Uncategorized

Book Review: “Household Workers Unite”

Published

10 years ago

August 31, 2015

There is not a speck of dust in your home.

The floors gleam, the kitchen shines, the bathroom sparkles, and rugs are fluffy again. You’ve changed bedsheets and you even washed windows.

You’re ready for fall and thankful for the help you had getting this way; if that help was paid, read ‘Household Workers Unite” by Premilla Nadasen, and you’ll be thankful for even more.

Picture this: a white reporter encourages African American maids to “speak out about their hardship” and the women who employ them. You know the movie, but did you recognize the “victimization theme”? Yes, says Nadasen, The Help “reinforces dominant stereotypes of passive household workers,” even though there was historically nothing passive about them.

In the years following the Civil War, the “Mammy” figure took hold in white America, becoming somewhat of a cult based on the idea of a loyal, maternal female slave. That vestige of slavery (and inherent racism) generally affected how African American domestic workers were treated by white female employers then, but “new ideas were germinating.”

In 1881, Black laundresses formed a “Washing Society” and eventually went on strike for higher wages. Activism never stopped, but there was a setback in the fledgling movement during the Depression, when black domestics found day-work by sitting in a street corner “slave market,” and that didn’t go unnoticed.

By 1934, journalists, activists, and other black feminists threw their support behind Dora Jones, who led the Domestic Workers Union (founded in 1934) in New York.

Photo Courtesy of Lelanie Foster

Nurse, midwife, and housekeeper Georgia Gilmore used her cooking skills to raise money for “The Club from Nowhere,” a group supporting activists and organizers both financially and with food.

Undoubtedly, the Civil Rights Movement spurred Atlanta ’s Dorothy Bolden to work with Dr. King on behalf of household workers. Cleveland ’s Geraldine Roberts founded the Domestic Workers of America. Edith Barksdale Sloan pushed the movement along when she became head of the National Committee on Household Employment.

Other influential women bore their share of the movement, just as today’s activists help protect the workplace rights of caregivers, personal helpers, and domestic workers of all races.

Imagine seeing a federally funded monument to the “black mammy,” standing in our nation’s capital. Yep, in 1924, the United Daughters of the Confederacy tried to build exactly that, and it was “furiously opposed.”

That’s just one of the stories you’ll read inside “Household Workers Unite.”

Stories, says author Premilla Nadasen, are what she tried to fill her book with, in fact, and she somewhat succeeds. There are, indeed, a lot of stories here, but there’s plenty of dryness, too, in the form of names, dates, and acronyms that ultimately become quite overwhelming.

My advice is to try and get through them; this book is powerful and inspiring, but the voices and their memories are what matters.

This isn’t your curl-up-in-front-of-a-fireplace kind of read but it is a pleasure, especially if you’re a historian, feminist, or domestic worker yourself. “Household Workers Unite” will make you think as it eats up every speck of your time.

“Household Workers Unite” by Premilla Nadasen, c. 2015, Beacon Press, $27.95, 248 pages.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

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Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

7 months ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Special to The Post

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.

In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”

In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

12 months ago

January 30, 2025

Oakland Post

Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 city councilmember. File photo.

Special to The Post

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units, including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

Published

1 year ago

January 11, 2025

Oakland Post

Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Haubert. Official photo.

Special to The Post

The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.

Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:

The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net

In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.

“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.