I think I should write

I had trouble figuring out what to write about today. So many things going through my head. My younger son is sick, and I'm sitting on the floor of his room, leaning against his bed, with my laptop open."What should I write about?" I asked him."I don't know," he replied. "Write what you think you should write."Out of the mouths of babes.I think I should write that white women need to get their house in order. White women are not feminism. As my brilliant friend Shireen Mitchell has noted, if you take care of those most in need of help, that also benefits those who need less help. We need to look to the most endangered among us first, not last. If we help our sisters of color fix the problems of inequality and racism, we will benefit, too.I think I should write that when we quote equal pay numbers, we shouldn't be saying that women earn 79 percent of what men earn. That's an average - an average among all women. And the number for men also is an average - it's really a matter of comparing against what white men earn, as they're still at the top of the heap, income-wise, taken as a group.I think I should write that Asian women earn 84 percent of what white men earn. White women earn 75 percent of what white men earn. Black women, 60 percent. Latina women, 55 percent. Here's something that shouldn't be surprising: The main reason for the disparity among groups of women is representation in STEM fields. All this is according to the April 2016 Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress report on Gender Pay Inequality, by the way. The report didn't even break out Native American women as a group, but the National Women's Law Center figured it out to be nearly 59 percent of white men.I think I should write that age also is a factor: Younger Millennial women, aged 18 to 24, earn about 88 percent of what the men who work alongside them do. Those who are 25 to 34 earn 86 percent. Women aged 35 to 44 earn 81 percent, but then things drop precipitously: women aged 45 to 54 earn just 70 cents on the dollar from what their male colleagues earn, and boomers, in the 55 and older range earn  just 68 percent. (Back to the Joint Economic Committee here.)I think I should write that these numbers all change yet again depending on the state.I think I should write that we need to stop pretending that even equal pay is a one-sized-fits-all issue with a one-sized-fits-all answer. Nothing is one-sized-fits all. You know that's true. Anytime you've tried one of those hats or socks that purport to be so, they fit all weird, don't they?I think I should write that white women need to start listening to our sisters of color more often. When we're meeting and discussing issues, we need to look around the room and realize that if everyone there is white, we're doing it wrong. When we create online forums, we shouldn't get all defensive when a woman of color points out an issue of race. Just because we don't fall into the group of people she's talking about doesn't mean we need to say that. Fact is, our sisters of color are pretty good at sussing out which of us are "not all white women" and don't need us to make it clear.I think I should write that when we insist conferences invite women to speak that we need to insist that women of all backgrounds should be invited. It's not a victory if all the female speakers are white, cis women. "Well, it's a step," some might say. Yeah, not much of a step in 2017. In 1950, that might have been  OK to say, "Well, it's a step." (And even then, not really, but more understandable, at least.)I think I should write that I want to help fix all this, but all I can fix is me.I think I should write.Photo by Álvaro Serrano via Unsplash.