05/26/2017 | Lena Solow | Broadly
The internet was abuzz last week when the late Alex Tizon's piece "My Family's Slave" appeared in the Atlantic. Spanning Tizon's whole life, the article told his version of the story of Eudocia "Lola" Tomas Polido, a woman his family enslaved, first in the Philippines and then in the United States. Though some found the piece resonant, praising it as a courageous personal exploration, critics were quick to point out that Tizon seemed to be absolving himself of culpability, and also taking...
05/26/2017 | KAREN GRIGSBY BATES | NPR Code Switch
There has been a flood of response to Tizon's article, and The Atlantic has followed up with two good ones, one by Ai-Jen Poo, a MacArthur "Genius" fellow, whose work centers on domestic workers' rights. And another by Vann Newkirk II, an Atlantic staff writer, which argues that liberation is a long-term process: "Enslaved people are not so much set free as they are made free..." On our own podcast this week, Shereen and Gene talk to Alex Tizon's widow about how he felt about finally airing...
05/24/2017 | The Brian Lehrer Show | WNYC
Alex Tizon's story in The Atlantic, "My Family's Slave," is about Eudocia Tomas Pulido, a woman his family brought over from the Philippines to work in their house for 56 years without pay. Linda Oalican, executive director of Damayan, migrant rights activist and former domestic worker, and Sameera Hafiz, advocacy director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), discuss the story and the policies needed to end domestic worker trafficking.