Remarks go here

67 comments

May 6, 2008 at 1:57 am

Melinda

Hi,

This is unrelated to the post here, but I couldn’t find an email address to send it to. Anyway, I thought you might find this interesting, although it doesn’t specifically deal with race: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1737667,00.html

May 6, 2008 at 11:58 am

Jack Stephens

Hey, love the blog, been reading for a while. I was trying to find an e-mail to write to you about an issue I have with your header image, but I’ll just comment here as this is the most recently updated post on the blog. I’m not sure exactly what you are meaning with the picture but I can guess it has to do with a couple of things, especially playing on the submissive Asian woman stereotype and demolishing it with this pic (and some other issues I’m sure), that’s all in good. However, this is my issue with the pic.

The picture is of a special forces unit of the Philippine National Police. The PNP have been linked to the kidnapping of human rights activists, labor activists, and students. They have also been linked (along with the AFP, Armed Forces of the Philippines) to the killing of activists, as well as though who weren’t anti-government, pro-democratic activists, but were just mistaken as such. They are essentially the armed thugs of President Gloria Arroyo. I actually was able to meet with Anne and Edith Burgos just a few months ago and was in Senator Boxer’s office with them, along with other leaders in the Pilipino American community, and heard first hand how AFP troops and possible some PNP folks abducted Anne’s brother (Edith’s son) in broad daylight at a restaurant in Manila. He is one of the many hundreds of those who are considered “Disapeared,” along with close to 1,000 Pilipinos killed by the AFP and PNP and/or forces loyal to Arroyo.

So, in my mind, the picture in your header brings up bad thoughts of political repression and state sanctioned violence of an anti-democratic regime which is funded through the U.S. So those PNP special forces folks are essentially the tip of the spear of imperialism and a genocidal government.

Just thought I’d share that and have you know.

May 6, 2008 at 12:00 pm

resistance

Thanks for the input.

May 6, 2008 at 1:11 pm

Jack Stephens

No prob. Thanks for the understanding.

May 14, 2008 at 4:16 pm

Mindy

Have you seen this?

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cobb/stories/2008/05/13/mulligans_0514.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

May 30, 2008 at 5:55 am

panracial

Father Pfleger does another awesome sermon (this time mocking Hillary’s white privilege and entitlemtn to the presidency): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080530/ap_on_el_pr/obama_pfleger

Obama cowardly and cruelly scolds him for it by saying that the Father Pfleger is causing disunity and looking backwards. Father Pfleger then apologizes though he was totally in the right — and hillarious to boot.

May 30, 2008 at 6:04 am

panracial

Remember Father Pfleger – the white Catholic preist who defended Jeremiah Wright. Well, this is the latest deal with him http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080530/ap_on_el_pr/obama_pfleger

and here’s the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H11×6bMu4Y&e

May 31, 2008 at 11:14 pm

panracial

This site http://www.reparationsthecure.org/ is for CURE – Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation — it’s awesome.

June 4, 2008 at 4:05 am

panracial

You might want to unpack these articles http://www.diversityinc.com/public/3420.cfm http://diversityinc.com/public/3475.cfm

June 16, 2008 at 10:40 pm

panracial

I speak racismese bingo http://pics.livejournal.com/ktempest/pic/0001r05g

August 11, 2008 at 5:42 am

Nohpalli

Hello,

I have really enjoyed this blog. It is smart and precise. After thinking about it for some time I have finally gotten the time and words to start a blog myself and want to invite you to check it out. (It will cover, in part, politics, culture, and life from a Chicano perspective.) If you do stop by, I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to offer suggestions. Once again, great work.

citronetsel.blogspot.com

Thanks.

January 11, 2009 at 11:27 pm

What bothers me most about this particular incident is all the comments to the article made by readers. As usual, a bunch of people are excusing the racist language as a case of PC gone wild. These people simply do not understand how much racist language impacts those who are abused by the language. One guy even dares to say kids need to be taught “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”. In my belief, that saying is the dumbest saying ever.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5497509.ece

January 11, 2009 at 11:44 pm

it’s not racism. It’s financial. Great. so that’s the newest excuse for racism. If movies were willing to accept more minority actors in choice roles, the audience wouldn’t be brainwashed to think only movies with white actors were good. Besides, I think hollywood underestimates us moviegoers. I think if they were to be more bold in their casting, they’d realize moviegoers are more interested in a good movie with a solid plot than a specific actor. I know I have never watched a movie for a particular actor before. I’ll watch anything played by anyone as long as the movie is good.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Story?id=4991235&page=4

January 19, 2009 at 6:09 am

well, here’s a tiny bit of good news in my opinion. It’s at least an infinitesimally small show of respect to asian-americans by the news media (which occurs about as often as pigs fly).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090118/ap_on_re_us/asian_american_politics;_ylt=Aswvmx8KCtedQdgwxstRRaCs0NUE

February 4, 2009 at 3:49 am

racism against asians and people denying it’s offensive. Hnn…..business as usual I see.

http://www.tmz.com/2009/02/02/asian-group-not-mad-at-one-of-these-people/

February 4, 2009 at 9:54 pm

Miz_Jen

Eerily similar event happened in Austin, Texas last year.

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2008/01/31/1270198-child-7-found-hanging-on-clothing-hook

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-01-student-hurt_N.htm

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/03/america/Student-Death.php

February 17, 2009 at 5:32 am

realpeopleholland

I’m not a racist, my best friend is Chinese, I speak Persian, and I think that these could be compliments if you interpret them differently… :)

This post may be slightly breaking the rules, but: your posts are really thought-provoking. However, many of the most-recent ones like to paint “white people” as a monolithic block, which to some extent, we are. But as a proud Irish-Polish-Bosnian-German American, I’m also a Muslim, and alarm TSA just as much as someone not-pale might. (As a person who has been mysteriously denied summer jobs because of her headgear, I’d also really like to know where this White Advantage is and where I can get some. ^_~) It’d be really appreciated if you took a post or two to examine this kind of “ideological prejudice”–I’m still a whitey, but I freak people out, too.

March 9, 2009 at 2:54 pm

Psychobabbler

Wasn’t quite sure where to put this, but a friend of mine pointed me to this link today. Thought this might be of interest to both the bloggers and their readers:

http://www.ua.edu/academic/facsen/diversity/continuum.html

March 14, 2009 at 2:17 pm

Maysie

Hey resistance, I’m a regular reader of your blog, tell people about it and link to it all the time. I wanted to give you the head’s up that I’ve posted two links to your older pages, one for “We Heard it Before” and one for “Racism 101″ on my blog. I’ve given you full credit of course. Thanks for your thoughts and smarts, by the way!

March 14, 2009 at 11:49 pm

more cowbell

@ psychobabbler: we use that continuum during the Undoing Institutional Racism training in my area, and it’s interesting, every time I’ve seen it used, the white people will perceive their institution as somewhere between 4.5 – 5, while the POCs tend to go more toward a 2, 2.5. If that’s a not a yellow flag for folks who think everything’s fine, I don’t know what is.

March 15, 2009 at 2:42 am

Restructure!

That Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Institution chart is really cool. I’d rate Canada with a 3, but my institution within Canada with a 2. I’d also rate the United States with a 2, although I’m not American.

How would you rate your country?

March 16, 2009 at 1:09 pm

Margie

It’s me returning with a question about the issue I mentioned in my comment a couple of weeks ago – feel free to delete this comment once you’ve read it; I’d have emailed but don’t have your email.

The subject is the same one: AP responsibility for speaking out when we see online PAP behavior that we believe is off base. Case in point: I stumbled upon a new blog whose author includes the following in their introduction:

“We have just started the process of adopting from Korea. We are elated for this new Mission God decided for us!”

Now, from your point of view, should I comment? Email? Say something to this individual? I have done just that, and to date find that folks with this mindset do not listen. If these folks truly believe their adoption is ordained by God, then how likely are they to listen to a stranger who tries to point out reality?

Sorry to continue to chew on this, but it’s a huge issue to me. And thanks for any thoughts you can share – feel free to email them.

March 18, 2009 at 8:54 pm

Psychobabbler

First Facebook goes and changes on me and now RR is looking all different? Sigh.

Et tu, Brute? Et tu?

March 18, 2009 at 9:12 pm

resistance

We’re embracing change. Us and Barack.

March 20, 2009 at 9:55 pm

Lori

[Hi, I have changed my name. :)]

March 31, 2009 at 1:26 pm

Psychobabbler

This is another link which appeared in my in-box this morning, which your readers might find interesting:
http://www.racialequitytools.org/

April 5, 2009 at 11:26 am

Lori :)

Wondering what others here think of this story —

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090404/ap_on_re_us/one_man_s_apology

“One man’s ambivalent retreat from his racist past”

May 8, 2009 at 11:54 pm

mama d

hello: Enjoying the blog immensely, thank you for raising your voice/s. My question is about the tag “people of white.” Not sure what the intent is, so I’m asking: What is the intent behind, or desired response (intellectual, emotional) to, the phrase “people of white”?

May 23, 2009 at 8:04 pm

Melinda

Don’t know if you’ve heard this story, but I would be very interested in your thoughts on this “adoption” story: http://thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=380 (Act 2)

May 31, 2009 at 4:15 pm

Ani

i love your blog. last night i saw up and today i went on imdb, on it they have a thread about pixars lack of minority characters. Some of the responses the original poster has gotten are
“I believe that the only time the race issue should be brought up is if a racist comment is made directly.”
and
“Well I just saw “UP” with my daughter and grandkids and we loved it, then I read this thread and I just want to say “RELAX” and enjoy life. Its too short to even bring these issues up and try to spoil things for us. Just be nice”
here’s a link, the thread goes on for 30 some pages
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049413/board/flat/127423592?p=1
thank you for your time

July 8, 2009 at 3:18 am

CJsDaddy

Just saw this on the news.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Swim_Club_Turns_Away_Kids_for__Change_of_Complexion__Philadelphia.html

July 18, 2009 at 1:20 am

Julia

Concerned adoptive parent here. JCIS has issued a call to action regarding the Families for Orphans Act. The legislation SOUNDS promising and yet, I feel like I’m missing something ominous… Would appreciate if you could weigh in…
http://www.jcics.org/

July 21, 2009 at 12:59 am

Psychobabbler

This one just came thru my inbox…
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/harvard.html

July 26, 2009 at 11:23 pm

paula

Hello- I’m Paula. White person trying to find support and resources to strengthen and inform my anti-racist framework. Are White people invited to join this blog? From looking around this page, it seems like a place for education. I was slightly concerned that a lot of the folks who identified as white in their comments also seemed to have missed the “Racism 101″ guidelines. Also, I am aware that the exploration of my White priv is clumsy and whitey at times. This is not intended to sound judgemental, I just dont’ want to join just because other White people are doing it. Thank You.

August 30, 2009 at 12:39 am

Restructure!

I saw something stupid today. http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/08/the-inheritance-of-education.html

September 16, 2009 at 1:34 pm

bets

God bless Jimmy Carter

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/15/carter.obama/index.html

September 23, 2009 at 4:54 pm

Andy

Hello,

I’m a white guy fortunate to live in one of the most ethnically diverse areas of Europe, in East London. I feel privileged, genuinely, to experience life in this way.

Recently I was appalled to discover a number of purportedly-respectable websites that deal in thinly veiled white, and particularly Aryan, supremacy. I was moved towards physical nausea at the many thousand of ardent and regular contributors. Words cannot express my shock, sadness and horror that today, in 2009, such sites can exist. For the people there, I feel nothing but deep pity.

I then set about seeking out a site such as this one.

Keep up the good work.

Andy

September 26, 2009 at 2:26 am

Restructure!

Friday cuteness: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/24/bc-burnaby-toddler-hero.html

October 15, 2009 at 11:53 pm

Psychobabbler

Here’s another goodie for your spewing pleasure:

http://news.aol.com/article/interracial-couple-denied-marriage/719806

October 21, 2009 at 12:34 pm

bets

It is with great diffidence that I sheepishly announce I am leaving soon (sometime in the next couple weeks) for Korea to pick up my adoptive son, Kisung. So I am going to be spending less time hanging around here getting my head bashed in. I am going to miss my daily dose of racism — that didn’t sound right. Anyway, I’ll be back eventually, because I really need this, but for a while, other concerns are going to take priority.

If it means anything, his name will remain Kisung, and he was on a special needs waiting list for several months when we found him. I don’t know if it does mean anything, but there ya go. He will be about 20 months old when he arrives. (Can’t believe I’m going back to the toddler years!)

October 21, 2009 at 12:55 pm

resistance

Geez bets, we’re not heartless social incompetents here. Here’s wishing you a good trip and congratulations on your son.

October 24, 2009 at 7:03 pm

bets

Thanks for the well wishes and thanks for what you do. Keep up the good work.

October 24, 2009 at 11:01 pm

Catherine

I live in Baltimore, USA and one of my black co-workers was asking me about racism. By far, most of the racism is see is directed against me and some of my fellow scientists by the black locals on the sidewalks and street. I am white and my co-workers are from all over the globe- including subsaharan Africa. We mind our own business and people still curse at and spit on me/us. (really!) The one unifying theme among the pan-ethnic scientists is education. Why are there few local black Baltimoreans on the science staff here?- there are very few educated ones applying. When education becomes a priority for black Americans (and NO, it isn’t the schools- it’s a lack of “[kid's name here], did you do your homework yet? Let me study with you.”), they will take their place in numbers throughout educated society. It isn’t about race anymore (yes, there are some genuine racists out there- especially the ones who spit at me), it’s about culture. Martin Luther King is turning over in his grave daily at the mass rejection of education by the black community.

As I grew up in public schools in south Florida, my classes were always multiracial and multinational. I had black and white teachers and we were all treated equally. Kids stratified as the years went on and academic prowess was a function of both the kid and the kid’s parents. Asian kids always did well in school because their culture places education at the top of the priority list. They didn’t go to a special prep school or have high-tech genetic engineering- they did all their homework and studied. White kids were all over the map as some parents (the successful ones) valued learning and some didn’t. Not all, but most black kids tended to do worse and get into more trouble. Those kids who did pay attention and do well were bullied and asked “why you bein’ so white?”. Education = success, not “white”. I was bullied for being a nerd too, but my derogatory label was “geek/nerd/dumb blonde”, not “white”. I continued to study.

Barak Obama, Nelson Mandala, MLK, MLK Jr., Eric Holder, Colin Powel, Condoleeza Rice: what do all of these people have in common?

1. they are very well educated
2. they speak perfect English
3. they are highly successful

So, we discriminate based on education and skills for the job, not race. That’s good news because it means people from all over the world (any of any race or combination) can come here to find a better life. Their kids will have access to free education and should they accept it, their opportunities will be limitless.

My Chinese collegues are baffled by the notion that someone would reject free education (and thus success) and these people must be genetically inferior (be they white, black, latino or other). It is hard to understand but people have to come around in their own time. I hope that time comes soon as we always need fresh minds in science and I’m tired of people spitting on me.

October 25, 2009 at 11:29 pm

flower

Catherine, I could debunk this piece by piece, but since you didn’t feel the need to back up your claims with research (quite surprising from an alleged educated scientist) why should I dignify your post with a thoroughly researched response? I’ll just address your central tenet about blacks and education.

http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/notsolittle.html

“… Many critics claim that blacks have adopted the attitude that doing well in school is “acting white,” and thus have sabotaged their own futures by downgrading intellectual pursuits. Black families come in for special condemnation under such an analysis, criticized for not reinforcing the work done in the classroom, and thereby undercutting whatever success teachers might otherwise have in educating their children…According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 43 percent of black fourth-graders do one hour or more of homework per night, as do 45 percent of whites and 47 percent of Hispanics. In fact, black and Hispanic fourth-graders are both more likely than whites that age to do more than one hour of homework, with 18 percent of Hispanics, 17 percent of blacks, but only 15 percent of whites putting in this amount of study time daily…NCES statistics indicate that black children are more likely than whites to often spend time with their parents on homework. Black students are twice as likely as white students to get help from their parents on homework every day of the school week (twenty percent compared to ten percent), and while roughly half of black students get help from parents on homework at least three times each week, approximately two-thirds of whites get such help two times or less, with whites a third more likely than blacks to work with parents rarely if ever on their homework…The poorest students, from families with less than $5,000 in annual income are actually the most likely to get substantial homework help from their parents, while those from families with incomes of $75,000 or more are least likely to do so. Half of the poorest students work with their parents on lessons three or more times weekly, while only a third of the wealthiest students do…Black parents and their children are also equally likely as their white counterparts to visit a library, art gallery, zoo, aquarium, museum or historic site, as well as a community or religious event: further countering the notion that black parents take less interest in providing educational opportunities for their kids. Furthermore, and contrary to popular belief, three of four black children are read to by their parents when they are young, and black youth are equally or more likely than whites to be taught letters, numbers and words by their parents between the ages of three and five…Black twelfth graders are more than twice as likely as whites to have perfect attendance (16 percent versus 7.4 percent), and are even more likely than Asians to have perfect attendance. Whites are more likely than blacks to have missed seven or more days during the last semester, while blacks are the least likely to have missed that many days of school. There is also no significant difference between whites, Asians and blacks in terms of their likelihood to skip classes…A recent opinion poll of black youth, ages 11-17, found that the biggest hope for these youth was to go to college, and additional studies have found that black youth value academic success every bit as much as white students and often place an even higher priority on educational achievement than whites… Despite claims by many on the right that blacks (especially youth) lack a connection to “mainstream values,” evidence contradicts this notion. One mid-1990s questionnaire of black high school seniors found that black seniors were just as likely as white seniors to say that a good marriage and family life were “extremely important” life goals; 32 percent more likely than whites to say that professional success and accomplishment were “extremely important” life goals; 26 percent more likely than whites to say “making a contribution to society” was extremely important; and 75 percent more likely than whites to say “being a leader in their community” was an extremely important life goal. Black seniors were also 21 percent more likely than whites to attend weekly religious services and almost twice as likely as whites to say that religion played a “very important role in their lives.”…Even when blacks demonstrate equal ability with their white counterparts, they are less likely to be placed in accelerated classes. When kids from lower-income families, disproportionately of color, correctly answer all math questions on a standardized test, they are no more likely to be placed in advanced or college tracks than children from upper-income families who missed a fourth of the questions, and they are 26 percent less likely to be placed in advanced tracks than upper-income persons with comparably perfect scores. Even the President of the College Board has acknowledged that black 8th graders with test scores comparable to whites are disproportionately placed in remedial high school classes…”

In addition, to your erroneous views on blacks and education, you seem not to know the difference between institutional and interpersonal racism. And if you want to further this discussion, I expect you to cite sources that show there is no bias in hiring in general and the science industry in particular.

P.S. Most scientists know that the plural of anecdote is not data.

October 26, 2009 at 12:35 am

Catherine

Flower, I see my post has struck a nerve. I didn’t attach or cite any statistics as I was simply supplying my own observations. If your source is correct, what then is the limiting factor for African-Americans entering top posts in this country? Based on my own profession (sorry, no statistics- just personal observation (20/20 with glasses), race is absolutely not a factor. We have every race and nationality under the sun here and- again- the common factor is education. I think science and government are the two institutions that really have leveled the playing field. I just don’t see many American-born blacks or latinos on the faculty here and I just don’t think it’s racial discrimination. In graduate school, it was the same mix. I think it’s a combination of cultural taboo of being a “nerd” and less emphasis (as a group trend) on education. Bill Cosby has it right. My black collegue (who dropped out of high school but then later went back for his GED-good for him!- agrees. He saw pretty much the same thing. He is now trapped in a low-paying job because all he has is a GED, not because he’s black. It really is about education. If AAs are persuing education as avidly as any other and doing just as well, there must be a cultural phenomenon at work (and I don’t think it’s racism). Is there anything I can do to help the situation?

October 26, 2009 at 12:41 am

flower

Oh, ok. You admit you’re just running your mouth and make no pretense of accuracy — cool.

October 26, 2009 at 8:50 am

Wayward RADish

My comment is off-topic, so it’s probably better posted here:

Hi, relative newcomer here. Just another international, transracial adoptee – I’m also an abuse survivor.

Anyway, thought you should know about this white American couple who adopted a young child from Haiti – they’re now trying to give the boy (who is now all of 8 years old) away online.

October 26, 2009 at 1:46 pm

resistance

Hi Wayward RADish, welcome. I read that story previously; I really dislike that the mom calls the kid “Angry Boy.”

October 26, 2009 at 8:08 pm

Catherine

An excerpt from “Education is still blacks’ pathway to freedom” Cleveland.com

By Kevin OBrien
February 12, 2009, 4:01AM

Of the 6.8 million black men who are employed, the vast majority have at least a high school diploma. Many have college degrees or diplomas from technical schools. The same is true for the 8.4 million working black women.

For black men ages 20 to 24 without a high school diploma, on the other hand, the unemployment rate is 55 percent — an abysmal 91 percent for 18 and 19 year olds. For uneducated black women 20 to 24, it’s close to 30 percent.

Now, give them each a professional degree — and the unemployment rate all but disappears

“The higher the learning, the lower the unemployment,” Emy Sok, a bureau economist, told me.

It’s a message that has echoed throughout black America for generations. The celebrated abolitionist Frederick Douglass was only 8 when he discovered what the fuss over education was all about.

In his autobiography, Douglass writes about the moment he realized why a slave could be killed for learning to read: Education was the pathway to freedom.

And so it is today. With more than 40 percent of blacks failing to graduate from some of the nation’s largest urban school systems, little wonder that one in nine black men between 20 and 34 are behind bars. ”

…and from U.S. Dept of Education, NCES 2003-034

The high school completion rate indicates
the percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds who
have a high school diploma or an equivalent
credential, including a General Educational
Development (GED) credential. The
higher dropout rate for Blacks is reflected in
the high school completion gap between
Blacks and Whites. In 2000, Blacks ages 18
to 24 had a completion rate of 84 percent,
lower than the White completion rate of 92
percent, but higher than the Hispanic
completion rate of 64 percent. Although a
gap in high school completion rates still exists
between White and Black young adults,
the 2000 completion rate for Blacks ages 18
to 24 years old was statistically significantly
higher, at 84 percent, than all completion
rates for Blacks ages 18 to 24 before 1982.
This indicates that a greater proportion of
Black young adults in 2000 were completing
high school than in the 1970s, but
changes in the percentages completing high
school since 1982 have generally not been
statistically significant.”

There are a lot of data that would support the position of lower value on education by selected cultural groups. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I think people of all colors, shapes and sizes are accountable for their actions and inactions. Kids who skip school, get pregnant and drop out (of all colors, shapes and sizes) will reap what they sow…a whole lot of nothin’. There will always be kids like this but it is disturbing when these features aggregate within cultural groups. If Frederick Douglass could address black and latino communities today, what would he say?

October 26, 2009 at 8:39 pm

resistance

So your point in being here is what?

October 26, 2009 at 9:14 pm

Catherine

I made an unabashedly honest observation about educational disparity among racial and ethnic groups. I think blogs are a great way tap other minds on the subject. I expect some bashing as a result of my departure from political correctness but it is one of the elephants in the room. If we don’t talk about it, it must not exist. You’re right though, my topic wasn’t on racism, it was on parity in educational achievement, which is cultural. I thought this might be a good forum to discuss matters like this. I really want to hear all kinds of peoples’ points of view. Sometimes I miss stuff.

October 26, 2009 at 9:24 pm

resistance

I would guess you’ve never been in a public school in an all-black area.

October 26, 2009 at 9:28 pm

flower

Catherine, yes, blacks with degrees are more likely to be employed than blacks without them – nobody’s arguing with that. You’re posing a straw man argument. But in fact, kids who skip school, get pregnant and drop out (of all colors, shapes and sizes) don’t reap what they sow — if they’re white they’re likely to suceed anyways. Whites without high school degrees are equally likley to be hired as blacks with them just as whites with criminal records are hired at the same rate as blacks without them just as identifiably black names on a resume get less call backs with the same credentials just as black women with more credentials are three times less likely to be hired that less qualified white women, etc.

Now, going back to my original stats “Even when blacks demonstrate equal ability with their white counterparts, they are less likely to be placed in accelerated classes. When kids from lower-income families, disproportionately of color, correctly answer all math questions on a standardized test, they are no more likely to be placed in advanced or college tracks than children from upper-income families who missed a fourth of the questions, and they are 26 percent less likely to be placed in advanced tracks than upper-income persons with comparably perfect scores. Even the President of the College Board has acknowledged that black 8th graders with test scores comparable to whites are disproportionately placed in remedial high school classes…” This sort of tracking impedes black people from getting into college.

Then you have this gem, “With more than 40 percent of blacks failing to graduate from some of the nation’s largest urban school systems.” So the author doesn’t focus on the graduation of blacks from all school systems, he narros his gaze to blacks in the worse school systems. He doesn’t say what percentage of whites manage to graduate from horrible schools.” Surprised you didn’t analyze that — kinda unscientific of you.

Furthermore, the reason one out of nine black are in jail isn’t that blacks are less educated or blacks are more criminal — it’s injustice in the criminal justice system. For example, whites are more likely to use and sell drugs, blacks are more likely to be arrested and imprisoned for it.

As for black and white drop out rates — as a scientist you should no about holding variables constant — the stats you quote suspciously don’t address the variable of income level.

You ignored my data showing that whites are more likely to skip school and you have presented no evidence that black teens get pregnant more than white teens.

So so far you haven’t been able to prove any of your arguments. If there is so much data proving your argument pony up — so far you haven’t proved a thing. And I really couldn’t care less what you’ve seen through your bigoted eyes — I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – the plural of anecdote is not data.

Nobody’s said ppl aren’t accountable for their actions — another straw argument.

If Frederick Douglass were here to address black communities he would say, “Good job,” since blacks are the ones, as per my stats, who are more likely to help their kids with homework, have their kids spend longer on homework, teach them numbers and letters, etc. He would see that blacks are aware of the value of education — and why they do those things. And then he would look over at the white community, failing at those very things, and say, “Get it together.”

October 26, 2009 at 9:40 pm

flower

Sorry for the double post, my computer is acting up. And Catherine, no one cares about your lack of “political correctness.” It’s your lack of empiricism that’s alarming.

October 26, 2009 at 10:58 pm

Catherine

Flower, I agree, the bias you describe absolutely needs to stop. It is terribly unfair. I understand your anger but won’t return it. I don’t hate, I just have an observation that may be instrumental in improving outcome. It’s a partial solution, not a condemnation. All people can improve based on merit. How is that bigoted? Anyway, I guess I’ve been living on the Enterprise NCC-1701D where all species are treated equally. I like it here and fervently hope this is our future.

If you would like, you may post personal attacks now but I won’t be posting here anymore- too much hate.

October 26, 2009 at 11:20 pm

flower

Catherine, I have been neither angry nor hateful — but since you know you don’t have real arguments you’re resorting to ad hominem attacks. You say you have, “an observation that may be instrumental in improving outcome” — but as a scientist I’m sure you know the first thing you do when you have an observation that MAY be instrumental — you do research. And you refuse to do that. And because I’ve asked you to do it you’re runnning — which I knew you would.

And you’re also whipping out the straw man/non sequitor arguments — nobody said that the idea of merit was bigoted. You didn’t come here saying “all people can improve upon merit” and get accused of being a bigot, you said, “black people don’t value education,” and got recognized as a bigot. Don’t switch horses mid-stream.

People pointing out your conjecture is wrong — and backing it up with facts aren’t being hateful. It’s not too much hate that’s scaring you, it’s too many facts. Because ironically, while ranting about black anti-intellectualism, you showed yourself to be absymally anti-intellectual — and when you got called out as a bigot (because, without facts, you insists blacks don’t care about education) and a poor scientist — because you don’t understand about research, testing hypotheses, controlling variables, and the differences between anecdotes and data you framed it as a personal attack.

You can go live on “Enterprise NCC-1701D” or anywhere else you like — that’s white privilege, the ability to opt out of the struggle.

October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am

Wayward RADish

“AngryBoy’s” plight is the tip of the iceberg for this fringe therapy cult that trafficks adopted, abused and (more often than not) non-white children. To paraphrase one of my allies – if they weren’t so dependent on public funds (such as adoption subsidies) and insurance reimbursements, the entire practice would be much happier operating underground. But they walk the difficult line of trying to appear legitimate while abusing and trafficking children.

Probably shouldn’t go further into it at this point as it’s extremely disturbing, triggering stuff, to say the least – so anyway! Hello and cheers for the welcome, avid reader here.

October 28, 2009 at 12:59 pm

resistance

Well, flower, you done good. But I didn’t have too much hope for a “discussion” in which one party is completely ignorant of institutional racism. Or quotes Frederick Douglass without knowing that he was one of the first to talk about it (the “slave of society”). See, because this wasn’t a discussion at all. It was a white person showing you she’s smarter. And you’re the hater.

October 28, 2009 at 5:08 pm

flower

Thanks, resistance : )

October 29, 2009 at 1:09 pm

Dylan H.

According to Project Censored, there were gangs of white men shooting black people just after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans:
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/13-katrinas-hidden-race-war/

October 30, 2009 at 3:50 pm

Lori

Paula’s blog is back.

November 6, 2009 at 5:18 pm

Melanie

This from HuffPo

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/05/blackface-northwestern-un_n_347745.html

Whites in blackface, tired but true. However it’s the comments, oh Lord, the comments. And from the lefties at HuffPo who claim to be so progressive. Sheesh.

November 12, 2009 at 11:13 am

Lori

is there any other way to go through your archives than just paging back one page at a time? any page with, for example, links to older entry by month/year?

November 13, 2009 at 4:00 am

bookofjude

Hi, I really like reading this blog a lot. I was wondering if you could tell me more about it? Who the authors are? When this blog started, etc?

November 18, 2009 at 6:21 pm

Deb

I was just over at What Tami Said, and one of her thought provoking posts made me realize that I owed gratitude to all the people on the blogosphere who made me think and taught me something. So, I just popped by to say: Thanks, Resistance!

November 19, 2009 at 12:02 am

Melanie

I just want to say how sick I am of white folks not getting how important it is not to touch black kids’ hair. After reading posts on the adoption hair group I am so friggin’ annoyed at people who are raising kids of color that don’t get it. “Lighten up.” “It’s just your opinion.” “I loved it when the Ethiopians touched my blonde hair!”

Okay. I’m done. Maybe.

December 6, 2009 at 9:20 pm

flower

Her book — “Mixing Cultural Identities Through Transracial Adoption” — describes how the project started as a handshake agreement between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League.

The idea was to rescue American Indian children from poverty and challenging social conditions and give them access to the resources of the white middle class.

But in reality, activists say, it was another effort by the white U.S. government to eradicate the American Indian population.

…She was adopted at age 2 by a white couple — Eleanor and Jed Devan. While her mother simply wanted a child, her dad, Harness said, bought into the noble idea of “saving” an American Indian girl from her ancestry.

Soon others were adopting American Indian children, including church families across the country, she said.

“At the time it was considered the ‘in’ adoption,” Harness said. “If you could save a poor Indian child, you were a good person.”

http://www.denverpost.com/news/frontpage/ci_13887007

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