recently read - march

Hey! Want some stuff to read and chew over that has absolutely nothing to do with this global pandemic? You've come to the right place! Grab a cup of something tasty and gather 'round.

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How I Get By: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

by Maxwell Strachan for Vice

At 29, Brown works approximately 40 hours a week, splitting her time between a McDonald’s in Durham, North Carolina, and a food-service gig a local hospital. “It’s still not enough,” she said. Both jobs are part-time, and she doesn’t receive health insurance through either employer. She can’t afford insurance on her own, either. That’s a problem since Brown is diabetic, and she has to pay for her medical expenses out of pocket. She’s trying to do all she can on her own—she receives no food stamps or other assistance, she notes—but it rarely feels like she’s doing enough.

This article is from December, but I'm finally getting around to sharing it here. I recently shared a money diary post, but I'm cognizant of the fact that it would be radically different with just a small tweak in my financial circumstances. Seeing how Cierra makes it work was very... humbling.

The Infinite Scroll

by David Roth for CJR

In the last half-decade, ads have rapidly migrated from the sides and top of the page into the actual text. This is the result of pressures created by the transition from desktop computers to mobile devices. The ads need to get seen on a screen with no margins. 

Some sites have deliberately made the experience of reading them for free more assaultive, in order to bully readers into buying subscriptions. For the price of a small monthly indulgence on your end, it can all go back to normal and your laptop’s fan can finally turn off.

I went through line after line of this article nodding my head in agreement and annoyance. I'm an avid article reader. I love clicking through to thinkpieces on different topics from a variety of sources, but it's getting more and more difficult to read the actual content. No, I don't want to subscribe to your newsletter, please stop those videos from autoplaying in the sidebar, and for the love of all things holy, does every single paragraph need to be interrupted by an ad? How are they immune to my ad blockers?!

Why The Friends vs. Living Single Twitter Beef Really Matters

by actress Erika Alexander on Medium

 ... So there can never be an all-Black Friends, because Friends was the all-white Living Single... But our being marketed to a mostly Black audience signaled to brands that we were less than and would never command a higher evaluation.

Racism isn’t always about what you know, usually it’s about what you don’t know or what you don’t want somebody else to know. If Black people and our accomplishments are continually not seen, then it’s easier to ghettoize us, to marginalize us... That’s how a seemingly innocent comment from David Schwimmer reverberated in my community.

I'm not usually the person to post about twitter drama, especially when it involves such touchy subjects like race and politics. However, when Queen Erika Alexander takes the time to pen an essay about the tv show Living Single and the impact it had on Friends, I take time to break my rules. This was such a go read, through and through. Erika articulated all the things i've ever thought and felt about the "black sitcom" label.

(It's like how ketchup, mustard, and mayo are all in the condiment aisle at the grocery store, but salsa is stashed over in the ethnic aisle. Do grocery stores not realize salsa is also a condiment??)