links for 2010-08-26

"Building off of new research that warns against carelessly lumping all Asian Americans together, Bouie writes: [Researchers] find that Asian Americans 'face crucial disadvantages preventing them from receiving quality health care taken for granted by other, more culturally assimilated Americans.' That we don’t notice those disadvantages owes itself to the prevalence of the 'model minority' myth."

"'I think that this incident should be viewed as a warning that should be heeded,' said Edina Lekovic, communications director for the Muslim Public Affairs Council. 'The hateful rhetoric that is being spewed by people like Newt Gingrich and then being amplified by mainstream media outlets poses a grave danger to the safety and well-being of everyday Muslim Americans like this cab driver, an innocent person.'"

"That complex, intertwined relationship has been mirrored in pop music. The involvement of Jewish Americans in African-American music has been well documented (perhaps too much so), from Tin Pan Alley through jazz and rock to hip-hop. The flipside of black artists exploring Jewish musical culture has been less discussed, but a new exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum aims to change that. "Black Sabbath: The Secret Musical History of Black-Jewish Relations" shines a revealing light on this relationship. Presented by the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation, a self-described group of "record-collecting dumpster divers" who aim to reexamine Jewish-American history by showcasing sometimes long-forgotten music, the exhibit makes a fascinating display of the influence of Jewish and Yiddish culture on black popular music of the 20th century."

"Budgets tended to fare worse in districts with a large number of white voters and a large number of nonwhite students. And in the four districts in the state where the majority of registered voters are white and nonwhite students make up the majority of the school population, the budgets were defeated.

"Still, sociologists say the outcome suggests the possibility of a growing demographic divide over public policy — school spending, in particular — that has been identified elsewhere in the country between an older, white electorate and a population of voters who are younger and members of minority groups."