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The importance of human empathy in a short, but powerful video.

Remember: You're not alone out there.

This article originally appeared on 9.22.14




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His Daughter Has No Idea What She Does For The Women In The Office

What if there were a magical water that could wash away pay inequality for women? Well, someone invented one ... kinda.

It's a fake product called "Daughter Water," a refreshing beverage designed to help male CEOs conceive baby girls.

Sound weird? Just check this out:

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Why should we want male CEOs to have daughters? Because when they do, it tends to reduce the gender pay gap.

While this commercial had me LOLing all the way through, it's obviously not real. But it does actually highlight a real phenomenon that happens when male CEOs raise daughters. The fact is that even after the #LillyLedbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law six years ago, pay inequality is still out of control, with women making 77 cents for every $1 an equally qualified man doing the same job makes on average. Men and women are still not being paid the same — for doing the exact same work.

FACT CHECK TIME:

It's true that male CEOs having daughters tends to reduce the gender pay gap. But obviously the idea that a bottled water can do that is ridiculous (and totally made up).

As of January 2015, women are paid about 77 cents for every dollar a man makes in the U.S. That figure has hardly changed in about a decade.

Gender pay inequality is an international problem. (The folks who made this video are from Australia.) In the U.S., women experience it in all states. Washington, D.C., is at the top of the pay equity scale (paying women 91% of what men earn) and Louisiana is at the bottom (paying women 66%).

Educated women are not exempt. Basically, if you're a woman fresh out of college working full time, a study found that you'll only earn 82% of what guys in the same demographic are paid.

If you're a woman who's been in the game for a while, that's actually a disadvantage. Paychecks for women over 35 are, on average, about 75% of men's.

If you're a woman of color, it's even worse. Black women were paid 64% of what white men doing the same job were paid, while Latina women only received 54%.

It doesn't matter if you're a doctor, a lawyer, or a school teacher. No matter if your occupation is female- or male-dominated, women are very often paid less.

All of this sucks, right? So what can we do about it?

Get involved with groups like The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), which launched a campaign to educate folks about how the gender pay gap affects work environments and how to combat it.

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'Do You Hate Black People?' A Satiric Cartoon Points Out Some Pretty Sickening Facts.

This is satire. But the facts are all true.

Meet Ralph. Ralph (I definitely just made that name up) is a cartoon white dude, and he's kind of a racist a**hole. (Sorry if your name is also Ralph.)

Let's take a look at what Ralph has to say.

WHOA, um, OK Ralph, this is pretty horrifying. Where are you going with this?


"These days, employment and housing discrimination are illegal. But what if I told you there was something easy you could do to keep the black community down?"

Yeah, still pretty nervous to find out what's coming next. So, Ralph, do tell — what's your atrociously racist idea?

Support private prisons! Oh, you mean that thing all taxpayers are already doing that is 100% legal? Ralph, do you dare suggest that the prison system in the U.S. is racist? *GASP*

Hang on tight. Ralph's actually gonna break out some true facts.

FACT 1: Violent crime rates have plunged in the last few decades, but the prison population has increased.


"We had to find other reasons to put people (black people) behind bars."

See, the U.S. justice system targets black people by giving harsher punishments for things like illegal drug use and lighter or nonexistent punishments for "white-collar crime": prescription drug use, money laundering, stuff like that.

FACT 2: Drug use rates among blacks and whites are pretty much the same, but blacks are convicted four times more often.

FACT 3: When a black person is convicted of the same crime as a white person, their sentence is 20% longer, on average.

Feeling sick yet? That's the point. Because Ralph is obviously a racist a**hat created to prove a point. The facts are true, and his shock-factor-style of delivering them sure made me pay attention.


"So support our prison-industrial complex. You can even invest in it on Wall Street, where our stocks are doing great. I mean, talk about a win-win situation."

Ugh, what a tool, that Ralph. But hey — got you to pay attention, didn't he?

To watch Ralph's spiel in video form, check it out below:

Want more info about how the U.S. prison system is racist? Good.

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She’s Going Door To Door With Light, And Older Navajos Have Never Seen Anything Like It

She has a respect for it handed down to her through countless Navajo generations, and she's using that faith to help her elders accept the gift of power from the sun.

The Navajo have always considered the sun to be an important god.

In the beginning, Jóhonaa'éí joined with the female earth to create all life. "Jóhonaa'éí" is pronounced "jo-ho-nai-ay."

Adrian Manygoats is a modern Navajo woman who continues to hold the sun in the deepest respect, starting each day with a prayer to him. It drives her.

So Manygoats is on a mission.

Nearly half of the Navajo nation lives under the poverty line, with around 18,000 homes lacking electricity.

Many Navajo elders live off the grid, lighting their homes with dangerous and expensive kerosene.

Manygoats helped found the Navajo Women's Energy Project.

Their goal is to end the use of kerosene.

Working for Eagle Energy, a branch of nonprofit Elephant Energy, Manygoats visits as many of her elders as she can with an offer to install free rooftop solar panels for them.

At first, some elders aren't too sure about this.

Manygoats often finds that the elders' respect for the sun comes with a keen awareness of its awesome destructive power.

So she sits down with them, and they have a serious conversation about their shared faith. Once everyone agrees about how this all fits in with traditional beliefs, she and her team can get to work.

When the work is done, the homeowners are delighted to have power directly from Jóhonaa'éí. And for free. It's kind of unbelievable for them, really.

So far, Eagle Energy has installed solar panels on about 350 homes. It's a start.

Here's a heartwarming video about Manygoat's inspiring mission.

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