What Else Happened? Job Market Discrimination and Tiny House Activism

Regina and Kat discuss the news about indigenous activists building tiny houses to stop another pipeline, the discrimination women can face on the job market, and the obstacles Black Boston residents must overcome when accessing health care. Plus, Kat talks to Kathy Bougher about an injustice in El Salvador.

This week on What Else Happened, hosts and Rewire managing editors Regina Mahone and Kat Jercich discuss the news about indigenous activists building tiny houses to stop another pipeline, the discrimination women can face on the job market, and the obstacles Black Boston residents must overcome when accessing health care. Also, Kat speaks with writer Kathy Bougher about the case of a woman in El Salvador who was sentenced to 30 years in prison after losing a pregnancy.

An edited excerpt:

Regina: Now, self-described Tiny House Warriors will position ten houses along the Trans Mountain pipeline route to block Kinder Morgan from completing its project, which, like the Dakota Access pipeline, threatens the tribal community’s land and water.

Kat: Just last month, a pipeline shut down after leaking some 210,000 gallons of oil onto agricultural land in northeastern South Dakota. The company behind the pipeline, TransCanada, said at the time that there was “no significant environmental impact or threat to the public.” But that’s a lot of oil on agricultural land.

Regina: Leaks like the one in South Dakota and in other parts of the world, on land and in the sea, are exactly what indigenous activists are protesting. In the case of the Secwepemc Nation, I think it’s important to mention that not only did the community not provide its consent for this pipeline, it’s now explicitly and irrevocably refusing its passage through their territory. So the question becomes: Can tiny houses stop the expansion of another pipeline?

Recommended Reading:

Can Tiny Houses Halt the Expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline?, by Ayşe Gürsöz

Color Line Persists, In Sickness As In Health, by Liz Kowalczyk, Todd Wallack, Nicole Dungca, Akilah Johnson, Andrew Ryan, Adrian Walker

Could Increasing the Number of Black Health-Care Providers Fix Our Maternal Health Problem?, by Elizabeth Dawes Gay

Transcript (PDF)