Episode 452: Arnie Arnesen Attitude April 25 2024

Attitude with Arnie Arnesen

Part 1:
We talk with Elliot Haspel, a child and family policy expert.
We discuss the takeover of childcare by private equity firms. This is now an industry, that is by its nature, not likely to be profitable. However, private equity firms are using various tools to gain from it. They acquire small child care facilities, then "strip and flip" them, and then discard them after a few years. In the meantime, parents are at their mercy: cost cutting approaches mean fewer and/or less qualified teachers, low wages for employees, poor facilities, skimping on supplies such as food, toys, or even paper. The customer base is usually upper middle class, because poorer parents cannot afford the cost. We talk about alternatives that may be possible.
Part 2:
This is episode 28 of Race Class, with BU professor Jonathan Feingold.
Ep. 28 | Identity Politics & Playing Jewish Cards
On Wednesday Apr. 24, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would tour Columbia University and host a news conference to discuss the troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on Americas college campuses. Just ten days prior, Johnson appeared alongside Donald Trump for a press conference that echoed language from the racist [and antisemitic] great replacement theory. With his pivot to Columbia and feigned concern over anti-semitism, one might say Mike Johnson is engaging in identity politics and playing a Jewish card. He is far from alone. Since October 7th, individuals and entities from across the political spectrum have mobilized Jewish identity to wage ideological battles over competing visions of life at home and abroad. With a nod to Carbado & Gulatis research on working identity, we identify four different ways that Jewish identity is being mobilized in this moment: The Comrade. The Sword. The Shield. The Cynic. (Teaser: Mike Johnson's behavior falls into that last category.]