links for 2011-04-28

"Stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that an epidemic of joblessness has undone years of economic and social progress for African Americans. The report highlights both Detroit and Las Vegas the rates have gone even higher, hitting Great Depression levels. African American unemployment hit 25.7 percent in Detroit in 2010 and rose to 20.1 percent in Vegas. In Birmingham, Alabama, where the unemployment rate for blacks was 5.3 percent in before the recession – it reached 14.5 percent in 2010. In Miami the rate jumped from 6.7 percent in 2006 to 17.2 percent in 2010 and in Los Angeles from 8.6 percent in 2006 to 19.3 in 2010. In Charlotte the rate grew from 4.9 percent to 19.2 percent."

"'Just like the people of Wisconsin took a stand and said ‘enough is enough’, the youth of Tucson are standing up and letting it be known that they are fed up with these attacks on their education and on their future,' said Sal Baldenegro, Jr., a TUSD Ethnic Studies alum and member of the Southern Arizona Unity Coalition, AlterNet reported.

“'As Arizonans, we absolutely must stand behind our youth and say ‘enough is enough’ with these attacks on their education. There has never been a more critical time to stand behind our children as they fight for their rights and for their futures.'”

"[J]ust 57 of 650 black or minority ethnic (BME) organisations were welcomed into the Arts Council's national portfolio (NPO) roster, down from the 74 that previously existed as regularly funded organisations (RFOs). Indeed, inner-city arts centres specifically targeting multi-ethnic audiences faced some of the biggest cuts: London's Rich Mix, Watermans and Yaa Asantewaa saw their funding slashed by more than half. Meanwhile, Greenroom, a performing arts venue in Manchester led by the country's only black British artistic director, saw its entire £295,000 grant vanish; 25 years after it opened, the space is set to close at the end of next month."

"Assuming that "ghetto" is some sort of lost-in-translation expression, her explanation still doesn't account for why these two 'body types' have been singled out. What about everyone who isn't black or curvy? Does Sozzani assume that the rest of those folks can just wear everything in Italian Vogue?"

"The Cosbys gave me what America, so far, had lacked. In the midst of my own rootlessness, I had the company of lovely, cultured, grounded people. In the middle of our own desperate, early immigration poverty, here was wealth on the American scale: an entire house, with multiple stories, all for one family. Children in separate bedrooms. A bathroom on every floor. Closets full of fancy sweaters. I had never seen anything like this in person, but I could aspire to it. I wanted Phylicia Rashad to be my stern but fair lawyer mom. I wanted to be Vanessa, with her fabulous hair and boy problems. I wanted to live in a household with siblings. I wanted to complain about not being allowed to drive and having an early curfew."