Links – 2008-11-18
Reminder: Happy Hour in DC tonight at the Chi-Cha Lounge. Fun starts around 5:30.
Women’s eNews talks about the Global Gender Gap:
The economic, political and educational gender gaps have shrunk globally, with equality between women and men improving in more than two-thirds of 130 countries analyzed in the annual Global Gender Gap Index. The Nov. 12 index was released by the World Economic Forum, a Geneva-based development think tank.
Worldwide, women’s health and life expectancy, however, keep worsening.
Alternet asks “Is the Turban Effect the new Bradley Effect?”
The first is “The Turban Effect,” published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology by a team from the University of New South Wales in Sydney. It suggests that simply noticing someone is a Muslim increases aggressive tendencies on the part of non-Muslim Westerners.
The Pushback Blog comments on Andrew Sullivan’s take on Prop 8:
On the first point, the logic is absurd; if the voting preferences of African-Americans in one state can be used as a proxy for the voting preferences of African-Americans in all states, then, by Sullivan’s reasoning, we can also safely say that Prop 8 revealed the seething homophobia in a huge swath of the population: the over-65 community (61 percent voted “yes”), Latinos (53 percent voted “yes”), and middle-class voters (54 percent voted “yes”). Indeed, by Sullivan’s reasoning, most communities in the United States are brimming with “seething” homophobia.
Afrobella’s got another great discussion going on Prop 8, in her Love not H8 post. The comments are an interesting volley between those for and against gay marriage.
Shygirlj sends in this link from CNN:
A jury awarded $2.5 million in damages on Friday to a Kentucky teenager who was severely beaten by members of a Ku Klux Klan group because the Klansmen mistakenly thought he was an illegal Latino immigrant, the Southern Poverty Law Center said.
Jordan Gruver, then 16, was targeted and beaten by Klan members, his lawsuit alleged.The jury found that the Imperial Klans of America and its founder wrongfully targeted 16-year-old Jordan Gruver, an American citizen of Panamanian and Native-American descent.
Rob Schmidt sends in this interesting tidbit buried in a Slate article (emphasis mine):
A report from the pro-gay National Black Justice Coalition attributes President Bush’s 2004 reelection in part to the near-doubling of his percentage of the black vote in Ohio, which he achieved “by appealing to Black churchgoers on the issue of marriage equality.” This year, blacks in California were targeted the same way.
The NBJC report paints a stark picture of the resistance. It cites surveys showing that “65% of African-Americans are opposed to marriage equality compared to 53% of Whites” and that blacks are “less than half as likely to support marriage equality and legal recognition of same-sex civil unions as Whites.” It concludes: “African-Americans are virtually the only constituency in the country that has not become more supportive over the last dozen years, falling from a high of 65% support for gay rights in 1996 to only 40% in 2004.” Nor is the problem dying out: “Among African-American youth, 55% believed that homosexuality is always wrong, compared to 36% of Latino youth and 35% of White youth.”
Jasmine sends in an article on Danny Hoch, who has apparently declared war on gentrifiers:
Although the characters in “Taking Over” range from a real estate developer to a young man whose family is being kicked out of its apartment, the pro-gentrification characters (who are, not coincidentally, white) are inevitably less sympathetic than those being pushed out by the neighborhood’s transformation.
During earlier workshop runs, Mr. Hoch said, many upper-middle-class audience members told him they felt excluded or alienated while watching the show, particularly when the more hostile characters were onstage. “And my response to that is: That is a good thing, embrace that, because that is what all of my characters who are getting displaced are feeling.”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
drispe wrote:
I would love to see that Danny Hoch show. He seems to have a good grasp on inequities of life in New York. Ultimately, I can’t imagine the privileged members of his audience doing more than brushing off their discomfort and forgetting his message entirely.
Posted 18 Nov 2008 at 1:48 pm ¶
gr8ful1997 wrote:
Regarding the “Turban Effect” article: I think the title of the article is a little off-base. It is my understanding that what is commonly thought of a turban, the long piece of cloth that is wound upward around the head, is worn primarily by followers of the Sikh religion. Although any cloth headdress could be referred to as a turban under a more generic definition of the term, I don’t think this is what most people think of when they hear ‘turban.’ Of course, I could be wrong about this.
Posted 18 Nov 2008 at 2:16 pm ¶
Arturo wrote:
Hope everybody has a good mixer tonight.
Hmm … any chance we could set up a meet-up for the site’s West Coast readership? (Sorry, fly-over states.)
Posted 18 Nov 2008 at 4:20 pm ¶
Paz wrote:
No matter how many hate stories I hear, it’s always shocking to me to hear that people will act out violently on another human being because of skin color or religion or other factor. One question: what is Jordan Gruver, the Kentucky teenager, WERE an illegal immigrant? Or even just an immigrant? I wonder how that story would have played out.
Posted 18 Nov 2008 at 5:11 pm ¶
queerhapa wrote:
If you’re in NYC, you can get rush tickets to Hoch’s show for $20! I saw it over the weekend and you could definitely feel the tension in the audience. I kept wondering how many people were actually native New Yorkers. Being a native New Yorker myself, watching “Taking Over” gave me a sense of validation, but it also left me feeling pretty smug and self-righteous, which is problematic . It was as if he was saying if you are born in this city, you are pretty much off the hook for any of your actions that contribute to gentrification, and if you were not born here, you should just get the hell out. But even with that underlying message, audience members still got up to give him a standing ovation at the end!
Posted 18 Nov 2008 at 6:19 pm ¶
LaurynX wrote:
“African-Americans are virtually the only constituency in the country that has not become more supportive over the last dozen years”
I’m wondering if this has to do with education…perhaps?
Posted 18 Nov 2008 at 8:14 pm ¶
stankerbell wrote:
@ Paz,
that was my first thought as well, the wording makes it seem as if he had been an illegal immigrant something different might have happened.
Posted 18 Nov 2008 at 8:19 pm ¶
CVT wrote:
I agree with Stankerbell and Paz – the wording makes it sound like the jury ruled on whether the beating was merited or “wrongful” – as opposed to it being a problem that the KKK were beating anybody at all. As if an illegal immigrant could be “rightfully” beaten . . .
Posted 19 Nov 2008 at 1:54 am ¶
Marge Twain wrote:
The jury found that this poor kid was “unfairly targeted” by the KKK. Isn’t it always unfair to target someone for violence? And did he just sue them, or were criminal charges also filed?
Posted 19 Nov 2008 at 3:20 am ¶
The Cruel Secretary wrote:
@queerhapa–thanks for the heads’-up on the Hoch play. Now I *am* interested in seeing it!
Posted 19 Nov 2008 at 9:48 am ¶
queerhapa wrote:
@TCS: yeah, if you’re on a budget, rush tix are definitely a good deal. I think those tickets are usually $60 or $70, which is kinda funny since you’re basically sitting crammed in on uncomfortable chairs in a black-box type theater. But anyway, you should go! And report back!
Posted 19 Nov 2008 at 11:12 am ¶
Shauna wrote:
“Indeed, by Sullivan’s reasoning, most communities in the United States are brimming with “seething” homophobia.”
UHHHHHHH….DUH! It is.
Posted 19 Nov 2008 at 5:08 pm ¶