(no subject)

[gwydion]

* I haven't been talking about Cleveland in this space because frankly, I had nothing new or clever to say. It turns out Chris Hayes does have something important to say about the kidnapper's history of domestic violence and kidnapping of his children over and over. He points out that the general indifference to violence against women played a role in not only this case, but so many others:

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Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

* Remember how the Governor of Michigan caused a government funding crisis by giving all those bonus tax cuts for the super rich and then declared martial law, revoking democracy for more than half the African Americans in the state? They just decided to save money by closing down a public school, depriving African American students of a chance for a basic education. After all, which is the better investment, educating kids or letting rich people bank even more money in Switzerland or the Caymans? The Republican answer is always welfare for the rich.

Let me repeat, they laid off all the teachers and closed the school, depriving black students an education to save money.

This is the Republican agenda at work. Republican education policy is to literally deny poor black children an education.

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* The damage Republican Conspiracy theories are doing as Republicans try to turn them into policy:

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* Remember that Racist Bell Curve book? Republicans are trying to squash immigration reform by pulling out the same bag of racist pseudoscience to use against Latin@s:

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* It's been a brutal week. Friday, I really needed a wheelchair, but not having one, I got out both my crutches and used a riding cart. It was still incredibly painful and exhausting just to drop off library books and pick up a few things at the store like a block away. Even with handicapped parking and the car. I spent the weekend using the serious meds and resting up. My legs aren't constantly buckling, bu the pain is still pretty intense even by my standards. Today I needed to go get blood work, get more groceries, library, and pharmacy. I hadn't much left by the time I got home, but furniture needed rearranging and groceries needed to get put away. I ended up using the best of the pain meds after I got home, and it still took all evening and nearly all of the spoons. I still haven't sat down to do notes and skim for some data I need for the Shifters. I am clearly too tired at this point for mentally precise work, which that is. I don't feel great about the new arrangement, but it's an improvement. I've been giving the cats a lot more goosh than normal, and tonight, the Butt came out of the closet for a bit. I'm still extremely worried about him though.

* Points about Steampunk that make me itch too: https://twitter.com/cstross/status/332093416500514816

Comments

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

I remember very well the Bell Curve and even had a professor once say ( in an all white class where myself and one Latino kid were the only students of color) that he felt there was truth to it. He said that racially, if you took all the races and gave them tests you would 'probably find that there would indeed be statistical differences between the races'. And then he had the gall to smile at ME! The reason being I guess is some whites really think it's some compliment that they think all us Asians are smart, hard-working, educated and 'good at math' ( I sucked at math, I'm not that hard-working, and I'm smart, but it has nothing to do with being Asian, trust me).

Well let me just say that this turned into a discussion in which he asked me to leave the class. Then the next day he ended up apologizing, that he hadn't considered certain options like poverty, discrimination, bad schools, etc ( when referring to black student). I sarcastically replied that it was a scary thought a professor wouldn't consider those factors to begin with and adhere to stereotypes when it comes to a book that was largely based on racist views. No one said anything. I remember the Latino kid was fuming about it too. He said " Check this guy out! He didn't say anything about Latinos because I don't 'look' Latino." He didn't, he looked 'white' . Like me, he was a history major, and we ended up in a lot of the same history classes with these radically different views from our professors. It was amazing.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

The local schools here do a good job at teaching about negative stereotypes, segregation, etc.. They don't dig deeper though. I made a habit of trying to bring in more complicated ideas about racism like systemic, institutional aspects, etc. I never ever singled out a student to stand for their race, because that's fucked up and wrong. I did feel there's not nearly enough discussion of the kinds of prejudice that effect the Asian kids. I used to bring up the ways so called "positive stereotypes" hurt people. The white kids were always skeptical. I would start to explain, and invariably the Asian kids would be all over that. I'd step aside and let them rant. I felt like it was good for the kids to have space to talk about the stuff that hurt them and the white kids really needed to hear that the stereotypes about Asians are a form of racism too. It's sad that white people generally don't do nearly enough thinking about these issues and I really wish schools did a better job of making them think.

That professor is horrifying and it's shitty that sort of person is allowed to teach anything.