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“…Foreign graduate students have come under increased scrutiny lately from (predominantly White) college students and their parents furious that a foreigner “with an accent” is compromising the academic standards of their chosen university…”
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“Throughout the years black comedians have donned a dress to get a laugh. A hulking figure in heels makes for an absurd, and by extension, comical image, but at what cost?”
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(Thanks to Justin for this tip!) “A New Zealand researcher claims there is an over-representation of the “warrior” gene, which has been linked to aggressive behaviour, in Maori men…”
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(Thanks to Justin for this tip!) More coverage of this conference discussing diversity and muliculturalism in New Zealand.
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(Thanks Bettina!) “…As blacks comprise a mere 5,4 % of the national population, the senator decides to call black the whole mulatto contingent, which represents 39.9% of the population. Give a little time and Brazil will be defined as being for the most
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(Thanks Geraly!) The Sexual Racism Sux campaign seeks to get men to rephrase their ads; instead of “no whites” or “not into Indian or Middle Eastern guys”, hopefuls could articulate what they prefer, such as “looking for Latino men”.
April wrote:
Oh *snap* @ Brazil and banning the mulatto recognition. Ugh!
Posted 10 Aug 2006 at 10:01 am ¶
brad wrote:
The Brazil thread is on banning “mulatto recognition” is a scream, in a bad way. The article is an opinion piece that points out a wacky and creepy plan to give black-identified people a National ID. I can’t think of any African-Americans/mulattos in the U.S. who would a national ID targeted to them. Didn’t Nazi Germany and South Africa use such things? Frankly, the idea of any kind of national ID or papers seems very European in that fascist scary way where Officer DuBois asks, “Papers, please! No papers? Off to jail!”
On the other hand, the author does want to pretend that racism/colorism doesn’t exist in Brazil. I don’t have a problem with Affirmative Action. It’s proven to be very effective in Singapore, India, the U.S., and other countries which had a long history of ethnic/racism discrimination. Just because legal discrimination ends doesn’t mean that prejudice and discrimination will stop in societies institutions.
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Accent discrimination in higher education?
While I’m sure there are plenty examples of unreasonable and bigoted responses to someone’s accent, there are real problems with instructors who have strong accents that make it difficult to understand them. If one is paying an arm and a leg for school, being able to understand one’s instructors is pretty reasonable.
I’m a big fan of the Scottish director Ken Loach, who is famous for his films exploring the life of the Scottish working and under classes. Most of his movies have had subtitles even though the Scots speak English because their accents are very thick to an American ear.
Good communication skills are important are critical for many jobs.
Posted 10 Aug 2006 at 1:13 pm ¶