This is our newsletter, Hard Reset. Sign up here. Donate to BigIfTrue.org here.

Crunching the numbers

• The number of applications for unemployment benefits has fallen for six weeks in a row.
• An Equilar survey found that of the 200 highest-paid chief executives at publicly traded companies, just 13 are women. The survey found that in 2020, CEO pay rose 14%, and chief executives earned 274 times more than the median salary at their companies.
• About 32 million Americans have a food allergy, which most food pantries failed to accommodate during the pandemic. For food programs that moved to contactless service, their clients received pre-made food packages that didn’t offer alternatives for people with gluten allergies and other intolerances. The WIC program, which provides food to low-income women, infants and children, also has few options for people with allergies. In one odd example, the program substitutes beans for peanut butter.

In local news

• Last week, Florida’s State Board of Education approved a rule that will block public schools from teaching students about how racism impacts society, a concept known as critical race theory. Similar measures have been put in place in 20 other states, including Oklahoma, Texas and Idaho.
• In May, Colorado became the first state to ban public colleges from offering legacy admissions. Most public colleges in the state already don’t take into account applicants’ family ties, but advocates for the policy hope that it will encourage students of color and prospective first-generation college students to apply. At the University of Colorado Boulder, applications from students of color rose 24% after the college stopped giving preference to legacy students.
• At the Oklahoma City Police Department, the agency’s homicide detectives investigate when police shoot and kill civilians, a practice that some states don’t allow due to the conflict of interest that arises when police are responsible for investigating themselves. This presentation from Seattle, Washington’s Community Police Commission outlines alternative models for investigating police violence. In 2014, Wisconsin became the first state to require officer-involved deaths to be examined by independent investigators who aren’t employed by the same agency involved in the incident.

One last thing

As part of an Arizona Republic series on the stories behind family recipes, Priscilla Totiyapungprasert wrote about kai jeow, a Thai omelet, and her relationship with her father, who moved to the United States from Thailand in the 70s.

The result is an incredibly personal and poignant essay on parenthood, family and how Totiyapungprasert’s father experienced life in the United States as an immigrant.

She writes: “My dad has always demanded a certain toughness from me. … He demanded mental toughness because, as I now realize, he wanted me to survive anything life might throw at me. I think being demanding on their children is how some immigrant parents cope with the pain of resiliency. Immigrants are supposed to wear their resiliency like a badge of honor.”

“What gets lost sometimes,” she says, “is that you don’t get the badge by choice, you learn resiliency because of constant necessity. It’s exhausting, this system that leaves no room for vulnerability.”

Food writers, especially food bloggers, have gotten flak for padding posts with unwanted essays about their recipes. Totiyapungprasert’s piece is a reminder that recipes are much more than a list of ingredients and cooking steps. Food is the fiber that connects us to our families, cultures and communities, and the stories behind that food deserve to be told.

And in the meantime, I’m jonesing to try kai jeow with crab meat and the sauce in Totiyapungprasert’s recipe – a mix of fish sauce, Thai chilies, garlic, lime and sugar. Sign me up!

Thank you for reading Hard Reset. You can reach me here at bryant@bigiftrue.org and 405-990-0988.
 
– Mollie Bryant
Founder and editor, BigIfTrue.org