Saturday, April 10, 2021

In Her Words: ‘Like I lost my identity’

April 10, 2021

The Rockport Early Childhood Center had to close its doors after nearly four decades.Da'Shaunae Marisa for The New York Times

By Alisha Haridasani Gupta

Gender Reporter

"People who take care of children are still viewed as glorified babysitters."

— Valerie Norris, director of Rockport Early Childhood Center

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Aug. 28 was both a somber and a monumental day for Valerie Norris. It was a Friday. It was pouring rain, the kind of rain that falls sideways, and thunder rumbled in the distance. It was the day that Rockport — a child-care center where Ms. Norris had worked for almost four decades — shut its doors forever.

Located in Rocky River, a small suburb of Cleveland, Rockport had been open since 1981, and Ms. Norris, who started working at the center in 1986 and became its director in 1996, had watched generations grow and flourish before her eyes.

"I literally have had moms who came to Rockport as children bring their babies to Rockport," said Ms. Norris, 61. "I've also hired teachers who were babies at Rockport."

"One little boy who I was really close to discovered that he had this wonderful baritone singing voice," she recalled. "Years after he left Rockport, his parents invited me to come to his high school solo recital."

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The average cost of infant care in Ohio is $9,697 per year — or about $800 per month — according to the Economic Policy Institute, an independent think tank. Rockport, which was owned by a church, cared for children as young as 6 weeks old all the way up to 6-year-old first graders. It took in only privately funded children. Full-time fees per month ran about $1,068 for a 6-week-old, which made it "not the most expensive center in the area, but not the cheapest, either," Ms. Norris added, meaning the center wasn't in a financially vulnerable position at the start of last year.

So its closure came as a surprise to everyone in the community.

On March 13, Rockport, taking a cue from the Rocky River School District, temporarily shut its doors. At that point, 70 children were enrolled at the center.

The playground at the Rockport Early Childhood Center.Da'Shaunae Marisa for The New York Times

Four months later, in July, it reopened with a new business model and safety protocols that complied with local health requirements. To cut costs, Ms. Norris shortened the number of hours the center would be open.

But parents were still nervous about Covid, and only 33 children came back in that month, 25 of whom were full-time — less than half of the center's pre-pandemic enrollment. That first week back, the center made $7,600. In a typical July, it would have made $17,500.

Still, Ms. Norris was optimistic that in August, when schools reopened, parents would be comfortable sending their toddlers in, too; she projected that she'd have about 50 children back.

"But then Rocky River announced that they weren't going to open schools," she said.

"Now these parents have nannies. So parents using a nanny at home, for example, with the school-aged child who is virtual learning, have to pay us to bring the little one in? They're just not going to do that," she added.

"That projected number that we had began to dwindle, dwindle, dwindle," she said, making her business model more untenable by the day.

Just a few weeks after reopening, the finance committee at the church informed her that Rockport would have to shut down permanently. "We had one week's notice," Ms. Norris said.

So on Aug. 28, she drove to work for the last time. Her teachers had planned a safe, socially distanced farewell ceremony outside in the parking lot. But of course, there was the rain.

The rain was just so fitting, Ms. Norris said. "My preschool teachers taught the kids the song 'The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow' and then they sent the video to me," she said.

Some parents sent her emails of gratitude. "To us, you are heroes," one said. Children wrote notes and made signs. One wrote: "Thank you Rockport! I hate Covid-19. Boo!"

"I feel like I lost my identity that day," said Ms. Norris, who is now on unemployment benefits and looking for a new job.

"People who take care of children are still viewed as glorified babysitters," she added. "But we prepared countless numbers of children for kindergarten; we're serving their minds, their bodies, their spirits."

In the coming weeks, In Her Words will highlight the stories of child care providers from across the country and how they were impacted by the pandemic. Read the full story here.

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What else is happening

Here are three articles from The Times you may have missed.

Katalin Kariko at her home in Jenkintown, Pa., in February.Hannah Yoon

"They expected I would quit." Dr. Katalin Kariko, 66, laid the groundwork for the mRNA vaccines that have helped turn the tide of the pandemic. But it wasn't easy; few believed in her research and for many years her career was fragile. She migrated from lab to lab and never made more than $60,000 a year. [Read the story]
"Not every man has willpower." Pakistan's prime minister, Imran Khan, linked an increase in rape cases to how women dress. The backlash was swift and wide. [Read the story]
"Let them be free human beings." Nemam Ghafouri, a doctor who helped survivors of an ISIS genocide and reunited formerly enslaved women with their children taken from them, died on April 1 of Covid-19. [Read the obituary]

In Her Words is written by Alisha Haridasani Gupta and edited by Francesca Donner. Our art director is Catherine Gilmore-Barnes, and our photo editor is Sandra Stevenson.

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On Politics: The New Cancel Culture Capitalism

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April 10, 2021

By Lisa Lerer

National Political Correspondent

Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your wrap-up of the week in national politics. I'm Lisa Lerer, your host.

Antonio de Luca/The New York Times

For decades, Republicans were the party of big business, working hard to align themselves with corporations in their preferences for lower taxes and fewer regulations.

This week, they embraced a new form of economic growth: cancel culture capitalism.

In a political twist, Republican leaders across the country spent the past week vowing retribution against a trifecta of famous American brands — Coca-Cola, Delta and Major League Baseball — after they criticized a new law that is likely to curtail the ability to vote in Georgia.

Republican state legislators in Georgia demanded the removal of Coca-Cola products from their offices, as conservatives promised to follow the calls of former President Donald J. Trump to boycott "woke-a-cola." The Republican-controlled State House voted to strip Delta of a $35 million jet fuel tax break before adjourning for the year. In Congress, Republican lawmakers took steps to remove M.L.B.'s decades-old antitrust exemption, and in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott refused to throw out the first pitch at a Rangers game.

And Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, warned corporate America to stay out of politics, threatening grim "consequences" to come for the private sector if it sided with Democrats and what he called the "far-left mobs." (He was quick to clarify that his remarks this week did not, in fact, mean companies should curtail their political donations; defending corporate contributions has been a career-long crusade for the top Senate Republican.)

Boycotts have been a political tactic used by both parties for decades. But the aggressive pushback against what conservatives call "boardroom wokeness" is another example of how much Republican politics have changed since Mr. Trump went to Washington and how unlikely they are to revert now that he's gone.

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Mr. Trump's brand of politics changed the economic incentives for Republicans. With a political base driven by cultural grievance, populist messaging and a false belief in a stolen election, attacking corporations over "cancel culture" has become good business for the G.O.P.

It's a tactic that moves the conversation from what is actually happening — for example, a law that will make it harder to vote in Georgia — to the kinds of social issues that generate viral headlines in conservative media, interview requests from Fox News and a flood of campaign cash.

"It means cancel culture and partisan activists are coming for your business, they're coming for your game or event in your hometown, and they're coming to cancel everything from sports to how you make a living," Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia said at a news conference attacking the backlash to the sweeping voting law.

In reality, the enormous pushback that Mr. Kemp described amounted to a couple of carefully worded, disapproving corporate statements and the decision by M.L.B. to relocate its All-Star Game from suburban Atlanta. Still, the Republican governor repeated a version of his ominous scenario in roughly 60 interviews this week, a media tour that he saw as an opportunity to rehabilitate his political brand with the conservative base, according to allies.

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He also began fund-raising for his re-election off the voting law, pleading on his website for money to help "defend election integrity."

Mr. Kemp is hardly the only Republican to see dollar signs in the drama. A fund-raising text from the Republican National Committee asked donors in a survey whether they would be boycotting M.L.B. On Friday, the committee began a new campaign — complete with a billboard and a full-page newspaper advertisement in Georgia — blaming President Biden for the league's decision to relocate its summer showcase.

It's not just voting rights where corporations find themselves under attack from the right. After Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, a Republican, vetoed a bill restricting medical treatment for transgender youths, he was accused by Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host, of bowing to corporate pressure.

In an interview, Mr. Hutchinson said he hadn't spoken with any companies about the bill, though he defended their right to raise concerns.

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"Recruiting a work force and talent is a core responsibility of a business that's going to survive," he said. "And so, absolutely, it's right to be engaged in some issues, because it impacts their survivability."

Companies say that the political environment has created an impossible situation, particularly for entities like M.L.B. that don't see activism as part of their brand. Moving the game prompted a backlash from conservatives. But had the league decided to keep the game in the state, officials feared the controversy would have overwhelmed the sport.

An M.L.B. source described what many within the league saw as an untenable scenario for the sport: A number of players would refuse to participate in the game. The remainder would have been asked — over and over again — about their positions on the voting law. The game — and baseball — would have been consumed by the controversy for months. Whether the game stays or goes, it will be viewed as political.

Of course, it's worth asking: Who, exactly, is doing the canceling? From actors losing movie deals because of offensive tweets to obscure Dr. Seuss books being voluntarily pulled by their publisher for racist imagery, conservatives spend a lot of time denouncing "cancel culture"— arguing that there should be little societal cost for unfettered free speech.

But when companies express their disapproval of Republican ideas, like an election law, the same rules don't seem to apply. Right-wing conservatives call for boycotts and revoking government benefits like tax breaks, penalties that sound an awful lot like "cancellation." (Somewhat halfheartedly, perhaps. After demanding that supporters switch to Pepsi, Mr. Trump was spotted with what looked like a bottle of Coke partially hidden behind a phone on his desk.)

It's not even clear what "being canceled" means for a person or a brand exactly, other than having to pay an economic cost after an offensive statement or action. Is Dr. Seuss really canceled? After the books were pulled, sales surged to record levels. What about the entire state of Georgia, as some Republicans seem to claim? That might come as a surprise to the nearly 11 million people who live there.

Can a senator, one of the most powerful people in American government, be canceled?

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri was quick to blame "cancel culture" when Simon & Schuster dropped his book contract over his role in trying to overturn the election results. He accused the publishing house of silencing him with a "direct assault on the First Amendment." Yet when it comes to M.L.B. expressing its views, Mr. Hawley is the one calling for economic pain.

"The woke capitalists continue their campaign of retaliation & suppression against anyone who stands for election integrity," he said recently on Twitter. "Now they're at it in Georgia. #MLB should lose its government handout antitrust exemption."

Mr. Hawley plans to introduce a plan next week to break up "giant woke corporations" that are targeting what he calls "election integrity" — his way of recasting the role that he played in perpetuating Mr. Trump's baseless allegations and conspiracy theories about the election results.

Such political attacks would be a headache for the league, even if passage of an actual law revoking the exemption seems unlikely given Democratic control of the Senate. Cancellation, however, has been good business for Mr. Hawley. His campaign raked in the cash this year, raising record amounts from thousands of new donors.

He even found a new publisher, which immediately began marketing Mr. Hawley as "one of the highest-profile victims of the cancel culture." The book, which attacks big technology companies, is already available for pre-sale on Amazon.

Drop us a line!

We want to hear from our readers. Have a question? We'll try to answer it. Have a comment? We're all ears. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com or message me on Twitter at @llerer.

By the numbers: $1.52 trillion

… That's the size of President Biden's fiscal 2022 funding request to Congress. It does not include tax proposals, economic projections or spending on so-called mandatory programs like Social Security.

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