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…In a striking experiment about stereotypes and academic achievement, African-American seventh graders performed better in school months after they were asked to spend 15 minutes thinking about their identity and values…
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…there is no real way to prove that I don’t hate black women. The entire attempt is about as futile as a white woman trying to prove that she married a black man for his heart and not his hard on. And goodness knows my mother has seen her fair share o
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…Is it simply that we are used to seeing laws prohibiting the use of race in some contexts but not in others? Is there something about racial expressions of desire vis-à-vis intimacy that is meaningfully different from racial expressions of desire vis-
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Many more white children use the Internet than do Hispanic and black students, a reminder that going online is hardly a way of life for everyone. Two of every three white students — 67% — use the Internet, but less than half of blacks and Hispanics do
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…The tribe has spoken — to the tune of $26 million — as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Campbell Soup and a brace of smaller spenders flee the “Survivor” island following news that the CBS program this season will pit conte
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…Angela Nissel is the co-founder, along with ?uestlove, of the “Okay Player” clique. She’s written two books, “The Broke Diaries” and “Mixed”. It also turns out she’s a fan of jimi, and I am a fan of her work as writer on the NBC hit comedy “Scrubs”…
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…where are all the sex blogs of foreign expats living in the United States? Surely there’s gotta be some buff Indian programmer banging Cali girls in Silicon Valley, or a Thai graphic designer whose Manhattan hookups would be hot Blogspot fodder…
gatamala wrote:
“Because if America still leads the world in anything, it has to be sluttiness.”
I know Tripmaster Monkey is [rightly] criticizing those expat rapists who are taking advantage of women (usually children) in nations where combatting sexual abuse is difficult and/or not the #1 priority, but how does degrading & stereotyping American women help?
Posted 07 Sep 2006 at 8:25 am ¶
IkoIko wrote:
Upon reading that “digital divide” story, it was more interesting for what the press ignored or chose to bury further down. If the government’s numbers are right, the study gave two huge pieces of good news for US public education at a time when it needs it most: (a) 91% of all students in nursery school through 12th grade use computers in general and (b) girls are as likely as boys to use the Internet.
In other words, nearly every *public* school has computers and we closed the gender gap in school technology access, due to a host of, and years of, goverment, corporate, and community programs.
BUT…
Access is not usage, and school access/usage is not consistent with home access/usage along racial lines. Even then, the press messed up. They framed this as a “disadvantaged/underserved” people of color versus generic “white people” issue– again confusing race with ethinicty– missing an opportunity show the magnitude how true gains had been made yet where problems stil lay with a range of factors that correlate but are not caused by race/ethnicity.
For example, that study says 59% of all students use the Internet at school. That is a hideous number if 91% of the schools have computers!
As far as Internet home usage, it’s 58% of Asian-American students, 54% white students, 47% American Indian students, 26% Hispanic students and 27% Black students. Most of the press accounts left out or moved the figures for Asian Americans or American Indians to the very end of the piece.
Overall, 67% of white kids use the Internet, 47% black, and 44% Hispanic. Yeah, white kids use the Internet more, but given the popularity, shouldn’t the numbers be even higher?
SO…
By focusing on the same tired “racial/ethnic divide” in access, the media and and well-intentioned policy makers, educators, philanthropists and service providers I’m sure will wring their hands yet again to focus on usage and literacy as it related to poverty, class, and cultural reluctance combined. You’ll never increase home access and usage by increasing more school access and usage– you’ll stimulate interest, but it just doesn’t translate into direct numbers. What they have to realize is that the gaps are getting smaller, but they can’t worry about access at school versus home when the parents may not feel comfortable or have access to the technology themselves (or play gatekeeper to it).
How insane it must feel to a kid to have all this access during the day and then be cut off a night for whatever reason, or to have better access at home than you do at school. Or do you take into account all the ways kids are going online for non-educational purposes (gaming, texting, access at friends’ houses, etc.) The study even gives hard data that correlates income, number of parents, and parent level of education with student computer/Internet access/use patterns at home– and I can already imagine the outrage from people who will argue that, “it’s just not feasible to expect all familes to have two parent and a computer and Internet”. That misses the point.
It’s just that like any factor that determine what guarantee success/failure, not everything has to do with race, but some things can’t be separated from it.
Posted 07 Sep 2006 at 10:15 am ¶
Adrianna wrote:
I have to say I disagree with The THINK, i felt like he was generalizing Black women. Yes women have to take responsability for their reproductive rights, but to blame black single mothers on how their children turn out? come on. you could have 2 parents and still turn out bad. It’s hard to be a single mother. What about men being responsible. If men don’t want to have kids then why don’t they take care of their reprodutive rights. If you are in a relationship, you should mutually agree on the best form birth contro, therfore when a couple have a child and they are not ready for to have one they are both at fault. It’s so easy blaming it on the women. Yeah black women needs to this black women needs to do that, What of the absent father?
Posted 07 Sep 2006 at 10:18 pm ¶