Monday, December 18, 2017

Data from The Century Foundation

https://tcf.org/














Founded as the Co-operative League in 1919 by the progressive business leader Edward Filene, and later renamed to the Twentieth Century Fund, TCF is one of the oldest public policy research institutes in the country. As we left behind the twentieth century, we entered into the early 2000s with the same mission but a new name: The Century Foundation.
Over our long history, we have been at the forefront of positive change in some of the most critical areas of domestic and foreign policy. Today, TCF continues this legacy by researching issues that range from pursuing fairness and opportunity in education; protecting workers and further strengthening the social safety net; encouraging democracy and ensuring personal rights in the tech age; and promoting stability and prosperity abroad.
Our experts come from academia, journalism, and public service—all with a shared commitment to advancing progressive ideas that benefit the public good. Through our evidence-based research and policy analysis, we seek to inform citizens, guide policymakers, and reshape what government does for the better.

Final Exam Day!

Stand clear of the pressure like Tribe Called Quest once said,

"We feelin' pressures in here 
You know we feelin' pressures
Feelin' pressures in here
You know we feelin' pressures
We gotta stand clear
Jus' gotta stand clear
Gotta gotta stand clear of the pressure
The what?"
Please put away all digital devices until everyone is finished with the test.

Please have textbooks out for collection or turn them into room 2434 ASAP.


When finished, I have a few things I'd like to do:

Discuss Guided Notes

Take class picture.


Friday, December 8, 2017

More evidence that white privilege is measurable, from ProPublica

https://www.propublica.org/article/nothing-protects-black-women-from-dying-in-pregnancy-and-childbirth?utm_campaign=sprout&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=1512686351

Nothing Protects Black Women From Dying in Pregnancy and Childbirth

Not education. Not income. Not even being an expert on racial disparities in health care. 


What’s more, even relatively well-off black women like Shalon Irving die or nearly die at higher rates than whites. Again, New York City offers a startling example: A 2016 analysis of five years of data found that black college-educated mothers who gave birth in local hospitals were more likely to suffer severe complications of pregnancy or childbirth than white women who never graduated from high school. The fact that someone with Shalon’s social and economic advantages is at higher risk highlights how profound the inequities really are, said Raegan McDonald-Mosley, the chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, who met her in graduate school at Johns Hopkins University and was one of her closest friends. “It tells you that you can’t educate your way out of this problem. You can’t health-care-access your way out of this problem. There’s something inherently wrong with the system that’s not valuing the lives of black women equally to white women.”

I wonder how much of a role epigenetics plays in this - which is even more of a case for white privilege.  Epigenetics is a complex area of study but to simplify, the stress that someone's grandparent experienced might affect their grandkids 40 or more years later!  

Friday, December 1, 2017

Let me paint you, a troubling picture.

What is the problem with dressing up as a different race?  For example, this post from the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education explains an incident at SD State University;

A student at South Dakota State University dressed in blackface and a wig to impersonate Colin Kaepernick, the NFL player who started the national anthem protests. The student had a sign around his neck saying, “Will stand for money.”








Why can't the student pretend to be black as a joke? 



 For years, Americans labelled as "black" were not allowed to act with white performers on stage.  Instead, whites pretended to be black by wearing makeup.  This action has become known as "black face."  The white portrayals of blacks during this time became a caricature of stereotypes that were designed to make fun of people perceived as black rather than act like them.  So, when a person dresses up in black face now, it harkens back to these stereotypes and denigration of people labelled as black, also called "people of color."  It is not that different than dressing up as any other stereotypical costume designed to make fun of a race, ethnicity, nationality or religious group.  However, an important piece of this is that people of color are a minority group.  They have been denigrated and persecuted and continue to be marginalized to this day.  That is why this is not just stereotyping but being racist.

The website black-face.com has a thorough explanation of the history of blackface.



Sociological understanding of Black Face

Here is an example from Socimages of children's cartoons using blackface.




The Root is an online news site that addressed black face here.

From the Root article, sociologist Joel Feagin explains the problem with black face and how it is connected to white privilege,
"...most important to the white racial frame is that it centers whiteness as a default. That it portrays whiteness as inherently virtuous.
“It’s a pro-white subframe,” Feagin explains.
And it’s often the hardest one for white people to dismantle.
“In it, we whites are trained into seeing ourselves as virtuous. We have the most virtuous history. We have the most advanced civilization,” Feagin adds. “We speak the best-quality English. We have the best beauty images, especially for women. All of those things ... civilization, history, values, religion, virtues, work ethic.”
The inability to see the ways in which American society has actively and historically been pro-white is part of a “white arrogance,” he says—the same arrogance that inhibits whites and nonblack people from seeing the harm of blackface.
When white people are called out for racist behavior, they don’t hear that they’ve hurt a person of color. What they hear is that they’re not virtuous, Feagin says
." 
It is interesting that Feagin says that whites "hear" that they are not virtuous.  I think it is more than that.  I think that whites "feel" that they are not virtuous.  This is really important because feelings are what prevent Americans from hearing each other and empathizing with each other.  Acknowledging white privilege is not meant to make whites feel depraved or deplorable.  Instead, we need to commend whites who are able to empathize with groups that have been or continue to be marginalized.  And the whites who do empathize should feel virtuous for doing so.  


What about Miss Saigon at SHS?

Didn't SHS run a production of Miss Saigon where they painted the faces of Asian characters yellow?   I spoke with Ms. Rawitz the theater director of the SHS production and not only did she explain that this never happened, she explained that makeup artists are very sensitive to these kinds of issues.  They go out of their way to not be offensive in this manner.  Much like the broadway production of Hamilton, actors might wear wigs but are left to play the characters the way they look.  If a character wore makeup himself, then a character might wear makeup similarly such as eye shadow or lipstick. But they do not try to change their skin tone or biology.


Here are two pictures and a video from the performance for reference:












A larger issue?

However, after researching the play a bit, there is quite a bit of controversy around some of the themes in it.  Check out the ny times:

And the daily beast: 

American theater review:

And this blog, written by David Mura is particularly poignant in its criticism of the play.
Mura's criticisms include a number of particular sociological concepts and also, one very important general concept.  Mura explains the idea of privilege which is that if you are not one of the minority groups affected, it is easy to both not see the racism and not care about it.

So perhaps this musical struck a nerve with some people not because of how SHS portrayed it, but because of the musical itself.  



The Takeaway

Don't miss the overall point of the lesson that spurred this discussion.  The overall point is that explicit racism does exist.  Regardless of how you feel about Miss Saigon, there are so many recent examples of racism and prejudice.

Hidden America: My Reality With Diane Sawyer


This video explores the working poor in America.  These are people who are struggling to make ends meet but they are working.  They may not be below the poverty line, but they are working a lot.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/deepdive/diane-sawyer-income-inequality-my-reality-hidden-america-44770807