Spotted on Colorlines via College Humor.
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Spotted on Colorlines via College Humor. New York City has asked the USDA if it can ban the purchase of soda for people participating in SNAP (the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps). Here’s an editorial by Thomas Farley and Richard F. Daines, the New York City and New York state health commissioners, respectively (emphasis added):
I’m of two minds on this. The USDA is right — sodas have no nutritional value. They don’t satiate you, and the sugar and calories they provide would be better coming from any other source. I should also add, the ban would only include regular sodas, not diet sodas, which is ridiculous (yes, diet does mean 0 calories, but diet soda is just as nutritionally worthless). So in banning soda, NYC would not be depriving anyone of anything, nutritionally speaking. But we all know food is not just about nutrition. Again, from the Times article (emphasis added):
And from Farley and Daines (emphasis added):
“Not with taxpayer dollars?” As Ta-Nehisi writes, “there will always be some kind of paternalism at work in the social safety net.” This is the kind of paternalism that bothers me. With that statement, I think Farley and Daines are playing into the “poor people make bad shopping decisions” stereotype. I drink the occasional soda. I’m willing to bet a lot of the readers here do as well. Across the board, Americans of all income levels are drinking too much soda. I understand the need to effectively manage tax dollars, but we can do it in a way that doesn’t completely remove agency from SNAP recipients, and in a way that doesn’t come across as “I can afford it, so I can drink all the soda I want, but I don’t want you spending my tax dollars to buy soda.” A lot of this speaks to the way we see lower-income earners in this country; it’s less that you’re down on your luck, and more that you just “aren’t working hard enough.” Pardon the pun, but I think we need more carrot and less stick. Marion Nestle is advocating for doubling the value of food stamps used to buy “fresh (or single ingredient frozen) fruits and vegetables.” I don’t think telling people what to eat and what not to (and make no mistake, hunger is very real in this country, and food stamps can be the sole source of food, or even income for many) is the answer. Crossposted from Campus Progress. The New York Times reports on the stories of two young women—one in California, and one in New Jersey—who were violently hazed by members of their college chapters of Sigma Ghamma Rho, a historically black sorority, during the pledging process:
Gawker jokes: “Hey, hey—how else will she learn to respect her history?” But the joke is a bitter one. This will probably be the illest shit you will see all day… More on turfing here. (I may or may not be pop-locking at my desk.) In my little (and decidedly liberal) corner of the blogosphere, it has now become inappropriate to use the word “illegal” when referring to immigrants. Colorlines, one of my favorite PB-based blog discoveries, has launched a site called “Drop the I-Word.” From the site:
“Undocumented”, “unauthorized”, “without papers” — aren’t those all just other ways of saying illegal? Is it just the use of the word “illegals”? Or is it “illegal immigrant” as well? For the record, I don’t like the term “illegals.” If you’re going to call people “illegals”, let’s be fair and apply it to everyone who has ever done anything illegal. That would include me, you, Lou Dobbs, jaywalkers, underage drinkers, and almost everyone I know over the age of 10. But “illegal immigrant”? The simple fact is that if one immigrates without a visa, or stays after the visa expires, that is illegal. I’m not saying there aren’t justifiable reasons for doing so, but that doesn’t make it any less against the law. To me, this also smacks of being overly cautious. Are we using “undocumented immigrant” because the idea of “documenting” people instead of “legalizing” them is less frightening? If that’s at all the case, then that means we are allowing the other side to define the terms of reference, which has turned out really, really well in the past, what with the “death panels” (hospice), “climate change” (global warming), “pro-life” (because if you’re pro-choice, you are obviously anti-life), and “euthanasia” (assisted suicide). Call me naive, but if one side is going to appropriate a term and try to misuse it, shouldn’t we be pushing back against the misuse, instead of trying a rhetorical sidestep? Rhetoric matters- let’s not just give up because the other side has decided to be racist, fear-mongering idiots. I am more than willing to be wrong on this one, so please, someone make the case. What am I missing? School me y’all. Even now I remember those public school mandated Christopher Columbus day celebrations. By the third grade I learned to loathe those songs we had to sing about the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb. In school I was taught Columbus was an explorer and hero but at home my Taino-proud mother taught me he was a rapist and pillager. Ahhh what great conflicting lessons learned at an early age but from the post I am sure you can guess I gravitated toward the latter and earlier rather than later. Year after year I would be packed into a school auditorium and stand, visually undetectable, lost in a sea of navy blue school uniforms. With all my weight shifted to one hip, arms crossed, and my newly learned and nearly perfected eye roll handy I waited with sheer DELIGHT for the precise time where I would switch out the word “discovered” and bellow out the more historically accurate “landed” or my favorite, “invaded.” Rebel young! 12 years later I still don’t celebrate Columbus day– held on the second Monday of October. The PSA above is type old but so much younger than those tired ass songs they’re still making kids sing so just remember this coming Monday to reconsider again, Columbus Day. Well, you’ve decided to put us in cups. So . . . here we go. Crossposted from Colorlines: In their new music video for “New York is Killing Me,” Gil Scott-Heron and director Chris Cunningham turn popular characterizations of the Big Apple completely on their heads. The video, which was presented at the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan last week, has one simple message: it can be a cold, brutal place. But as a legendary artist, Heron’s bitter break up letter with the city has prompted some of hip-hop’s leading players to openly challenge its evils. In this case, it’s a matter of cleverly mixed mediums that get the message across. Heron’s raspy vocals blend well with Cunningham’s visuals of alternating shots of the city, all in constant, dizzying motion. Subway tunnels, bridges, extreme aerial long shots of the city cloaked in darkness create a menacing mood for viewers. They easily conjure up feelings of destitution and grittiness for a city that over the past twenty years has become largely represented as the entertainment capital of the world. When I first heard the track, I immediately thought of all the other highly-touted New York anthems. There’s Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” and the recent Jay-Z-Alicia Keys collaboration “Empire State of Mind.” Those types of love letters contrast sharply with Heron’s gritty city journal. This is not a song about a glitz and glam New York whose “streets will inspire you.” According to Heron, it’s a lonely, cold, and bare city. For a die-hard New Yorker like myself, the song is a hard pill to swallow but once it goes down, it’s difficult not to sober up and realize how much this city’s inhabitants are hurting. Of course, Heron knows a thing or two about overcoming struggles, and his words have inspired others. Known best in the pop culture world for his spoken word poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” Heron has become a hip-hop favorite tempting emcees like Nas and Mos Def to provide their own remixes to ‘New York is Killing Me.” Here’s Nas’ second verse that provide less abstract thoughts of the once enamored city. Nas spits:
And there’s plenty of unsettling realities in New York. According the daily report provided by the Department of Homeless Services, there are 35,490 reported homeless people that are living in a shelter. Taking the point even further, 14,193 of those are children. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, in the past decade the rate of homelessness has reached near-Great Depression levels. And these numbers don’t include the many folks who go unaccounted for while living on the streets or in subways. If one thing’s certain, it’s that Gil Scott-Heron is still aptly reading the pulse of America. How about some chicken wings and a limo ride to the polls?
It’s tough to know if this half-baked, fully-fried, get-out-the-vote effort had much effect, but Shreveport mayoral candidate Bryan Wooley advanced to a Nov. 2 runoff against popular incumbent Cedric Glover. Glover won 45 percent of the vote in Saturday’s election, while Wooley earned 31 percent. If Wooley really wants to make some inroads with black voters next month, he might think about including some malt liquor, fat asses and a live DJ. And if he can get Hurricane Chris – one of Shreveport’s finest sons – to show up and perform, I’ll be there and hand out ballots. On to the roundup: 1. Confirming what many of us already suspected, a new study has found that predatory lending aimed at poor minority neighborhoods kicked off the U.S. housing crisis. Surprised? (Blackink) 2. Researchers found that race and ethnicity was a factor in delayed breast cancer diagnosis, regardless of the patient’s insurance status. (G.D.) 3. In case you missed it, Slate’s Timothy Noah has a great series on inequality in the US. (Nicole) 4. Xe, the mercenary firm formally known as Blackwater, has set up dozens of front companies in order to camouflage its activities and dealings with the government. (G.D.) 5. A few cities are trying to push back against the federal program that mandates a check of the immigration status of anyone booked into local and county jails. (Blackink)
As you may have heard, Rick Sanchez was fired from CNN on Friday, the day after his interview with comedian Pete Dominick on satellite radio. CNN released a brief statement regarding the discharge: “Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well.” It is apparent in his interview with Dominick that Sanchez feels not only “minimized” by The Daily Show host, Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report’s Stephen Colbert but also looked down upon within the media industry because of his working class Cuban background. Sanchez spotlighted a “top brass” administrator who, according to Sanchez, said to him: “You know what? I don’t want you anchoring anymore… I see you more as a reporter, as a John Quinones.” Some of his more interesting points during the interview, including how a lot of the stories on FOX are intended to appeal to angry white men, were overshadowed by his evident resentment as well as hurt feelings. He says of Stewart, Colbert and “elite, Northeast establishment liberals”: “deep down, when they look at a guy like me, they see a guy automatically who belongs in the second tier, and not the top tier.” It seems as though Sanchez has conflated the frustration he feels with being picked on by Stewart and co. with the obstacles he’s faced in the industry which he feels have been related to being a minority. He is quite obviously “tired of” being laughed at by the likes of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, along with CNN’s own Anderson Cooper, and uh, Glenn Beck? But how much is being treated like a “dumb jock” related to his ethnic and financial background? Late in the fateful interview with Pete Dominick, the host suggests that because Stewart is Jewish he knows something about Sanchez’s experience. “Stewart’s a minority as much as you are,” exclaims Dominick. “He’s Jewish!” But, of course, blanketed in that is the assumption that all minority groups suffer alike and have some magical connection that comes from shared experiences. That’s when Sanchez went on his rant. This could become an opportunity to have a valuable conversation on race, power and media, but chances are, it won’t. This weekend was all about power– estimating it in numbers, conceding it and measuring it in physical prowess. I went to the ‘One Nation Working Together’ rally which lets face it, was more of a way for liberals to tout “my rally is way bigger than yours” than it was about inspiring those in attendance to come up with new and more effective strategies to use their new found collective power (save, to vote in the Midterm elections). The speeches were decent but familiar (a lot of MLK rhetoric) and it was great to see people from all sorts of organizations (ranging from unions, environmental groups, churches, to LBGT groups) put aside for a moment their niche issues and identity politics to come together on the National Mall to address a more frightening enemy: The party of No and the populist anger aka the Tea Party that threatens to infiltrate them and make the GOP–can it be? yes, worse. If Saturday was a day to demonstrate to the powers that be that we are a formidable force to be reckoned with coming into the Midterm elections and beyond then mission somewhat accomplished; because our rally was, according to some, way bigger than theirs. or was it? Or more importantly does it matter who wins the rally measuring contest if it doesn’t translate into votes this November? For more rally posturing checkout Jon Stewart’s ‘Restoring Sanity’ and Stephen Colbert’s ‘Keep Fear Alive’ “competing” rally’s. Demonstrating power without employing it can be an effective way to keep your enemies at bay. However, the best way to undermine power is to dilute it under the guise of acceptance; mainstream culture has had a great run of absorbing subcultures so that eventually overtime what was once hip , edgy, progressive transform into trendy, bland, and moderate. Assimilation is really the best way to extract the venom from the bite. As reported on Urban Daily a diadem donning Kanye West performed his hit song “Power” at NBC’s Saturday Night Live. The performance was eye-catching as usual (dozens of young women in white leotards moved around like possessed Greek oracles), and was a well serving distraction for viewers who otherwise may have noticed the change in lyrics. In the original “Power” Kanye spits, “F— ‘SNL’ and the whole cast/ “Tell ‘em Yeezy said they can kiss my whole a–,” a diss in response to SNL’s repeated skits on the Kanye and Taylor Swift incident at the 2009 VMA’s. But for SNL, they were changed to:
Concession made; seems there are ego’s bigger and more powerful than Mr. West’s. In lieu of original “Power” lyrics did not stop Kanye from delivering a powerful performance. Thankfully there is one arena bereft of manipulation– What I love most about sports is that when it comes to power it is never shared, conceded, or demonstrated by how many people show up to your game; there is only a battle of two opposing forces and power is either won or it is lost. Last night, The Chicago Bears lost their right to call themselves undefeated after they took a beating from the Giants last night. It wasn’t what I would call a great game but I did enjoy seeing Bears’ QB Jay Cutler suffer sack after sack after sack (a total of 10, two short of the 2007 record the Giants set with a 12-sack outing against Philadelphia). Sadly he was taken out of the game due to injury. Broken ribs and concussions are a small price to pay for a precious politics-free zone where there always seems to be a decisive win, having talent means you never have to say sorry, and being the best isn’t subjective. Ahhhh I love football– for allowing Michael Vick’s talent to override his dog fighting stint, for casting blame on Inez’s dress and manner as the real culprit of sexual harassment– for always ensuring that the world of sports remain the sole spot where a struggle for power can only result in a winner who takes all, unconcerned with moral high ground. Seems with power you can have it one of three ways; put on-for- show, diluted, or served straight up. I still don’t know which one to choose. With help from Justin Timberlake and The Roots, of course. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a slight cultural appropriation wince, though. Working through it.
I have to wonder though, if the object of Shirvell’s attention was a college woman, would he even still be employed?  via Editor B; CC 2.0.
Over on her blog, Dana Goldstein makes the important point that in so many discussions about education reform — a topic that seems to be inescapable right now — the issue of race is avoided.
[Bold hers.] You can see this at play in the documentary Waiting for Superman, in which the achievement gap is mentioned, but only as it pertains to class. But there are racial disparities in student achievement, even when controlling for parental income class. In fact, when the movie talks about the halcyon days of American education in the 1950’s and 1960’s, there’s no mention at all of school segregation or desegregation and how they’ve impacted how American schools function. At TAPPED, Jamelle suggests that making the education reform conversation about race could dampen concern for reform efforts, since Americans tend not to like policy ventures that they see are aimed at people of color.
I’d also add that bringing up race means inviting one of those predictable conversations in which the problems facing youth of color are chalked up to dysfunctional pathology. Still, it seems hard to ignore the role race plays in the achievement gap, as the disparities in performance often persist even when when the black and brown kids are middle class with college-educated parents. Thoughts?
Maybe my standards are low (actually, they probably are), but this interview Amanda Hess did with Justin Goforth, community health director at the Whitman Walker Clinic, kind of blew my mind with its humanization of young gay black men:
One in three black men who have sex with men in DC are HIV positive. One in three. All of the moralizing over sexual promiscuity and handwringing over the downlow myth won’t do anything to address the problem. That being: HIV exists, and it’s more likely to be contracted by those who lack the agency to protect themselves against it. And you know who lacks agency? People who have been historically and systematically faced with barriers to healthcare, wealth, and education. This includes both the young men Goforth talks about, and the young black women whose rate of contracting the disease has skyrocketed in recent years. Maybe part of the solution lies in getting schools more involved, as Goforth suggests. One problem may be that kids don’t have the vocabulary or space to talk about healthy sexuality, yet they see examples of high risk behavior all around them. And the only alternative offered to that high risk behavior is slut-shaming or gay-shaming or not talking about sex at all. But again, that doesn’t help the young men and women who only have two options: submit to their partner’s sexual terms or lose resources. |
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