Comments on: Get a Bag and a Receipt: When Social and Environmental Justice Collide

By: DeniseL

DeniseL — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 01:34:08 +0000

Thanks Beth. It’s enormously important to recognize our social privileges, and as activists, we need to recognize that it is easier for some of us to be activists than others.

JohnKawakami makes a good point. I live in Toronto, and the mapping of the city’s most toxic emissions is more or less IDENTICAL to the mapping of the city’s poverty.

By: Wilted Camellia

Wilted Camellia — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:00:14 +0000

I was just thinking something similar to this post – that it would be hard to forgo reciepts. I always skip the bag at stores, but then I am always asked to show a reciept on my way out (it is not a case of racial prejudices in my case, though (I am what one would call a”lily-white” causcasion) – perhaps ageism is it? I am a teen). Anyway, I would like to forgo the reciept, but I do not want to drag the suspicious door greeter at Wal-mart up to the cashier and be all, “You remember me, right? I bought this stuff, like, 30 seconds ago?” every time. Maybe I have shifty eyes?

By: johnkawakami

johnkawakami — Sun, 20 May 2012 04:21:23 +0000

@BethTerry It pops up if you use tax software. The one I use asks a question about buying a car – that’s just the typical situation that triggers the deduction. Your total sales taxes have to exceed your deduction for state income taxes paid – my state income taxes are kind of high so it usually exceeds sales taxes. I believe that if your state doesn’t collect income tax, you can deduct sales taxes. You should look it up.

By: BethTerry

BethTerry — Sat, 19 May 2012 23:49:37 +0000

@johnkawakami You can? Where do you do it? If it’s a Schedule A deduction, I don’t qualify because we don’t own a home or make enough money to itemize. But I do keep receipts for business expenses related to blogging and now book writing.

By: Will Terry

Will Terry — Sat, 19 May 2012 21:14:01 +0000

@johnkawakami I’m not going to respond to your question because I’ve talked to Beth over the phone about this issue in depth and we’ve both decided that the mechanics of the Trayvon Martin death is irrelevant to this blog (the aspects of parents counseling ethnic children to get a bag and a receipt however is quite relevant in my opinion). In short we both agreed that blogs are more powerful when they stay on topic. If you want to have a private conversation about this case with me I’m all ears but lets do it off blog so our personal differences and opinions don’t derail the wonderful job Beth has been doing on educating people about their personal usage of plastic.

By: johnkawakami

johnkawakami — Sat, 19 May 2012 20:28:35 +0000

@Will Terry That’s a totally different situation. You saw a crime and pursued. Zimmerman didn’t see a crime and pursued.

By: johnkawakami

johnkawakami — Sat, 19 May 2012 20:05:55 +0000

@EcoCatLady The women’s lib movement was about more than work, but it ended up being about work, and mainly about white middle class women’s work issues – specifically access to white collar jobs. The number of white women working went up, but for women of color and white working class women, the numbers didn’t change much, because they were already working. The issues facing women in blue-collar, manual labor jobs, still exist today and haven’t been adequately addressed. You look in the construction trades, which are the best paid manual labor jobs, and there were and are few women, and the women who are there tend to be very thick-skinned about sexism, out of necessity. The split in pay between people who do “womens’ work” and “mens’ work” hasn’t been fully addressed either.The real answer, which was pushed people both men and women considered wacky feminists, was to reduce the number of hours worked, and to pay women (and eventually men) for raising children. “Wages for Housework” was the call, and if we valued housework the way we value, say, used-car salespersons, we’d have more compensation for housework.

By: johnkawakami

johnkawakami — Sat, 19 May 2012 19:55:41 +0000

@BethTerry If you spend a lot of money one year, you can deduct sales taxes.

By: johnkawakami

johnkawakami — Sat, 19 May 2012 19:51:43 +0000

Well… look at where poor people live. That’s where they site the most polluting industries. The people work all day, maybe two jobs, and don’t have the political power or often the physical energy to resist these toxic developments. People with means can often resist – the community is usually educated, old people are retired and have time, and people have 40 hour per week jobs, and usually there are a couple people around who’ve “made it” and have time and money to spend. So their communities don’t get industries that pollute, and aren’t cut up by freeways. But, since they don’t really expand their NIMBY fight to anywhere outside of their area, the businesses site themselves in poor communities that don’t or can’t fight back.

By: Becky

Becky — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:43:32 +0000

I love this post.

Sadly, he DID get a bag: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18112978

:(