Dems giving GOPisies a hammer to beat them over the head with by supporting trans ideology

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new Kansas law requires the state to reverse any previous gender changes in its records for trans people's birth certificates and driver's licenses while also preventing such changes going forward, the state's conservative Republican attorney general declared Monday. Attorney General Kris Kobach also said public schools' records for students must list them as being the gender they were assigned at birth, whether or not teachers and staff recognize their gender identities. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's office said she disagrees with Kobach's views, though it did not say whether state agencies under the governor's control would follow or defy them, setting up the possibility of a court fight. In 2019, a federal judge began requiring Kansas to allow transgender people to change their birth certificates to settle a lawsuit over a no-change policy. “The attorney general must be off his rocker,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, an attorney for Lambda Legal, which represented the four Kansas residents. “This was a bunch of bombast by an attorney general engaging in politics.” A formal but non-binding legal opinion issued Monday by Kobach and his statements during a Statehouse news conference confirmed that the new law, if fully in effect, legally would erase transgender people’s gender identities. Opponents predicted as much before the Republican-controlled Legislature enacted the law over Kelly’s veto, but the debate focused mostly on keeping transgender people from using restrooms and other facilities in line with their gender identities. The new law defines a person's sex — which can conflict with gender identity — based on a person's "biological reproductive system” at birth. A female has a system “developed to produce ova” while a male has a system “developed to fertilize” that ova. It says “important governmental objectives” of protecting people's health, safety and privacy justify sex-segregated spaces. “You can choose whatever name you want. You can choose to live however you want,” said state Sen. Renee Erickson, of Wichita, one of three Republican lawmakers who joined Kobach during his news conference. “That does not make you a woman.” If Kansas didn't allow transgender people to change their birth certificates — its policy before the judge's 2019 order — it would be among only a few states. Federal judges earlier this month upheld Oklahoma and Tennessee policies against such changes, and Montana could be sued in state courts over a 2022 law. Micah Kubic, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said state agencies are not required to adopt Kobach's views and accused the attorney general of rushing to “impose his own stamp of extremism.” The state hasn't provided numbers for how many Kansas residents have changed the gender on either their birth certificates or their driver's licenses during the past four years. Kobach put the number for birth certificates at more than 100. Kelly's administration has not said how it will respond to the law. Adam Kellogg, a 20-year-old transgender University of Kansas student, said Kobach's views, if adopted by the state, would mean that transgender people who need to verify their identities would see conflicts between their documents and gender identities “get very tangled very quickly.” He said transgender people could be forced to out themselves, jeopardizing their safety. “This is government imposition in a way that should be more concerning to more people,” Kellogg said. Kobach stressed that transgender people would not have to surrender documents in their possession. They just wouldn't be correct, legally. He said he is not yet pressing for state action on birth certificates to give a federal judge a chance to grant his request to cancel the 2019 order. He argued that the state law takes precedent over what he described as a judge signing off on a legal settlement — an idea others dispute. “The Legislature has spoken,” Kobach said during his news conference. “The governor’s staff and the governor’s agencies cannot act as if the Legislature did not override her veto.” In a brief statement Monday, Kelly spokesperson Zach Fletcher said the administration had discussions with Kobach's office but saw the federal judge's 2019 order as “the appropriate resolution.” Fletcher added that the governor's office would not comment further because of “the impending litigation." It wasn't clear whether Kelly's administration expects to defy Kobach and him to sue, or whether the administration will go to court itself. ___ Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

Kellie-Jay Keen Women’s Trans Critique in Hyde Park London (!)

Human Nature Debate

TREE OF LIFE

June is African American Music Appreciation Month! Created by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, this month celebrates the African American musical influences that comprise an essential part of our nation’s treasured cultural heritage.

Skip to main content National Museum of African American History & Culture Smithsonian Toggle Mobile Menu Search Celebrating Black Music Month Stories Janelle Monáe on stage Janelle Monáe performing in concert. Credit: Paras Griffin via WireImage June is African American Music Appreciation Month! Created by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, this month celebrates the African American musical influences that comprise an essential part of our nation’s treasured cultural heritage. Formerly called National Black Music Month, this celebration of African American musical contributions is re-established annually by presidential proclamation. Though by no means exhaustive, we’ve prepared a primer that will guide you through some of the different genres that African Americans have created, inspired and fostered. Sacred Music Sacred music, which includes spirituals and gospel music, illustrates the central role that music plays in African American spiritual and religious life. The earliest form of black musical expression in America, spirituals were based on Christian psalms and hymns and merged with African music styles and secular American music forms. Spirituals were originally an oral tradition and imparted Christian values while also defining the hardships of slavery. Gospel music originated in the black church and has become a globally recognized genre of popular music. In its earliest manifestations, gospel music functioned as an integral religious and ceremonial practice during worship services. Now, gospel music is also marketed commercially and draws on contemporary, secular sounds while still conveying spiritual and religious ideas. (L-R, top row) James Herndon, Albertina Walker Inez Andrews, Johnnie Erin "Johneron" Davis and (L-R, bottom row) Cassietta George and Shirley Caesar of the gospel group "The Caravans" pose for a portrait in New York, 1960. (L-R, top row) James Herndon, Albertina Walker Inez Andrews, Johnnie Erin "Johneron" Davis and (L-R, bottom row) Cassietta George and Shirley Caesar of the gospel group "The Caravans" pose for a portrait in New York, 1960. Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images Folk Music African American folk music links back to African cultural traditions. Stemming from field hollers, work chants and game songs, folk music bursts with social commentary. Popular folk protest music spread in the 1960s, and its influence is still found within hip-hop today. Ritchie Havens, circa 1970 Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images The Blues The blues form the foundation of contemporary American music. As did sacred and folk music, the blues also greatly influenced the cultural and social lives of African Americans. Geographically diverse incarnations of the blues arose in various regions, including the Mississippi Delta, Memphis, Chicago, Southern Texas. Each regional manifestation of the blues features a uniquely identifiable sound and message. For example, Mississippi Delta blues illustrated the poverty of the region while celebrating its natural and cultural richness. Etta James, circa 1962 Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images Military Music Beginning with the Revolutionary War, African Americans have always held a significant role in the armed services’ military band tradition. In the Revolutionary War and Civil War, African Americans served in fife and drum corps. Musicians that played in military bands during World War I and World War II often incorporated modern musical styles, such as jazz, into their song selections. They also toured the United States and Europe, entertaining civilian and military audiences alike. Jazz Jazz evolved from ragtime, an American style of syncopated instrumental music. Jazz first materialized in New Orleans and is often distinguished by African American musical innovation. Multiple forms of the genre exist today, from the dance-oriented music of the 1920s big-band era to the experimental flair of modern avant-garde jazz. American jazz pianist and bandleader Count Basie (William Basie, 1904 - 1984) rehearsing at the Cafe Anglais, Leicester Square, London. Reg Birkett via Getty Images Rhythm and Blues The predecessor to soul music, R&B is another stylistically-diverse genre with roots in jazz, the blues and gospel music. R&B helped spread African American culture and popularized the idea of racial integration on the airwaves and in white society. Today’s iteration of the genre has assimilated soul and funk characteristics. Portrait of American pop and R&B singer Mary J. Blige, 1990s. Anthony Barboza via Getty Images Rock and Roll Rock 'n' roll music incorporates elements from all African American music genres and combines them with American pop and country music components. The genre was born in the 1950s and appealed to the rebellious yearnings of American youth culture. Little Richard, circa 1956. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Little Richard, circa 1956. Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images Hip-Hop and Rap Hip-Hop and rap are musical traditions firmly embedded in African American culture. Like jazz, hip-hop has become a global phenomenon and has exerted a driving force on the development of mass media. Hip-hop music spawned an entire cultural form, while rap remains a means for artists to voice opinions and share experiences regarding social and political issues. MC Lyte on the set of a music video shoot in New York, circa the 1990s. MC Lyte on the set of a music video shoot in New York, circa the 1990s. Tomas/IMAGES via Getty Images This list of musical styles merely scratches the surface. In addition to the genres previously detailed, African American musicians and artists have also developed and influenced classical music traditions, country and western music, pop music, and dance music such as disco, techno and house, among other genres and styles. Millions of people around the globe listen to and are touched by music that carries elements of African American musical traditions. Tags Music Share this page National Museum of African American History & Culture 1400 Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20560 Share your email for updates Submit Email powered by Blackbaud Privacy | Terms of Use Become a MemberMake a Donation Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube Privacy Terms of Use 2017 Webby Award - People's Choice Award

Why Are Archaeologists Unable to Find Evidence for a Ruling Class of the Indus Civilization? By: Adam S. Green

https://www.midwesternmarx.com/articles/why-are-archaeologists-unable-to-find-evidence-for-a-ruling-class-of-the-indus-civilization-by-adam-s-green

MIDWESTERN MARX 6/23/2023 Why Are Archaeologists Unable to Find Evidence for a Ruling Class of the Indus Civilization? By: Adam S. Green 1 COMMENT Picture ​Little more than a century ago, British and Indian archaeologists began excavating the remains of what they soon realized was a previously unknown civilization in the Indus Valley. Straddling parts of Pakistan and India and reaching into Afghanistan, the culture these explorers unearthed had existed at the same time as those of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and covered a much larger area. It was also astonishingly advanced: sophisticated and complex, boasting large, carefully laid out cities, a relatively affluent population, writing, plumbing and baths, wide trade connections, and even standardized weights and measures. ​ What kind of a society was the Indus Valley Civilization, as it came to be known? Who lived there and how did they organize themselves? Archaeologists and other experts ask these questions to this day, but the first explorers were already noticing some unique features. In Mesopotamia and Egypt, “much money and thought were lavished on the building of magnificent temples for the gods and on palaces and tombs of kings,” observed Sir John Marshall, who supervised the excavation of two of the five main cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, “but the rest of the people seemingly had to content themselves with insignificant dwellings of mud.” In the Indus Valley, “the picture is reversed and the finest structures were those erected for the convenience of the citizens. Temples, palaces, and tombs there may of course have been, but if so, they are either still undiscovered or so like other edifices as not to be readily distinguishable from them.” In its heyday, from about BC 2600 to BC 1900, the Indus Valley Civilization created what may have been the world’s most egalitarian early complex society, defying long-held presumptions about the relationship between urbanization and inequality in the past. Its large cities were expansive, planned, and boasted large-scale architecture, including roomy residential houses, and smaller settlements in the surrounding areas appeared to support a similar culture with a similar standard of living. The most tantalizing feature of the ancient Indus Valley remains is what they appear to lack: any trace of a ruling class or managerial elite. This defies the longtime theoretical assumption that any complex society must have stratified social relations: that collective action, urbanization, and economic specialization only develop in a very unequal culture that takes direction from the top, and that all social trajectories evolve toward a common and universal outcome, the state. Yet, here was a stable, prosperous civilization that appeared to remain that way for centuries without a state, without priest-kings or merchant oligarchs, and without a rigid caste system or warrior class. How did they manage it? Unfortunately, in the early decades of exploration and research, archaeologists tended to assume that lack of evidence of a top-down, hierarchical society in the Indus Valley remains meant only that they had not yet been found. Some have argued that lack of evidence of inequality only indicates that the region’s ruling class was very clever at disguising the boundaries between itself and other social strata. Pointing to the fact that Indus Valley burial sites contain no monumental tombs, some researchers suggest that the rulers may have been cremated or deposited in rivers, as was the practice in other imperial cultures. But cremation is not archaeologically invisible; the remains of other cultures often include evidence of it. More recently, archaeologists have been willing to go back to the original explorers’ observations and use the evidence directly in front of them to develop theories about ancient life in the Indus Valley Civilization. Archaeological data from South Asia has improved greatly: and there is much more of it. Numerous Indus sites are now known to archaeologists that decades ago were not, and the environmental contexts that enabled urbanization in the region—climate, natural resources—are now much clearer. Archaeologists have also honed a strong set of tools for identifying inequality and class divisions: from mortuary data, palace assemblages, aggrandizing monuments, written records, and soon, possibly, from household data. Yet, in a century of research, archaeologists have found no evidence of a ruling class in the Indus Valley that is comparable to those recovered in other early complex societies. In the late 1990s, Indus archaeologists started to consider a new concept that seemed to better fit the facts. Heterarchy asserts that complex political organization, including cities, can emerge through the interaction of many different, unranked social groups, rather than from top-down decisions by an elite: that cooperation, not domination, can produce collective action. It’s now widely argued that multiple social groups contributed to the construction of Indus cities and the economic activities that took place in them, and that none seemed to dominate the others. Bolstering this argument, no evidence exists that any group of Indus producers was excluded from the use of scarce materials that craftspeople had to obtain from long distances away, or that particular groups limited access to those materials to seize a higher position for themselves in Indus society. One of the most distinctive and technically dazzling products of the Indus culture are stamped seals engraved with imagery and text; over 2,500 have been found at Mohenjo-daro alone. But the seals were produced by many different groups of artisans in many locations, and there is no evidence that a ruling class controlled production. Technological styles tended to cross-cut different groups of artisans, indicating a great deal of openness and knowledge sharing. Indus city-dwellers built large- and small-scale public buildings; the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro is a massive structure that contained a large paved bath assembled from tightly fitted baked bricks, waterproofed with bitumen and supplied with pipes and drains that would have allowed control over water flow and temperature. At Mohenjo-daro, nonresidential structures were built atop brick platforms that were as substantial as the structures erected on top of them, and would have required a great deal of coordinated action. It’s been calculated that just one of the foundation platforms would have required 4 million days of labor, or 10,000 builders working for more than a year. Yet, at both Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, these large nonresidential structures were relatively accessible, suggesting that they were “public,” as opposed to palaces or administrative centers restricted to a privileged class. Some of these may have served as specialized spaces for exchange, negotiation, and interaction between different groups clustered in neighborhoods or along important streets and roads. These spaces may have helped the city-dwellers maintain a high degree of consensus on planning and policy and ensured that no one group was able to accumulate wealth at the expense of the rest. The Indus Valley remains have yet to yield all of their riches. The Indus script has yet to be deciphered, and we still don’t know why the civilization started to decline in the second millennium BC. One of the most positive recent developments has been a dramatic increase in data and interest in the civilization’s small-scale settlements, which may shed light on the question whether these settlements were qualitatively different from one another or from the cities—and how far Indus egalitarianism extended across its broader landscape. What we have already found, however, suggests that egalitarianism may have been a boon to collective action: that distinct social groups may have been more willing to invest in collective action if the benefits were not restricted to a subset of elites. That suggests that heterarchy may act as a kind of brake on coercive power amongst social groups, and across society as a whole. If this is the case, and after a century of research on the Indus civilization, archaeologists have not found evidence for a ruling class comparable what’s been recovered in other early complex societies, then it’s time to address the Indus Valley’s egalitarianism. Urbanization, collective action, and technological innovation are not driven by the agendas of an exclusionary ruling class, the evidence suggests, and can occur in their total absence. The Indus Valley was egalitarian not because it lacked complexity, but rather because a ruling class is not a prerequisite for social complexity. It challenges us to rethink the fundamental connections between collective action and inequality. The priest-king is dead: or, in this case, most likely never existed. ​Author Adam S. Green is a lecturer in sustainability at the University of York. He is an archaeological anthropologist focused on South Asia, specializing in the comparative study of early states through the lenses of technology, the environment, and political economy. Follow him on Twitter. This article was produced by Human Bridges, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Archives June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 SHARE 1 COMMENT ROSS COYLE6/24/2023 01:57:04 AM Very much enjoyed this article. Indian civilization has always been a great interest of mine. Some of the problems with interpretation of the Indus valley civilization that are absent from the ancient Egyptian ones is to do with the nature of the writing materials. Both societies were literate (as in had developed writing systems) but while Egyptian papyrus and the climate made for preservation of many texts, the dried palm leaves that the ancient Indians used decomposed. What remains is some writing on clay and stone, but I'm sure they had large collections of writing that are lost. REPLY Leave a Reply. DETAILS All ORIGINAL Midwestern Marx content is under Creative Commons (CC BY-ND 4.0) which means you can republish our work only if it is attributed properly (link the original publication to the republication) and not modified. Proudly powered by Weebly Photos used under Creative Commons from U.S. Secretary of Defense, ben.kaden

Socialist Realist Literature

https://www.midwesternmarx.com/articles/dollar-mart-by-julie-stout

MIDWESTERN MARX 6/19/2023 Dollar Mart By: Julie Stout 1 COMMENT Picture The customer is well-groomed. Black, or African-American, and she has done something lovely with her edge hairs. They’re curled into spirals and waxed to lay down flat along her crown. She has a French manicure, and she’s buying Midol, a box of tampons, and an individually-wrapped pickle. We don’t sell a lot of Midol. Mostly, people steal it. We don’t sell a lot of those pickles. I’ve often thought if we took them out of the refrigerator next to the yogurt and put them by the register, they would sell better. I’ve never eaten one of those pickles. The pickle costs ninety-seven cents. Do I want a pickle? Not really. What am I going to eat for lunch?

Anthony says, “I’m going to go ahead and take my lunch,” like he does every day around this time, which is absurd because he never actually takes a lunch. He clocks out, goes outside to smoke a cigarette, and then comes back in and keeps ringing the register once he’s off the clock. Kim does the same thing. When I clock out for my lunch, I don’t do shit. Most of the time, when I’m clocked in, I’m not doing shit. I am not trying to do shit.

I look at his hands. They are brown from whatever work he’s been doing. I recognize hands like that. Why is this man who obviously works for a living having to use an EBT card?

The customer is white, or Caucasian. He’s very dirty. OK, not very dirty. He’s mildly dirty from work. He’s buying three cans of Monster, a caffeinated “energy” drink. “EBT,” he says, which tells me he’s been on food stamps a long time because the PIN pad will take an EBT card the same as a debit card. You don’t have to declare your intent to use food stamps to the cashier at Dollar Mart, but sometimes, older customers do. The guy can’t get his card to swipe. First of all, the card is broken in half horizontally. You see this a lot. Once you get issued an EBT card in Ohio, you have to keep that same card forever. My caseworker said if I want a new one, it takes six weeks to replace, so everybody just keeps using their same old card that is older than kids who can drive a car.

The customer tries to swipe his half of an EBT card several times. It’s not going through. He’s got the card upside down. I look at his hands. They are brown from whatever work he’s been doing. I recognize hands like that. Why is this man who obviously works for a living having to use an EBT card? How little is he making at his job that he qualifies for food stamps? Maybe he has like six kids.

I lean over the COVID sneeze guard to show him how to swipe his card on the PIN pad, but he’s not getting it, so I just hit the red button for him to put his number in manually The next customer is Black, older. He’s extremely clean cut with a golf shirt and an ivory linen flat cap. I can smell his cologne. It’s nice. I recognize this guy as one of Anthony’s neighbors. He’s buying a bottle of laundry detergent. I notice that he’s wearing a heavy gold chain with a large crucifix that bounces on his solar plexus. I wonder if he’s Christian. He’s probably Christian. I’m Christian. I wonder what it’s like to purchase a necklace like that. Do you say to yourself, “Jesus would be into this?” What is this necklace trying to communicate? I think this necklace has some significance other than to do with Jesus, but I am not the intended recipient of the message, so to me, it’s unknowable.

Anthony and his neighbor stand in the doorway of the store and exchange information about the old lady’s house where the pit bull keeps getting off its chain. Anthony and his neighbor both have pit bulls. Anthony has two. Well, one’s his girlfriend’s, but she’s in rehab. I wonder if the problem is that they don’t want the old lady’s dog to impregnate their dogs or if it’s a situation where there could be a dog fight. Probably a dog fight. The door of the store is wide open to the parking lot. The air conditioning isn’t working so Anthony propped the door open. It’s not helping to regulate the temperature of the store, but psychologically, it’s better than nothing. It’s something we have control over. I’m ringing up the next customer, a K-Pop fan. She’s buying stickers. I knew she’s a K-pop fan because she’s a regular and she likes to talk about those guys. I don’t know any of their names. I think it’s nice that she has a hobby.

Kim says, “Julie, is it ok that I put a pizza on your car?” Now when Kim comes up to ask me something while I’m ringing the register, it’s usually like, “Can you go help Anthony with the rolltainers? Can you go recover soap and shower? Can you go do the bathrooms?” Something I’m not really trying to do. I scan the sentence: pizza, car. Doesn’t sound like I have to do anything about it. “Yeah, sure. Yes,” I say. This is Kim’s day off. What is she doing here anyways? “Where’s Anthony?” Where is Anthony? Pizza on my car doesn’t quite make any sense. I spray the checkout counter with Lysol. Customers keep knocking the Lysol off the top shelf and cracking the plastic lid so we can’t sell it. We have a shit-ton of Lysol behind the counter for store use, so I like to sanitize things. According the our work flow list that was probably printed in 2020, sanitizing is required on every shift because of COVID, but nobody gives a fuck about that now.

Anthony reappears with a bunch of helium balloons. They say, “Happy Mother’s Day” and “World’s Best Mom.” Kim relays her story:

“I was walking up to Ianazone’s to get the pizza for Trevor’s party. This guy drives past and waves, so I wave back without thinking. Because I am a normal person. This guy pulls up, stops his car, and turns around to follow me like a stalker. I have a stalker now. He followed me to Ianazone’s parking lot and was still waiting out there when I came out with the pizza, so I walked across the street to come over here and see if Julie could drive me home so I can get rid of this guy following me.“

I give Kim a ride home. The pizza smells wonderful. Anthony says they changed their sauce, but that is a lie because I’m smelling this pizza and it’s transporting me back to 1987 where I’m roller skating around in my driveway and my stepdad just brought home a pizza from Ianazone’s and everything is basically okay. It’s a good memory. When I get back from taking Kim home, Anthony is on the ladder trying to fuck with the thermostat. “I got all the balloons out of the air intake vent and now I’m trying to shut this fan off that’s blowing hot air down on us.”

“Don’t they control the heat from corporate now? From a computer. They can just control the heat in your store remotely,” the customer says. He’s a generic old white man with white hair, I see a Narcotics Anonymous chip in his hand when he pays exact change for his box enema. You have no idea how many of those we sell. My next customer is a regular, a white lady who usually comes in later at night. She’s buying three packs of licorice, Twizzlers, and a Coke. She’s one of the saddest people I’ve ever seen in my life. She lives in the High Rises. Kim told me that her daughter was murdered in the elevator. Her daughter was stabbed to death. There were no witnesses. Nobody knows why she was killed. But the mom still lives in the High Rises. She gives me eleven dollars in one dollar bills and says, “Keep the change.” Eleven dollars isn’t enough to pay for three packs of Twizzlers, but I didn’t ring her up for them anyways.

If we were truly on strike, I guess we would lock the doors and shut the store down, but we keep the store open. A sit down strike. I know it won’t last. “It’s too hot in here to work,” Anthony says. “I mean it.” I cannot believe my ears. Anthony, Mr. I-WORK-WHEN-I-AM-NOT-EVEN-CLOCKED-IN is telling me that we’re going on strike. He is calling Kim on the phone. “Don’t expect any of the rolltainers to be done when you come in tomorrow morning. We’re not going to do any work in this heat. It’s dangerous to our health. We could get heat stroke. Especially Julie on her medication. We are not doing any work tonight.” To be completely honest, I wasn’t planning on doing any work anyways. But this is something novel. Something unexpected. Anthony just declared us on strike. As far as I know, none of the Dollar Marts in North America are unionized, but like me and Anthony are going to get together and exercise our Weingarten rights and shit. I pull lawn chairs out of the summer barbecue display and set them out on the sidewalk in front of the store where we can still see the register.

If we were truly on strike, I guess we would lock the doors and shut the store down, but we keep the store open. A sit down strike. I know it won’t last. Kim will come in tomorrow morning and do her work PLUS all the work we don’t do tonight, because Kim– she’s not ready to sign a union card. Not even close. They will probably make her management of her own store. She’s really into the whole Dollar Mart management agenda. This strike won’t last out the night, but I’m absolutely doing everything in my power to support this kind of behavior from Anthony. And by doing everything I can, I mean sitting in this lawn chair and looking at my phone. ​

The trees out back behind Ianazone’s pizza shop are in full green leaf. Tonight is special. We take turns sitting in the lawn chair and ringing the register while the sun takes its time setting.

Picture I’m at the register when this customer comes through my line with hot dogs, buns, ketchup, and mustard, a white lady with blonde hair. She tries to pay with half an EBT card. We run it manually and it comes up INSUFFICIENT FUNDS. “Do you know how much you have on there? Do you know how to call the phone number and check?” I ask her. Bewildered, she puts the ketchup and mustard back. I try to ring up just the hot dogs and the buns, but it still comes up INSUFFICIENT FUNDS. “Try just the hot dogs,” she says. I look at her face while we’re waiting to see if it goes through. She has one of those Marilyn Monroe piercings with a little gem embedded in her cheek. I notice a tear forming in her one eye. She’s going to cry over the hot dogs, but I can’t believe it. When I tell her INSUFFICIENT FUNDS again, she runs out of the store.

I tell Anthony about it, and he’s like, “Why didn’t you just give her the hot dogs?” It’s a legitimate question. Examining my role in this theater of poverty, I have to confess that I didn’t consider that she actually really needed those hot dogs. Because why would you go through the checkout line and fuck around with an EBT card that has no money on it when you can simply TAKE the hot dogs. Just walk out the door. Everybody else does. This is the Dollar Mart. Take it. Whatever you need. Maxi pads, baby Tylenol, pregnancy test. Just take it. Nobody’s going to stop you. A lady came in here yesterday and took an entire shopping cart full of groceries. I know this because a customer, a white lady, told me she saw a woman loading up her car in the parking lot with stolen merchandise. I said, “I didn’t see anything.”

People from the High Rises start getting off work and coming into the store to get their late evening purchases. Me and Anthony have both registers open and there’s a line. Diapers, condoms, popcorn, blunt wraps.

A customer, Black lady, comes through my line with her daughter whose hair is in the loveliest braids with those big round plastic opaque beads I haven’t seen in years. They used to sell them at Phar-Mor, but we don’t sell beads at Dollar Mart. The customer is buying things for her daughter’s school lunches: Ziploc bags and boxes of Hi-C fruit punch. We sell a lot of these. Every kid in Youngstown has to be drinking Hi-C fruit punch the amount of it we sell. It reminds me of The Wire, where the kid who is a drug dealer gets juice boxes for all the little kids and helps them with their math homework. That’s just so American. Here’s your juice box, kid. Your poison Red No. 5 and your sugar water. Don’t drink out the actual water fountain at your school because the water has lead in it.

I think I’ll watch The Wire when I get home from work tonight. I have my sister’s HBOGo password. Or HBOMAX. Max. Whatever.

One of the regulars, the lady who works for the bail bondsman, comes and asks if we’re out of the one dollar aluminum foil. “We’re out,” I tell her. I’m annoyed. Why the fuck is she asking me for one dollar aluminum foil? There is only one reason you need that, and it’s to smoke crack. Why do I have to be involved? Take the six dollar aluminum foil. Just take it. Don’t come up and fucking ask me about it. I’m not trying to work tonight. Two regulars in Anthony’s line are hooting and hollering. There are two fat white guys yelling at each other. The one keeps shouting, “I just came from my cousin’s funeral!” Allegedly, the one guy’s daughter is spreading rumors at school that the other guy’s daughter is a lesbian. The lesbian in question is pulling on her dad’s bicep, trying to coax him into leaving without a fight. “Come on, Dad,” she wheedles. She has freckles on her nose. I think I’ve seen her hanging out with the K-Pop girl. The fat guy who just came from his cousin’s funeral decks the fat dad. The fat dad loses his balances and knocks over the lesbian girl, who in turn knocks over a rack of gift cards. I’m thinking about how little I care about this drama when I see the shot. There’s a flash in the corner of my eye. Off to the left, there is an older Black woman clutching her purse and a pistol. She looks scared. The lady who works for the bail bondsman runs out the store. I’m trying to process what the fuck just happened, and it occurs to me that I’m being robbed, so I open the cash register. But something’s not adding up. Something about this whole situation does not make sense. The lesbian girl is crying. There is a smell. Did this lady just shoot me? What the fuck. I am pissed. I would have just given her the money, but I didn’t even know we were being robbed. This is way more bullshit than anyone should have to deal with for $10.50 an hour. I am not paid enough to deal with this shit. And I turn around and see it. Anthony is lying on the floor and there is something wrong with his face. Anthony has been shot. Anthony is dead. I walk out the door and I don’t look back. I head towards Ianazone’s. I keep walking. Into the woods. ​ The End. Author ​Julie Stout This article was repulished from Class Unity. Archives June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 SHARE 1 COMMENT CHARLES BROWN 6/20/2023 01:37:25 PM Socialist Realist Literature! REPLY Leave a Reply. DETAILS All ORIGINAL Midwestern Marx content is under Creative Commons (CC BY-ND 4.0) which means you can republish our work only if it is attributed properly (link the original publication to the republication) and not modified. Proudly powered by Weebly Photos used under Creative Commons from U.S. Secretary of Defense, ben.kaden