Hello,

In case you are interested, I thought I'd share with some a couple of photovoice images from a PAR project with Latina mothers. These are amongst others prompted important discussions.

Be well

Danger of the single story

Hello Everyone,

In our class on November 7th, we will be discussing closely the ideas about complications and hauntings that Avery Gordon writes about in the opening chapter to Ghostly Matters. We will also collectively view this video, which focuses on the danger of the single story - a realized danger in much of social science. Our task: how to avoid telling single, simple stories that obscure the complexity of individuals, spaces, institutions, and society.

Interesting Post on Affirmative Action

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/affirmative-action-a-complicated-issue-for-asian-americans.html?hp

Ojibwe: Language and meaning

Full radio show for the excerpt we listened to in class on October 17, 2012

On our Affirmative Action Conversation from last week

 

MSNBC co-host Melissa Harris-Perry has written an open letter to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas because she is not satisfied with his position on affirmative action.

Harris-Perry asserts that both Thomas and Abigail Fisher, the woman suing the University of Texas, have interpreted affirmative action “all wrong”.

Fisher was an honors student who was not admitted into the University of Texas and she says that she was not admitted because she’s white. She claims that other students in her class who had lower grades than her were accepted into the University of Texas and “the only difference between us was the color of our skin.”
Gregory Garre, the lawyer for the University of Texas said that “Fisher would not have been admitted, no matter what her race.” He goes on to say,

“Even if Abigail Fisher had received a perfect Personal Achievement Index score she would not have been admitted … because her Academic Index was simply not high enough.”

Harris-Perry argues that minimizing the accomplishments of black people is not a legacy of affirmative action but is instead a legacy of racism.

“We need generations to break down the barriers that divide us, and do you know one of the important places where that work begins? In college classrooms, diverse classrooms, the kind of classrooms that affirmative action has created. And here’s something I’ve learned as a college professor. The measure of merit isn’t the test you take to get into school, it’s what you learn after you’ve been admitted and what do you with that knowledge once you’ve left.”

Applying CRT as a framework - practice

The Unnatural Causes video on immigrant populations and health brought up a few points about institutionalized discrimination, but elided many others.

Use this thread to make any points about the video you wish, or pose questions.

I was heartened to hear one researcher ask, "What are we doing in this country that makes healthy people unwell," but disheartened that such a blunt label as 'immigrant' was used when we are speaking more specifically about institutionalized race and class discrimination.

Why Are Mothers And Fathers Still At A Disadvantage At Work?

I enjoyed reading the article about Maddow and found this post alongside it. Since several of us are already parents and others may take on this role at some point, I thought I would share this. I think the parental discrimination in the workplace is a major societal issue that is experienced very differently but equally painfully for mothers and fathers.

When my husband and I had our children, he took paternity leave under FMLA, and we were shocked both by his employer's response, "You are crazy; you'll be climbing the walls after a few days!" and the responses of our friends, "Wow! That's amazing your company let you do that; mine never would." These men clearly had no knowledge of their own federally protected FMLA rights...We had an incredible leave together as a family unit, something I will always treasure, but it did come with a stigma.

Why Are Mothers And Fathers Still At A Disadvantage At Work?