About Talia Whyte

Posts by Talia Whyte:

The Plight of Mega Commuters

I was talking to my friend Charlene the other day.  She and her family recently moved to Poughkeepsie, NY.  This is the third time she has moved in five years.  She works as a medical billing specialist in a Manhattan hospital.

Charlene was born and raised in Brooklyn but was forced to move out in 2013 due to the housing crunch and gentrification.  Her commute to work on the subway from Brooklyn took 20-30 minutes.  She moved to Flushing, Queens and lived there for about a year and a half until her landlord sold her building and the new owners doubled the rent.  Her commute from Flushing to midtown Manhattan on the subway also doubled to 40-60 minutes.

She then moved to New Rochelle and her commute actually improved a little, as she was able to take the Metro-North into Manhattan in about 35 minutes, but she had to take a bus, Uber or have someone drop her off at the train station, which was a 10-minute drive.  Unfortunately,  her husband’s job was downgraded to a part-time position, which meant a lower salary.  This summer Charlene, her husband, and three kids decided to move to Poughkeepsie into an affordable housing unit.  Charlene’s commute to Manhattan is now two hours.  She had thought of getting another job, but she says that she now has seniority at the job with good benefits, and if she took another job in her field, she would have to start at a lower salary and work her way up again like an entry-level employee.  Her job also requires her to be a New York resident, so moving to New Jersey or Connecticut is not an option.

This is the plight of a growing number of Americans who are considered by the U.S. Census Bureau to be “mega-commuters” – those who commute more than 90 minutes and 85 miles one way to work regularly.  According to the Bureau’s report, there are 600,000 mega-commuters throughout the country. If you include people who commute at least an hour each way, that number jumps to 10.8 million, or a little over 8 percent of U.S. workers.

While telecommuting is on the rise, there are still going to be jobs that require workers to be in a designated workplace, which can be many miles or another city or state away.  Why is this happening?  Most of these mega-commuters are being forced to live further away from major metropolitan areas because of raising property rates, which also cause higher rental rates.  Many low to middle-income people are being forced to live further away from their jobs.  This is a very unfair, unfortunate result of gentrification.

I remember having a job once when I was younger where my commute was two hours.  I didn’t own a car, so I had to take one bus for 20 minutes, a subway ride for 40 minutes and then the commuter rail for 20 minutes and another bus for 20 minutes to this job west of Boston. It was one of my first jobs out of college and couldn’t afford a car and Uber wasn’t around back then.  I needed the job not just because it was good money for an entry-level person, but also because it would help leverage my resume for a better job.  That better job closer to home did come about a year later, but this was a grueling commute.  Today, I am very lucky that I am self-employed and can telecommute, but what about the other mega-commuters?

Clearly, there needs to be a serious discussion about regulating housing rates for all households, regardless of income, but this is also an infrastructure issue as well.  If this country had better mass transit options, especially for intercity rail systems, maybe commutes could be shorter and more efficient.

Spring Into Jazz Playlist 2018!

Apparently, you all love hearing about my musical favors!  Here are the albums I am listening to on my iPod these days.

Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis

Kind of Blue by Miles Davis

A Love Supreme by John Coltrane

Monk’s Dream by The Thelonious Monk Quartet

Ella and Louis by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Song Books by Ella Fitzgerald
Ellington at Newport by Duke Ellington

When The Opioid Crisis Gets Really Real

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I had a conversation this week with a neighbor about her outrage about seeing disposal bins for dirty syringes in the bathroom of our local public library.

“I can’t believe they put these things in places where my children can see them,” she said.  “This is only encouraging drug use.  It is just not responsible.” (On the left is a picture of the bin she is talking about.)

But what is responsible here?  The opioid crisis is a very real problem everywhere, including in public libraries, where staff members and patrons are put into the unfortunate position of seeing this problem first hand.  Users are shooting up in the library.  Apparently, there have been 25 “narcotic related illnesses” in Boston public libraries in the last year and librarians sometimes have to administer Narcan to overdose victims.  This is a fact, whether you are comfortable with it or not.  I am not a public health expert and don’t know of a better solution; however, I would prefer the libraries to have needle disposal bins so at least if the user is shooting up, they will dispose of their needles safely.  I have been in five bathrooms in other public spaces in the last four months where I have found dirty needles in the sink, on the floor, in the regular trash bin or even in the toilet. Would my neighbor prefer her kids encountering the needles that way?

I ride the T a lot and have seen my share of people overdosing on the train or bus.  One time a woman sitting across from me on the train passed out, fell to the ground and started foaming out of her mouth.  Other passengers had the train stopped and took her off.  An ambulance came a few minutes later and took her away.  I hope she survived.  Another time, I was standing near my local commuter rail station and saw a woman lying down on the bench.  I just thought she was a homeless woman sleeping at first, but when I looked closer, I thought she couldn’t be homeless, as she was very well dressed, but lying face down with a very slow breathing pattern. Another woman came up from behind me and shook the lying woman to wake her up, which she didn’t.  Then I noticed there was a used syringe lying under the bench.  At that moment, the other woman called an ambulance.  The ambulance came and took the overdosed woman away. I hope she survived too.

Again, I don’t know what the solution here is, but life has become really real.

What is Intersectionality?

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This is one of these new terms I had known about, but couldn’t refer to it by a name until recently.

So here is my definition: Intersectionality is the belief that one person can have many different identities that don’t exist separately and have an effect on how that person is viewed in society. This theory was first developed by race theorist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. Identities could include, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, gender, class, nationality, sexual orientation, and disability.

For example, I am a middle-class, first-generation Jamaican-American, college-educated, black female. All of these identities have an effect on how society views me, for both good and bad. I am using my friend, Janine, who is a working-class, fourth-generation Irish-American, white female with a GED and uses a wheelchair. We both face discrimination for being female; however, because I am also black, I face both racial and gender bias. I am an entrepreneur and live in a house and can afford a better standard of life compared Janine who lives paycheck to paycheck at her office manager job. While being a white female in America still hold high privilege, Janine faces discrimination for her disability.

Believe it or not, Sojourner Truth was the first advocate who articulated intersectionality the best during the 1851 Women’s Convention in Ohio:

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.

Sojourner Truth was the truth!

This is a very complex discussion. So here is a video of Crenshaw discussing intersectionality.

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