I love the idea that the two founders of the Women on 20s website want to put a female face on the twenty dollar bill, arguably the most used greenback in American paper currency. And I love all of the candidates they have chosen for the slate. But what I do not like is that they claim to have been unable — unable?! — to find qualified Native American or Latina women who might also be placed on the slate to be voted on.
I don’t believe this for a second. Do you? Come on folks, help me, let’s do some research. Will you help me find the names of some Native American Women, and some Latina Women from the past (the ONLY necessary claim is that they must be deceased) that I could offer the owners of the Women on 20s site so the voting could really be fair to all? Otherwise this is discrimination all over again, and to groups that just get screwed again and again.
PLEASE Help? Then let’s get that site to go VIRAL for real! (I will put the link here next time, after we put our thinking caps on and get Native American and Latina names together to present to the site owners.) THANK YOU EVERYONE.
WAGblog: Dum Spiro Spero 
Thank you Mary for your inportant contribution to this conversation!!!!
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I wrote about one of the candidates for the $20 bill – Margaret Sanger, a racist eugenicist who seemed to feel that black people, poor whites, and people with mental illness should never have children. Eugenics is one cause of mass incarceration, I believe. It keeps over two million men and women separated during their childbearing years. See “Mass Incarceration is Eugenics, Margaret Sanger-Style” in my “Dog Justice for Mentally Ill” blog. http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2015/04/mass-incarceration-is-eugenics-margaret.html
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Good point, Julie. However money is by definition a token, so I would rather have a woman on currency, than have only men on what is currently the only token of exchange that we have. Not that I think that the dollar or capitalism itself is the best of all possible worlds. I do not, But it is what we are using at the moment and every time we pass a piece of American currency between people we only use or see men…I think this, like everything else that only focusses on male faces, is a problem. Your comment is much appreciated however. ‘
Sami, I loved your idea of Scout etc as a face on money, but your notion of what Scout would look like and mine are of course two different ideas, because the book was based on imagination,which is a good thing, Thank heavens for novels, which still leave much to the imagination! I know there was a movie but I do not remember who played Scout nor do I care. My mental picture of the little girl Scout is always the one I will carry with me. But the notion of Harper Lee or an author as the face on a dollar bill, now that is an idea whose time has come…though the authors themselves might not see it as a compliment! 8)
Thanks to both of you.
‘
Pam
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I agree, although I am a male, and from Iraq. Yes Money is a dirty deal and men screwed it up like Juliemadblogger said, but we used to put respectable men photos on it, like Franklin and Washington. I have a very childish brain imagination sometimes so I am thinking now about Scout, the protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird, or Harper Lee herself. But I am not so very serious. I need to read about USA history more before I suppose something. Much respect and love to you all, Sami
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I agree. I dunno, though…Should women be associated with money? Aren’t we above that? Money is a male deal, a dirty deal, and they screwed it up anyway. Putting a woman on a bill seems also like tokenism to me. Like to smooth over the larger reality of second-class citizenry.
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