weneedtotalk

Every June, millions of people part of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies gather to celebrate the existence and beauty of different forms of love and connection. This month of wholesome, deserving support was initiated to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, and soon turned into a movement to push forward the idea of equality of all people regardless of race, sex, or sexual orientation.

Time and time again, capitalism, by nature, exploits marginalized communities by transforming them into mere markets, and selling them back to these communities as a commodity. Rainbow capitalism, the innate commercialization of LGBTQ+ movements, cheapens the meaning of pride month and the LGBTQ+ community. Many people are unaware of the hardships queer people of color went through in order to make pride month a reality, though this month is coincidentally meant to commemorate them. It has been found that an estimated 20 to 30 percent of the LGBTQ+ community abuses substances, compared to about 9 percent of the population as a whole and despite this, June is perhaps the biggest promotional season for the alcohol industry (“The LGBTQ Community and Addiction”).

On January 22nd, 1973, the Supreme Court decided through a (7-2) ruling that “unduly restrictive state regulation of abortion in unconstitutional.” This decision, known as Roe v. Wade, arose as a result of Jane Roe, a name used to safeguard the identity of the plaintiff Norma McCorvey, taking federal action against the district attorney of Dallas County, Henry Wade. Roe argued that the state laws regarding the illegal nature of abortion attempted to inhibit her right to personal privacy, which was protected under the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Amendments. The Supreme Court decision was eventually made on the basis that the Fourteenth Amendment defends the right to privacy against the state, violating a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion or not. The case concluded that the state may not control a decision on abortion until the second trimester, in which regulations may be instituted on abortion that are related to maternal health – once the the third trimester has begun, the state may prohibit abortions entirely as long as the law contains exceptions for which an abortion is needed to protect the life or health of the mother.

In March of 2021, it was revealed that Facebook had plans to make a version of Instagram for children under 13. Currently, Instagram does not allow children under 13 to use the platform, but many simply lie about their age in order to gain access to the platform. Facebook says that this new site will provide a safe place for kids to interact away from content on Instagram that may be inappropriate for young children. The site will include parental supervision and not display ads.

The Olympics have been in the news recently, but not because of the world-class athletes participating. Several organizations related to the Olympic Games have come under fire for actions widely seen as racist, especially to women of color.

Demand for online delivery has increased as quarantine suddenly struck society, and popular online retailer Amazon is no stranger to that fact. According to an employee tally at one delivery center, Amazon has been processing from 10% to 40% more packages than normal for this time of year. The company’s website had 639,330,722 visits for the week of March 9, according to data from Comscore, up 32% from the year earlier. This has put employees and workers there under immense strain as they try to process orders as quickly as possible.

With the availability of media giving us insights from and about people across the globe, awareness about LGBTQ+ is getting better every day, but are our institutions doing anything to aid the children that are coming out every day? Are institutions even doing anything to at least try and understand and educate children about gender and sexuality?

Imagine looking at the current events as though you are looking through a glass dome. Imagine trying to speak and everyone looks at you as if you are talking in someone else’s voice. To simultaneously speak for both sides and yet be voiceless; this is what it feels like to be a white-passing Black person.

The second wave of COVID-19 has caused tremendous damage in India. In June of 2020, India had reported 10,000 COVID-19 cases and began adding around 35,000 more cases every day after that. Then, in February 2021, cases in India were rising by 22,000 daily. However, this only worsened after the second COVID-19 wave intensified causing nearly a daily average of 89,000 cases daily.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January, 15 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. He was initially known as Micheal King Jr. and was the second child of Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. King had an older sister named Willie Christine and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King, which made him the middle-child. King was from a middle-class family. He grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. His family resided on Auburn Avenue which was recognized as the “Black Wall Street”, which included America’s largest and most successful black businesses and black churches years prior to the civil rights movement. Although King was fortunate to live in a secure and loving area and have parents who desperately tried to protect him from racism, he often still encountered situations experiencing prejudices. When Martin was a child, his white peers refused to play with him because they were now attending segregated schools.