The information presented in this graph, which is by Think Progress, is not new. But it’s still important to remind ourselves that the fact itself—zero universal maternal leave—causes no turbulence whatsoever in the American political system but abortion does…


What the graph simply says to me: When you are nothing but a mere thing (a clump of cells) you are something; but when you are finally an actual breathing person, you are nothing—a zero. But this is the American way, this idea that we all must start from zero. It’s an illusion of fairness that obscures these most important of social factors: What class are you born in? What color is your skin?

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...