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In OtherWords: Expanding Our Reach
Today, OtherWords commentaries and cartoons are appearing in about 325 newspapers with at least 7 million readers. We couldn’t have achieved this foothold without support from people like you and a handful of generous foundations. We aim to expand our reach in 2015 to...
An Overdue Fix to Overtime
There are a lot of ways that businesses are squeezing worker pay. Here’s a big one. On the one hand, millions of Americans are stuck in low-paying part-time jobs that don't offer them enough hours. On the other, millions more are now routinely forced to work over 40...
Fueling Corporate Welfare
Getting something for nothing is a pretty sweet deal — at least if you’re the one getting something. Not so much if you’re the one receiving nothing in exchange. Oil and gas companies are extracting gas from federal lands and paying nothing for much of it, according...
America’s ‘Post-Racial’ Lie
Shortly before Michael Brown’s fateful encounter with Ferguson cop Darren Wilson, I was appointed as a teaching assistant in a class on race and ethnicity. I'm white. I didn't go to grad school to study race — I study agriculture. When it comes to race, I'm clueless....
Operation Endless War
Only a few months ago, President Barack Obama announced the good news that our combat role in Afghanistan — the longest war in U.S. history — would finally end by New Year’s Day. Put away that champagne. A flock of screeching war hawks brought heavy political pressure...
Too Big to Ignore
Three years after the Occupy movement first directed long-overdue attention to the scourge of inequality in America, the gulf between rich and poor has gotten too big for even the Federal Reserve to ignore. As Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen recently pointed out,...
The Prejudicial System
Fomenting the Fear of Foreigners
Gosh, has it been two whole years since Republican leaders vowed to reach out to Latino voters with "a more welcoming, inclusive message" and "positive solutions on immigration"? My how time flies when you're having elections. The GOP's "outreach" was on full display...
In OtherWords: November 25, 2014
This week in OtherWords, Diana Torres explains why she thinks President Obama's immigration action falls short and Peter Hart predicts that Democrats will win more elections if they ignore calls to act more like Republicans. On behalf of the OtherWords team and all of...
Obama’s Immigration Action Doesn’t Go Far Enough
Inocencio Vernal has picked broccoli, sweet potatoes, corn, and celery in U.S. farms for more than 25 years. This holiday season, you might end up feasting on the fruits of his labor. Yet Vernal, like 53 percent of farmworkers, is undocumented. This means that he...
