In Review - Week 4 of 2021
Denial, Wall Street's Robin Hood takeover and gender inequality
*Today I needed to write and share before my normal Friday post date because of what has been going on.
Sometimes when enough voices gather something incredible happens. For example, what happened this week on Wall Street. No one knows how long its going to last, but there’s something really incredible with how Wall Street can’t regulate it by halting stocks being affected by hundreds of thousands of Robinhood account owners. Amidst a country that continues grieving a pandemic, a recession, BLM protests and so much more, there was a movement that arose. This kind of movement is not the norm, its when people step outside of the norm and do something outside of what is expected. Now investors can’t get their money in and out fast enough as retail is becoming a voice too powerful, squashing huge hedge fund accounts.
huh?
Yeah, a bunch of people got together on forums like REDDIT and decided to jump on their Robinhood accounts at the same time and all buy a stock called “GAMESTOP” - ever heard of it? Gamestop was that little shop in strip malls, the Starbucks of Video Game Stores. They didn’t stop there, they united to make AMC stock go up 4x in one day. Tuesday it was $4, Wednesday before close was $19. Now NOKIA - up double Wednesday on Wall Street (when was the last Nokia phone you bought?). AMC seems to be the next stock that’s coming up, and somehow the juice company NAKED now seems to be a buzz.
Do I know anything about stocks? Nope! But THIS my friends is an interesting exercise in the value of the human voice.
(photo by me)
“Hide it under a bushel, No, I’m gonna let it shine. let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.”
- “This Little Light Of Mine” by Harry Dixon Loes
No, we haven’t gone off topic. We are going through the stages of grief together (if you haven’t read the other newsletters on the stages of grief you can catch up here, ON DEATH, ANGER, ACCEPTANCE. This week is the stage of denial.
So you may be thinking…how exactly does this news align with our theme of DENIAL in the stages of grief? The truth is, sometimes amidst a grief cycle you step outside of your mourning and do something completely different, like deny that you’re grieving. In this cause the denial was on the part of the “little guy” who denied their status in life. They gathered their voices on a collective platform and choose to say, “I don’t care if I’m the underdog, we outnumber big business and we can move the needle when united!” They denied the reality they were sold their whole lives that money was power and if they didn’t have money, they didn’t have power. Naw, they believed that money is a resource, and their greatest value was in the power of their collective voice.
The Reddit group that moved the needle for GAMESTOP was 2.7 million last night, now 3.3 million (and growing) have joined. The investment company Robinhood is struggling to keep up the demands of all the orders they are getting from the regular people trying to get in on the action.
“Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.”
- Thomas Gray’s poem “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” (1742)
When something like this happens, people get moving. Now, did it take a few small but convicted voices reaching out to their community at large to instill hope in their combined power? Absolutely! When a few voices out think a hopeless situation and believe with grit and passion that they can do it, at some point heaven and earth begin to move with them and their hope turns into a bullet train that no one can stop.
Okay, if this seems like too much, than consider the power of hope for only yourself or a loved one. Denial’s power can offer respite from a hopeless situation. Take for example, the movie “Life Is Beautiful” where the protagonist chooses to lie and tell his son (while they are in a concentration camp) that they are simply in a game. The son gleefully accepts his fathers view on their reality and the father does everything he can to keep that illusion alive to save the mind and will of his son. He kept the illusion up believing that it could have the power to save his son. It worked! Now imagine if all of the prisoners rose up to believe in something better? What would happen if they believed they had the power to change their situation? What would it take to get them back to that place where fear did not drive them toward hopelessness.
Injustices large and small may be a way of life, but its not how we were meant to live. In looking at this in my own life, I’m challenged to ask myself where I’ve felt powerless or insecure? Where have I felt little?
Mr GATE KEEPER, Sir
It’s not that I was never taught
to dream up bigger dreams
its just the practical steps towards them
were harder than it seemed.
Because, when I’d assert myself
the mumbled egos spoke
within the closed gates they’d protected
with the keys they’d hold.
Gate keepers, why are you here?
How did you earn your place?
“I knew someone he said, asked plainly,
Bro, throw me an ace.”
And so he did, cause their kids were close
and he needed a job to provide.
So what do I say, when I’m the new girl
that’s saddled up beside?
Hey, I would like to make a path
would you let me in too?
“Sorry lady, chicks aren’t allowed
I don’t care where you want to school.”
And so I worked to prove myself
I worked for free for years
I showed them what I was made of
so eventually someone would hear.
Then someone heard and had a key
yet I was afraid to ask
I tip-toed round the question
while my life took a different track.
I stopped doing the job as much
got married, had a kid
And somewhere along the line realized
I had talents I’d done little with.
So I’m going back to the gatekeepers
and I’m going back to the gate
I’m bringing along a boombox and
praying it isn’t too late.
I’m holding it high so they hear it
I’m telling them to take a chance
I want more than just getting past gates
I want to make up for the past.
I want to catch up to where I could have been
if someone let me in years ago
If someone looked past that I was a woman
and checked in with their own ego.
No chicks allowed, and they laughed all while
I stood right next to them
as if I was invisible
but I was the reason they met.
My friends, I was the producer
and they were there to make my work
They were willing to be there with me
but also willing to be jerks.
They were willing to give up their time
but yet when they gathered to speak
Their egos rose up like a triumphant flag
that they waved from the top of their peak.
While I went somewhere to the bottom
confused as to why I climbed down?
Was it cause I didn’t want to stand out
or I was afraid I would drown?
I’d taken a chance to be there
after I was told by some chick
to show more of my body, or give up because
I was “too sweet to be in this business”.
“They’ll eat you alive” said the popstar
just minutes after their producer would say
“Your voice is so beautiful my dear,
I could listen to you sing all day”
But, I didn't remember the producer
All I heard was the girl in the dress.
Her cleavage pushed up to her jawline
and the thick makeup lines on her neck.
She had begun as a “sweet girl”
but knew that the nasty would pay.
And so I left to go home to
wondering how things could change.
How can I prove I have something
without giving my body to all?
How can I share my voice and my talents
without acting out booty calls?
How can I be who I am - innocent
and not be cast out and denied?
Make something that they cannot look away from
when they won’t look into my eyes.
- Adjoa Skinner Webb
In my previous post “In Review week two”, I spoke of the societal belief that women must be “small, pretty, and quiet” from looking at how women are not encouraged to be angry, and that anger in women often shows up as sadness. But in the society as a whole this is the very opposite of what a person needs to succeed. So how does a woman rise up in an industry that rides on “self promotion, personal connections and people investing into you?” The film industry shows this struggle in this infographic from 2016 from an interesting article about the gender gap in the film industry.
Those were the 2016 stats, now here’s the 2020 stats:
By role, women accounted for:
18% of directors
17% of writers
21% of executive producers
30% of producers
22% of editors
6% of cinematographers
Another way of putting it is:
67% employed 0 to 4 women in the roles considered.
vs.
5% employed 0 to 4 men in the roles considered
——
9% employed 10 or more women in the roles considered
vs.
71% employed 10 or more men in the roles considered
“Our formal economy is only possible because it’s subsidized by women’s unpaid work.”
— Nahla Valji, the senior gender adviser to the Secretary General of the United Nations
TAKE OVER
It seems to me
quite possibly
denial is one way
to get by.
Telling ourselves
that things will get better
if we stand up
and try.
Try to bring change
that we wanna see
Cause change
will not come inevitably
For if we fail
to stand and be brave
we’ll carry our talents
right to our graves.
Here lied the girl
who was told she was less
Here lies the woman
a mother at best.
She carried her anger
as sadness until
The sadness took over
and silenced her will.
-Adjoa Skinner Webb
So what do women’s rights to equal pay and employment have to do with Wall Street being taken over by Robinhood accounts worldwide? One in the same. This kind of denial of societal rules on power is to say, “SCREW THE MAN, I’m doing it, and nothing is going to stand in my way.” The gender gap and Financial inequality are just two examples of those who are behind the eight ball because of power dynamics at play in our society.
(photo by me)
Where do you feel the divide in your life?
What are you doing to be apart of the change?
I’m going to make some moves on my own to stand up for what I believe in. I’m going to move towards the kind of power I’ve been robbed of, being told I’m either “too much or not enough”. These moves are first to protect my son and my family (much like “Life is Beautiful”) but I’m hoping that in sharing this, maybe you’ll make the decision to rise up as well and we as a collective voice can start seeing the change by being the change.
Are you finding the pathway ahead
Leads you to feel alive?
Since you put to death
All the thoughts that were weighing you down.
You broke free from your past
And the goodness you’ve found
Is a light that no darkness can take
Your hope standing on
A foundation of faith.
You’re no longer stuck in that rut
Its not where you should be...
You are more than enough.
You’re a flier, a success, a saint
You’re twice what you think
& half what you ain’t.
So let’s get up, let’s show up, let’s be
Let’s fight when it’s hard,
then step back and breathe.
I’m breathing today it feels right
Im so grateful for breath
Cause I’ve fought the good fight
And I wish you the same My dear friends
That with every breath
What is broken will mend.
I’m taking on what I can take
Cause I’m living my life
Like my life is at stake.
-Adjoa Skinner Webb
I’m gonna take my Friday and consider the things that I need to do to move forward.
As an actionable step I’m going to ask you to leave a comment that simply says, “I’m In” so I can see who is willing to take a step of faith with me.
Til next time my friends, remember there’s nothing wrong with you!
“Now I found my voice, and they can’t silence me
Now I found my voice, I don’t need the world to see
that I found my voice, oh now I finally am free
Now I found my voice, and there’s nothing wrong with me.”
- Adjoa Skinner Webb
I’m in! ❤️
I’m in!!