Washington’s state tax code was created within many economic and legal systems and institutions aimed at keeping people of color from having access to wealth and opportunity: segregation, employment and housing discrimination, and cultural assimilation, among so many other things. Built on a history of institutional and systemic racism, this state tax structure – which is the most inequitable in the nation because it relies on those with the least to pay the most – is both a product of and perpetrator of racial and ethnic inequalities. In short, our state tax code compounds the barriers to economic opportunity faced by many communities of color. Continue reading OPINION: The Tax Code Should Advance Racial Justice→
It’s been twenty years since I photographed some of the events surrounding the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Seattle in November 1999. Lots of people who remember it at all, think of it as the “Battle in Seattle,” or the WTO riots,but my memories are of a mostly-peaceful protest attended by over 40 thousand people that thought like me; that believed in livable wages, safe working conditions, and protecting the environment. It was one of the most empowering events of my life. There were people representing labor, the environment, farmers, NGO’s, student and religious groups–all there to speak out against an organization that they believed had too much control over everyday people’s lives. They believed that–as one of the chants the protestors used–said, “Another World is Possible.” Continue reading OPINION: Remembering the Battle in Seattle 20 Years Later→
1988. His name was Tim. He graduated from Harvard at 16 and was working on his Masters. The law firm hired him to create a team and manage the transition from a mainframe system to desktop computing. Six months into his tenure everyone hated him, even the staff he had hired. Sure of his technical prowess and bolstered by decades of being the smartest person in the room, he was condescending to everyone. In his eyes, his solutions were always right, regardless of the actual outcomes. The human frailties and foibles of his colleagues and coworkers were liabilities to be fought against and conquered. Continue reading OPINION: The Mythology of the Highly Capable→
The number of People of Color attending local art events should be much higher.
by Georgia McDade
Last September, shortly before Seattle Arts and Lectures guest Malcolm Gladwell appeared on stage at Benaroya Hall, a young Black man who I did not know asked me why more Blacks had come to hear Gladwell than novelist Zadie Smith back in February. Continue reading OPINION: Why Is POC Attendance So Low at Seattle Art Events?→
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