- Interesting class based take on an NYT piece. – LDP "I learned a strong work ethic, but not as some abstract value. I learned to earn enough money to buy my own clothes in high school, to pay my way through college and graduate school, to cough up the down payment for my first house years after friends had cashed their parents “gift” checks for their down payments, and now to support aged and nearly indigent parents. No one had to hire consultants to teach me those things — my parents taught me by showing me their empty pockets every day of their life, by sharing the single bathroom with their four children, by never, ever taking a vacation.
I’d learn to be productive or I’d starve.
There really were no other choices.
I deeply resent this “we’re all just alike” language."
- "Who is Darryl Willis? He is, in fact, VP-resources for BP, and he is based in Houston. But he did volunteer to manage the claims process for the embattled oil concern, and he did grow up in New Orleans, and despite taking a few hits from CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday, some say he is a far more effective spokesman for the oil company than CEO Tony Hayward, who was chided recently for attending a boat race off the southern coast of England as he watched from his $270,000, 50-foot yacht "Bob."
Mr. Willis has been setting up and overseeing BP's claims offices in the affected Gulf Coast states — a juxtaposition that some commentors on black-focused blogs said has undertones of racial perfidy. Nonetheless, Mr. Willis, a married father of two children, has become the most visible face of BP. Ad Age spoke to Mr. Willis via phone as he was en route from Florida to New Orleans. "
- "The State Legislative Assembly of the State of Amazonas (ALE-AM) held today (24) a special session in honor of Day of Caboclo (mixed person of Native American and white) of and the Mixed Race Day (”Dia do Mestiço”, in Portuguese), celebrated for 24 and June 27 respectively. The event – an initiative of Mrs Conceição Sampaio (PP) – brought together representatives of social movements, schools, teachers and students."
- "Criticism this week of a lack of diversity in Mayor Bloomberg's hiring could represent the first significant controversy involving race in the mayor's nearly nine years in City Hall—a sharp change from Rudolph Giuliani, who frequently sparred with opponents over issues involving race.
And mayors before Giuliani—whether it was David Dinkins squaring off with white cops, Ed Koch closing Sydenham Hospital in Harlem or John Lindsay wrestling with the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school controversy—also evoked stronger emotions around race than Bloomberg has."
- "Temple University Students and volunteers are slowing excavating the remains of a well-forgotten small settlement founded by freed blacks and non-slaves in 1825 called Timbuctoo, according to a report in the Daily Record."
- "I don't care how full Angelina Jolie's lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film," Shirea Carroll wrote in an editorial for Essence.com.
"I firmly believe this role should have gone to a Black woman…What's next? A biopic on Sojourner Truth played by Betty White?"
- "6) Transformation, not Criminalization and Militarization. We reject government responses that criminalize Black, Arab, immigrant, and other communities in North American and around the world as manifested through SB 1070 in Arizona, police-ICE collaboration and raids, increased border militarization, Fortress Europe, the E.U. Directive and many other such inhumane and unjust policies. We demand full employment in the roles we need to transform our communities—healers, counselors, mediators, facilitators, organizers, bus drivers, bike mechanics, deconstruction and reconstruction workers, (zero) waste workers, and more."
- "Ali says immigrants wonder what would happen if they were to call 911 in an emergency. Before, he said, if you were in a car accident, police only asked for a driver's license. "But now, if you need a police to help you, you have to prove that you are a legal immigrant," Ali believes.
That may be one example of the change in the law leading to a misconception. The Arizona Republic has been looking at hypothetical situations like that car accident scenario. In such a case as that, there generally would not be enough evidence to suspect the driver is in the country illegally — even if he or she didn't have a driver's license to show."
- "Sure, the show had its share of disappointments. Two Arab characters fall in love—yet instead, Sayid hooks up with a spoiled blonde in the afterlife? Get outta here. Jin and Sun speak in English during their last moments together? Come on.
But what sounds so simple—the love between the two Asians—makes you wonder why we don’t see it more often on American television. For Asian Americans, a pop culture representation of two Asians kissing is an urban legend akin to Bigfoot: Have you seen it?"
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The Octavia Butler Book Club
(Click the book for the latest conversation) Feminism for Real – Jessica, Latoya, Andrea
The Same Woman – Thea
I Speak For Myself – Fatemeh
Yes Means Yes – Latoya
Sex Ed and Youth – Jessica
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