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“Give light and people will find their way.” Ella Baker MARCH / APRIL 2015 | VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 3 / APRIL 2015 | VOLUME MARCH IN THIS ISSUE: Celebrating Women’s History and Poetry months Why Medicaid Expansion? THE LIGHTHOUSE FROM THE MARCH / APRIL 2015 VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 3 DESK OF... EDITOR Natalie A. Collier Celebrating Women’s History CONTRIBUTERS Bria Griffith and Poetry months Nathan R. Harper Keyaira Sanders Zhane Steen GRAPHIC DESIGNER Sirita Render The Academy of American Poets GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERN introduced National Poetry Zoë Meeks Month in 1996 to introduce more people to poetry. COVER IMAGE Since its beginning, another country—Canada—has also Salaam Muhammad, begun recognizing the month. “Beyond The Dreaded Abyss” APRIL IS ALSO JAZZ APPRECIATION MONTH. In celebration, pull out a little Lady Day or Ella or Bird and Dizz. What’s that? Want something a bit more modern? Esperanza Spalding and Gregory Porter will do you just fine. “I am a woman that came from the cotton fields of the South. I was promoted from there to the washtub. Then I was promoted to the cook kitchen, and from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. … Everybody told me I was making a mistake by “Contrary to what we may have been “Give light and people will find their way.” Ella Baker going into this business, taught to think, unnecessary and un- but I know how to grow chosen suffering wounds us but need not hair as well as I know scar us for life. It does not mark us. What how to grow cotton.” we allow the mark of our suffering to become is in our own hands.” bell hooks Madame C. J. Walker in a speech to the National Negro Business League, “She is a friend of my mind. She gather Chicago, August 1912 me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the MARCH / APRIL 2015 | VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 3 / APRIL 2015 | VOLUME MARCH IN THIS ISSUE: right order. It’s good, you know, when Celebrating Women’s History you got a woman who is a friend of your and Poetry months mind.” Toni Morrison’s Beloved, pt. III Why Medicaid Expansion? 2 THE LIGHTHOUSE | MARCH/APRIL 2015 | VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 3 pol·i·tick·in \`pä-li-tik-in\ intransitive verb POLITICKIN’ to engage in often partisan political discussion or activity Check here for the latest in politics in the region and resources that might & POSSIBILITIES make your life easier or open you up to another world of opportunities. Medicaid Expansion 101 191,300; Georgia, 409,350; and Mississippi, 130,000. These are the people in the Medicaid Expansion gap who have no options for affordable health insurance. Who falls in the gap? Of the nearly 750,000 individuals in SRBWI states who fall in the coverage gap, there are fast food workers, barbers, hairstylists, construction workers, and daycare workers. These are all people who make our every day lives easier; in fact, we are many of these people. Who is responsible for this gap? Said quite simply our elected officials are. Governors Robert Bentley, Nathan Deal and Phil Bryant in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, respectively, are. But it’s not just them. The other state leaders have the authority What is the Medicaid expansion gap? to accept federal money to pay for the hundreds of thousands of those under the Medicaid program. Under the Affordable Care Act, it was intended that Despite this opportunity, however, they have chosen to every person have access to affordable health coverage. withhold coverage that could be life saving for many. The law made it mandatory that states expand their Medicaid programs so that low-income people would Why is Medicaid Expansion important? be able to get Medicaid. But a Supreme Court decision gave states the option instead of mandating them to Aside from the nearly 130,000 Mississippians that expand their Medicaid programs. Up to now, unlike 26 would have access to affordable health insurance, other states, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi have said under the most likely expansion enrollment scenario, “no” to expanding the Medicaid program that would Mississippi would see billions in increased tax revenues help and provide health insurance to nearly hundreds of as a result. Expansion would also bring billions of thousands of people in Southern Rural Black Women’s dollars in federal funds to the state and that would Initiative (SRBWI) states. How many exactly? In Alabama, result in, again, billions in economic activity. Expansion would generate tens of thousands new jobs. Factoid In Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, 15.9, 22.7 and 19 percent of black women reported not having a regular healthcare provider. An even larger percentage of Latina women in Georgia reported no provider at 40.4 percent; there was in sufficient data for the demographic in Alabama and Mississippi. Statistics for men, in general, are even more startling. Visit kff.org for more information. SOURCE: THE KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION. THE LIGHTHOUSE | MARCH/APRIL 2015 | VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 3 3 VOICES Ready! Set! This Sucks! Hut! by Bria Griffith This is not about the Lingerie Bowl I’m still not sure if he was being It was a Friday night entirely. But the Lingerie Bowl serious. I thought it best not to ask. and unlike others my age on the small (its existence) is the reason it’s screen so often seem to do, I wasn’t difficult to have these kinds of dressing up for a night on the town. “Would it surprise you to know it was conversations. It’s complicated Instead I was getting ready for a hot against the law for Greek women to balancing individual freedom with bath, soft bed, big bowl of popcorn compete in or attend the Olympics?” I the greater good, and alternatives and hours upon hours of OnDemand asked instead. When he didn’t respond, are limited, if not nonexistent. television. As I settled in to enjoy I compounded the question. “Would it my own version of a sexy weekend surprise you that the reason athletes evening in, my phone buzzed. I had a Initially, I thought Simon was trying to competed naked was to ensure no message. I hadn’t heard from Simon get me riled up. But after a while, it women were competing in disguise?” (name has been changed to protect was evident that this guy was serious. the ignorant) in a while. We talked Then he challenged me to prove him “That’s interesting. I didn’t know for two hours—the last, the most wrong. (If fools could be persuaded by that,” he finally responded. animated. My pulse raced, my face facts, they wouldn’t be fools. But I took frowned and my heart longed for the a deep breath, avoided calling Simon “When was basketball officially beautiful evening I’d planned, Simon an idiot and decided to forge ahead.) a thing?” I probed next. interrupted, and subsequently, ruined. First, I investigated. “I’ve attended “I’m going to Google it. … It I love football. And what started as a sporting events since I was a toddler. says 1892. The first NBA game lively discussion about the differences How many professional sporting was played in 1946.” between college and professional events have you attended?” football ended with Simon trying “What do you think women’s to convince me that women are no “A few,” he replied. attendance rates at those games more sexualized in sports than men. were in 1892 and 1946?” His evidence? Early Greek Olympians “Was it your experience that the competed naked; basketball players women in attendance were pointing “That was a long time ago! I’m sure used to wear short shorts; wrestlers and giggling at the players?” there were some there, though.” compete in matches in Speedos; and Ultimate Fighting Championship “No, not that I recall. Most of “To watch men play in basketball (UFC) fighters and boxers are always them watched the game.” shorts?” I asked sarcastically. shirtless in the ring. For emphasis, Silly Simon added two more points. “Yeah, that’s been my experience “Probably! Nobody really Women only attend sporting events too,” already knowing the answer. understood the game back then.” to gawk at the half-naked male “Why do you think Greek Olympians athletes. He was also adamant that competed in the nude?” “OK, well, basketball shorts have the Lingerie Bowl was proof alone been baggy since Michael Jordan that women were seen as equal “Because men and women wanted started the trend, so why are so many competitors to men in football and to see naked bodies! They had a women going to games now?” their “uniforms” were worn by choice. reputation for being wild,” he said. 4 THE LIGHTHOUSE | MARCH/APRIL 2015 | VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 3 VOICES Ready! Set! This Sucks! Hut! (continued) The expectation for women athletes is to be, as in the lingerie football league, sexy first, and then have athletic prowess. For men, however, athleticism is praised and conversations about sex appeal come later, if at all. “They see money on the court,” he kinds of endorsement deals. Very few And, quite frankly, he was wrong! said while laughing and showing (phenomenal) women athletes are his low opinion of women. able to let their work on the court or I ended my conversation with Simon field “speak” for them without having and drew a hot bath. I’d earned it with “So the only reason a woman, in the to sell sex. Most often, as is the case my physical and mental exhaustion.