OptOut Picks: Mother's Day Edition!

Happy Mother's Day, OptersOut!

Today we're going to highlight content about mothers as well as some more news produced by or about women.

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And now, here's some independent content from the OptOut network on this holiday. Love you, Mom!

Mother's Day was unfortunately coopted by commercial interests, but read about its radical roots in Jacobin.

Mother’s Day Has Deeply Radical Roots

Yes, you should absolutely call your mom today. But you should also know that Mother’s Day isn’t just a holiday for greeting card and chocolate companies to make a buck, but of radical antiwar and feminist organizers.

Liza Featherstone

Mother’s Day began in 1858 when Ann Jarvis, an Appalachian housewife and mother to at least eleven children, organized “Mother’s Work Days” to improve sanitation, in a time when polluted water and disease-bearing pests were major causes of death in poor communities like hers.

How photos helped incarcerated mothers survive the pandemic in prison

A photo project reveals how separation affects incarcerated mothers and their children.

Injustice WatchSarah Conway

“Being able to visually read the biographies of my children’s lives through photos not only made me feel loved, supported, and a part of my children’s lives, but it made me feel a sense of freedom, made me feel human,” Harris said.

Palestinian Mothers are the Glue that Bonds Palestinian Society - CounterPunch.org

My father, Jamil Halaby, passed away in Jerusalem, Palestine, in 1947. Fifty years later and until her death on March 16, 1997, Katrina Halaby, my late mother, was never able to visit her husband’s grave to say the kaddish or lay flowers. And because of the turbulent 1948 political climate in Pales…

CounterPunch.orgRaouf Halaby

Little did the many bus tutors know that this fair-skinned, greyish-blue eyed Nordic-looking woman was a Palestinian mother attempting to learn Hebrew not only to help her children with their Hebrew language lessons, but also to learn the language of the occupiers so as to negotiate the many daily challenges Palestinians had to (and still do) face in a hostile and racist environment.

The latest from Belly of the Beast Cuba:

Dachelys and Hope are Cuba's first legally recognized same-sex parents. They hope Cuba's new Family Code will legalize marriage for LGBTQ couples.

Racist cops brutalize pregnant Black women, in a startling reminder of what we're fighting when it comes to systemic racism and a violent and out-of-control police force in this country. Status Coup's Jenn Dize and independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg report.

Ethiopian women making movies

The presence of successful female writers, directors, and producers set Ethiopia’s film industry apart from Hollywood, Bollywood, and the rest of world cinema.

Steven W. Thomas

In Africa Is a Country:

Behind the rise of Ethiopian cinema is an even more remarkable tale of the women who—as writers, directors, producers, and scholars—have been leaders in this transformation.

For Empire Files, "Abby Martin explains what's behind the cringe ‘Humans of CIA’ recruitment ad promoting themselves as a place of ‘intersectional’ social progress."

Ahmad Abuznaid on Israel/Palestine Apartheid, James Love on Bill Gates & Vaccine Politics

Where elite media present a frozen he said/she said, never-the-twain-shall-meet debate over Israel/Palestine, more and more people see a different way forward.

FAIRRichard Leeds

Janine Jackson, host of FAIR's Counterspin podcast, talks with guests about how the New York Times predictably "both-sidesed" Israel's atrocities against Palestinians—an apartheid system, according to Human Rights Watch—and why the media elevates billionaires, including and especially monopolist Bill Gates, in the context of vaccines and international policy.

Manhattan borough president candidate Lindsey Boylan, comedian Helen Hong, and The Bitchuation Room host Francesca Fiorentini join #FemFriday on The Nomiki Show!

Whether you're celebrating Mother's Day or a belated International Women's Day, I hope it's a good one! See you next weekend, and thanks for keeping up with the latest from the OptOut network.