme Court has ruled it constitutional to execute inmates by firing squad or electric chair (lethal injection is almost impossible, as companies have refused to make the drugs available to murderous state governments).

Despite knowing our SC Supreme Court is a legislative yes man, kudos anyway to SC ACLU for leading the charge challenging the SUPER messed up racial gerrymander of SC House District One, that makes a competitive seat a total giveaway to Nancy Mace. You can listen to

Emily Mayer

’s interview with

Paul Bowers

on

The Arena

(true story, I ran into Bowers once at IKEA and confirm he’s just as cool in person):

Paul Bowers of the ACLU Discusses Lawsuit Over Partisan Gerrymandering

In some good news, our local hospital system is sponsoring a program to connect Black mothers with doulas in an effort to lower our state’s shockingly high maternal mortality rates among Black women. Maybe our elected officials will be inspired to take action (maybe take that Medicaid expansion, idk).

Ending with not one but TWO book clubs… this week I’m the guest poster on

Matriarchy Report

’s discussion of Miranda July’s All Fours (my favorite book of the summer). And next week is our discussion of Do the Work, be sure to mark your calendars for Wednesday August 7^th. I’ll send out the link next week.

Happy weekend, everyone! Don’t forget to donate and volunteer for local and state races, too!