The latest admissions numbers at Stuyvesant High School offer a stark picture of the persistent racial divide in America’s largest school system.
Perhaps the problem is more systemic than the small band-aid they’re offering as a means of fixing it?
Tag: racism
🎧 The Daily: One Family’s Story of Survival and Loss in New Zealand | New York Times
The loved ones of a man killed in the Christchurch mosque attacks say goodbye to a son, father, husband and brother.
🎧 Chef’s Memoir Tackles What It’s Like To Be Young, Gifted And Black In Fine Dining | NPR
It was the morning after the election of America's first black president, and Kwame Onwuachi was hungover. He'd been partying all night. He was dealing drugs to survive after he dropped out of college. He was, he says, lost.
But when he saw President Obama, something clicked. "I thought, I can do anything. And I immediately flushed everything that I had down the toilet and was like, I need to find myself," Onwuachi recalls.
He went to the grocery store and bought ingredients to cook a chicken curry. "I didn't know that I wanted to cook, but it was like, here's something that I'm familiar with," he says. "Here's something that brings back these fond memories. And here's something that grounds me. And I want to explore this a little bit more."
We do need more variety in our general cuisines and even in our fine dining cuisine.
I’ve even noticed that Christopher Kimball is doing a lot more international and less-focused on food in his Milk Street television show. Sadly it only seems to be filling a massive hole left by Anthony Bourdain’s coverage. I’ve noticed that Martha Stewart has a show with some international cuisine like this, but it seems to be heavily influenced by a massive funder for PR purposes and she’s often watering down the authenticity of the dishes a bit excessively.
🔖 Identifying White Mediocrity and Know-Your-Place Aggression: A Form of Self-Care | African American Review | Project MUSE
This article offers a primer on identifying what the author calls “know-your-place aggression” as well as the violence of white mediocrity being treated as merit. The author argues that gaining clarity about these hostile tendencies is a form of self-care. Examples include experiences with racism, (hetero)sexism, trans antagonism, ableism, and Islamophobia. Understanding know-your-place aggression and white mediocrity can prevent marginalized communities from wasting energy by worrying about the opinions of people who use objective standards to judge everyone but themselves. The author encourages this form of self-care because she believes it can empower members of marginalized groups to save their energy for what matters most, the quality of their lives and their contributions to research.
10.1353/afa.2018.0045
👓 A Room of One’s Own White Colleagues | Diverse Education
Every spring, I dread putting together my annual review materials. In March, a predominantly White room full of senior colleagues will discuss whether I meet th
He doesn’t even mention all the additional heavy mentoring work that he likely does for other minorities, POC, etc. which go above and beyond what his white colleagues are doing.
A Room of One’s Own White Colleagues ❧
Subtle hat tip to Virginia Woolf.
March 19, 2019 at 03:02PM
🎧 The Daily: What Hollywood Keeps Getting Wrong About Race | New York Times
Wesley Morris joins us to talk about “Green Book,” the latest Oscar winner to focus on a white character’s moral journey in an interracial friendship.
I love Wesley Morris’s analysis here. Racial reconciliation fantasy is a great name for a rampant problem we’ve got in America. While it’s nice to try to sweep the problem under the rug, we really need to bring it out front and center and have a more honest discussion about it.
This may be one of the best podcast episodes I’ve heard in two months. I highly recommend it.
👓 Matt Kuchar stiffing his caddie was horrible. His response to the backlash is worse. | SBNation.com
Kuchar doesn’t understand why everyone is so mad about a Tour pro with almost $50 million in earnings giving his caddie in Mexico an obscenely low percentage of a winner’s check.
👓 A Reading List for Ralph Northam | The Atlantic
Ibram X. Kendi (The Atlantic)If he won’t step down, the governor will need this anti-racist syllabus.
The sad part is that there needs to be a Ralph Northam story for people to potentially be interested in reading an article like this much less consume some of the reading list he kindly provides. I’ve started Kendi’s book myself and have to say it’s quite enlightening with lots of history that’s not commonly taught in most high school or college curricula.
For those without as much reading time there’s also the excellent Seeing White podcast that folks might appreciate.
📑 Read Write Respond #037 | Read Write Collect | Aaron Davis
Aaron Davis (Read Write Collect)This a harrowing story made even sadder by the grim reality of the statistics. ❧
I’m almost losing count of how many racial health disparity stories I’ve been seeing lately. It’s so common I’ve got tags for it on my site now.
https://boffosocko.com/2019/01/09/i-was-pregnant-and-in-crisis-all-the-doctors-and-nurses-saw-was-an-incompetent-black-woman-time/
👓 Stress From Racism May Be Causing African-American Babies To Die More Often | NPR
African-American women are more likely to lose a baby in the first year of life than women of any other race. Scientists think that stress from racism makes their bodies and babies more vulnerable.
📑 Read Write Respond #037 | Read Write Collect | Aaron Davis
Aaron Davis (Read Write Collect)This makes me wonder about the realities of Australia’s indigenous people and and systemic inequality in Australia’s society. ❧
You might be interested in the last section of a recent episode of On the Media. It discusses a documentary (bordering on reality show) relating to indigenous peoples of Canada, which I think made brief mention of Australia and a similar project there. While I’m sure there are some very striking differences between these indigenous peoples, there are also some not surprising similarity in the ways in which they are exploited and marginalized.
In general I liked the idea of what the documentary was and represented and wish there were versions for other countries.
👓 Governor Admits He Was in Racist Yearbook Photo | New York Times
Ralph Northam, the governor of Virginia, said he was “deeply sorry” for the decision to appear in the photo but resisted calls for his resignation.
I’ll bet that the Republicans who have let Trump’s racism slide will crow the loudest for his ouster.
👓 How Math Can Be Racist: Giraffing | 0xabad1dea
Well, any computer scientist or experienced programmer knows right away that being “made of math” does not demonstrate anything about the accuracy or utility of a program. Math is a lot more of a social construct than most people think. But we don’t need to spend years taking classes in algorithms to understand how and why the types of algorithms used in artificial intelligence systems today can be tremendously biased. Here, look at these four photos. What do they have in common?
📺 "Black-ish" Black Like Us | ABC
Directed by Salli Richardson-Whitfield. With Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Marcus Scribner, Miles Brown. Dre and Bow are furious after Diane isn't lit properly in her class photo; Junior claims there is unspoken colorism within the family.
I often appreciate these non-comedic episodes that don’t seem to fit thematically into the broader series that I signed up to watch, but I’m typically conflicted into thinking I ought to give up on the series at the same time. I’m glad that they’re putting some of these ideas into the series and in some sense force feeding their audience ideas they should be aware of.
In this case, the ideas, while certainly interesting and worthwhile aren’t very new or unique to me, so I feel like they’re standing on a soap box and pontificating down to me. Perhaps worse, most of the cast of the show is very light skinned, and as a result the topic they’re presenting feels a bit white-washed as a result. I have to wonder if the cinematographers are lightening the characters on the show itself? While this show doesn’t often have guest stars, it would be nice to see some additional diversity on it so that it felt like the producers are occasionally practicing what they’re preaching. As a result, this particular episode, while gripping in parts, felt a bit stilted to me.
I also can’t help but notice that the “white” Greek chorus at Dre’s workplace don’t appear in this episode, and that actually makes the more specific point of how classically stereotyped those characters are in contrast. I’m left wondering why there are no positive portrayals of “white” people for the segment of viewers to know who to hold up up as potential role models. I’ve heard about studies of satire relating to politics that people too often see what they want reflected back to them, so those who are borderline (or even excessively) racist aren’t going to see this show and necessarily change their viewpoints because they won’t see the awkward boss or co-workers and actually think that they’re acting inappropriately. This may mean that the show’s producers aren’t having the impact that they might otherwise be out to have when doing these more dramatic, social change focused episodes.
This show has now got me thinking of things three levels deeper than any of the issues it was trying to more overtly raise… and then I find myself wondering where is the comedy and satire I actually sat down to experience here?!
🎧 Close Encounters | On the Media | WNYC Studios
The Lincoln Memorial debacle showed how vulnerable the press are to a myriad of social and political forces. This week, we examine how the outrage unfolded and what role MAGA hat symbolism might have played. And, a graphic photo in the New York Times spurs criticism. Plus, a reality show that attempts to bridge the gap between indigenous people and white Canadians.
1. Bob's thoughts on where the Lincoln Memorial episode has left us. Listen.
2. Charlie Warzel [@cwarzel], tech writer, on the zig-zagging meta-narratives emerging from the Lincoln Memorial episode, and the role played by right-wing operatives. Listen.
3. Jeannine Bell [@jeanninelbell], professor at Indiana University's Maurer School of Law, on MAGA hat symbology. Listen.
4. Kainaz Amaria [@kainazamaria], visuals editor at Vox, on the Times' controversial decision to publish a bloody photo following the January 15 attack in Nairobi, Kenya. Listen.
5. Vanessa Loewen, executive producer of the Canadian documentary series First Contact and Jean La Rose, CEO of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, on their televised effort to bridge the gap between indigenous and settler Canadians. Listen
So many interesting failures of journalism in this story which were fueled primarily by social media. Old media would have left it for a bit longer, particularly since it involved minors.
I increasingly want to get my news once a week well after a story has begun and most of the facts have shaken out. Rarely is something so timely that I need it immediately. I saw a few mentions of this story as it was developing, but it all had the stink of click-bait, so I kindly moved on. It’s amazing to hear the underlying pieces and fuller story after-the-fact.
The best section of this episode (and probably the most thought provoking story I’ve heard recently) was that of the interview with Kainaz Amaria on how we report on wars and famines that affect other countries and particularly countries involving poor people and those who are non-white. While the recent photo of the Yemeni girl (in conjunction with Jamal Khashoggi) may have helped to turn the political tide with respect to US participation in the crisis in Yemen, we definitely need a better way to engage people in the US without trampling over the dignity of the people living in those communities. Interestingly I’ll also point out that we all know the name and almost all of the details concerning Khashoggi, but almost no one knows the name of Amal Hussain and this fact alone is a painfully stark one.
The final portion of the episode was also truly enlightening. I’d love to see the documentary they made and hope that someone might make an American version as well.