Politics

I’m pretty strongly liberal — about as far left as one can go without falling into libertarianism. Posts collected under this tag will likely reflect that viewpoint.

#StandingWithMuslims

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An excerpt from a post by Sofia Ali-Khan on Facebook, the whole thing should be read as well:

Out yourself as someone who won’t stand for Islamophobia, or will stand with Muslims—there is an awful lot of hate filling the airways, and there are an awful lot of people with access to the media and/or authority stirring the pot about Muslims. Please help fill that space with support instead. Post, write, use your profile picture or blog to voice your support.

I can tell you that in addition to the very real threat to their civil and human rights that Muslims are facing, we are dealing with a tremendous amount of anxiety. While we, many of us, rely on our faith to stay strong, we are human. This is not an easy time. What you do will mean everything to the Muslim Americans around you. Thank you for reading and bless you in your efforts.

One of the friendliest, most genuinely pleasant students I got to know here at CWU is Muslim. He graduated with his BA in Law and Justice last year, and is now working on his master’s degree. While an undergraduate, he was involved in several campus clubs reaching out to underprivileged and minority students. Now, he works with young people at a local juvenile detention facility. Just yesterday, he was here with a small group of them, as he has been every couple weeks this quarter, bringing them in to our department to meet and speak with community figures as part of the kids’ rehabilitation measures. The dedication and care he showed as a student and shows now as a counselor and leader is truly inspiring.

There are always a number of international Muslim students at CWU, mostly from Saudi Arabia, here learning English and pursuing American academic degrees. While I don’t often work directly with them (though my wife does, and has a lot of fun working with them as they learn English), many of their classes are held in the building where I work, so I see them quite frequently. It’s fun to see them talking and laughing, not just in Arabic among themselves, but frequently in English as they speak with the Korean and Chinese students who are also part of our international programs. I’ve often received very pleasant greetings and smiles from the men and women both — and, yes, sometimes I can only see the women’s smiles in their eyes, as the rest of their face is covered, but the smile still shows through.

And so often these days, I worry about what these students must think of us. How often they worry about their own safety. How often they’re the victim of attacks, subtle or overt, verbal, non-verbal, or physical. How frightening it must be for them to be here, trying to learn, to improve their lives, to experience life in another country, to make friends and expand their world, all while knowing that so much of this country fears and hates them because of the actions of a small group of extremists who don’t speak for the majority.

I am # standingwithmuslims . I condemn Islamophobia and hate speech. And I’m greatly saddened that so many people who profess to love this country are so scared that they’re so willing to abandon many of the core concepts that this country is built on.

‘Black Lives Matter’ vs. ‘All Lives Matter’

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Imagine that you’re sitting down to dinner with your family, and while everyone else gets a serving of the meal, you don’t get any. So you say “I should get my fair share.” And as a direct response to this, your dad corrects you, saying, “everyone should get their fair share.” Now, that’s a wonderful sentiment — indeed, everyone should, and that was kinda your point in the first place: that you should be a part of everyone, and you should get your fair share also. However, dad’s smart-ass comment just dismissed you and didn’t solve the problem that you still haven’t gotten any!

The problem is that the statement “I should get my fair share” had an implicit “too” at the end: “I should get my fair share, too, just like everyone else.” But your dad’s response treated your statement as though you meant “only I should get my fair share”, which clearly was not your intention. As a result, his statement that “everyone should get their fair share,” while true, only served to ignore the problem you were trying to point out.

That’s the situation of the “black lives matter” movement. Culture, laws, the arts, religion, and everyone else repeatedly suggest that all lives should matter. Clearly, that message already abounds in our society.

The problem is that, in practice, the world doesn’t work the way. You see the film Nightcrawler? You know the part where Renee Russo tells Jake Gyllenhal that she doesn’t want footage of a black or latino person dying, she wants news stories about affluent white people being killed? That’s not made up out of whole cloth — there is a news bias toward stories that the majority of the audience (who are white) can identify with. So when a young black man gets killed (prior to the recent police shootings), it’s generally not considered “news”, while a middle-aged white woman being killed is treated as news. And to a large degree, that is accurate — young black men are killed in significantly disproportionate numbers, which is why we don’t treat it as anything new. But the result is that, societally, we don’t pay as much attention to certain people’s deaths as we do to others. So, currently, we don’t treat all lives as though they matter equally.

Just like asking dad for your fair share, the phrase “black lives matter” also has an implicit “too” at the end: it’s saying that black lives should also matter. But responding to this by saying “all lives matter” is willfully going back to ignoring the problem. It’s a way of dismissing the statement by falsely suggesting that it means “only black lives matter,” when that is obviously not the case. And so saying “all lives matter” as a direct response to “black lives matter” is essentially saying that we should just go back to ignoring the problem.

TL;DR: The phrase “Black lives matter” carries an implicit “too” at the end; it’s saying that black lives should also matter. Saying “all lives matter” is dismissing the very problems that the phrase is trying to draw attention to.

— GeekAesthete

Republicans: Anachronistic Cartoon Monsters

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This bit of the SLOG’s analysis of last night’s State of the Union address just disgusts me:

Here’s an incomplete list of things Republicans refused to applaud last night: equal pay for women, the end of torture as an American interrogation tactic, easier access to community college, tax breaks for the middle class, a higher minimum wage, affordable childcare, the rejection of “offensive stereotypes of Muslims,” and the “condemn[ation of] the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.” That’s some cartoon villain bullshit, right there. They basically refused to cheer for anything but straight white Christian businessmen.

And then, of course, there was this wonderful bit:

Somebody has to pay for ‘free’

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I’ve been seeing a lot of excitement about Obama’s announcement last night of his proposal to make community college free for as many students as possible. And yes, in many ways, the excitement is warranted. Higher education is a great thing, and absolutely should be made more accessible to as many people who are interested in it as it can be. So on that level, I entirely approve of his proposals.

Unfortunately, I’m highly skeptical that it is likely to do much good for people here in Washington State.

The part of Obama’s plan that stands out to me is the requirement for states to share the burden of picking up the tuition costs for students (emphasis in the following quotes is mine):

This proposal will require everyone to do their part: community colleges must strengthen their programs and increase the number of students who graduate, states must invest more in higher education and training, and students must take responsibility for their education, earn good grades, and stay on track to graduate.

[…]

Ensuring Shared Responsibility with States: Federal funding will cover three-quarters of the average cost of community college. States that choose to participate will be expected to contribute the remaining funds necessary to eliminate community college tuition for eligible students. States that already invest more and charge students less can make smaller contributions, though all participating states will be required to put up some matching funds. States must also commit to continue existing investments in higher education; coordinate high schools, community colleges, and four-year institutions to reduce the need for remediation and repeated courses; and allocate a significant portion of funding based on performance, not enrollment alone. States will have flexibility to use some resources to expand quality community college offerings, improve affordability at four-year public universities, and improve college readiness, through outreach and early intervention.

It’s perfectly reasonable, really. But here in Washington, higher education is not a current funding priority, and is constantly facing more cuts:

Double-digit tuition increases. Class cuts that would make it harder to finish a degree in four years. Enrollment cutbacks that would make it more difficult to get admitted to a state university.

Washington’s public college and university presidents, warning that a hypothetical 15 percent cut to higher education would be devastating to public colleges and universities, are in a standoff with the state Office of Financial Management (OFM) over fiscal planning for the next two years.

[…]

About two-thirds of the state’s budget is protected by constitutional and federal requirements — categories such as K-12 education, pensions and mandatory Medicaid. Budget cuts must come from the remaining one-third of the budget, which includes higher education, state prisons and social services. And some of those categories — prisons, for example — are very difficult to trim.

Since the beginning of the recession in 2008, one of the hardest-hit segments of the state budget has been higher education. It’s the principal reason why state college tuition has increased so fast.

In this financial climate, I’m extremely skeptical that Washington will be participating in this program, should it move forward. We simply don’t have the money, and won’t until the voters realize that we actually need to be willing to pay for all these services that we think we should have.

I think Obama’s general idea is a good one, and I support it and the thinking behind it. I just wish I could be more optimistic that students in Washington would actually have a chance to take advantage of it.

Default Human Being

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From Sociological Images: Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?

Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white? You see that especially in manga and anime.

As it turns out, that is an American opinion, not a Japanese one. The Japanese see anime characters as being Japanese. It is Americans who think they are white. Why? Because to them white is the Default Human Being.

If I draw a stick figure, most Americans will assume that it is a white man. Because to them that is the Default Human Being. For them to think it is a woman I have to add a dress or long hair; for Asian, I have to add slanted eyes; for black, I add kinky hair or brown skin. Etc.

The Other has to be marked. If there are no stereotyped markings of otherness, then white is assumed.

I came across this in the context of people not understanding the dissatisfaction with the whitewashing of Ghost in the Shell with Scarlett Johanssen being cast as Major Motoko Kusanagi, but I believe it’s important in a lot of other contexts as well: we need to realize that our concept of the “default human being” is highly dependent upon our own culture and ingrained biases.

MLK on “inconvenient” protests

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I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

— Martin Luther King, Jr., in Letter From Birmingham Jail

I’m Concerned About I-1351’s Effects on Higher Education

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Filed under “yes, even I can have unpopular opinions”: I’m very concerned about where the money to fund I-1351’s directives is going to come from. We live in a state where voters refuse to put money into the system (we couldn’t even pass a minuscule sales tax on candy bars and soda to fund various services), but demand that the system provide services that cost money. This is going to cost billions in hiring teachers, constructing classrooms, and lots of other associated costs, and we have no idea where that money is going to come from (but we’re by-golly determined not to pay for it ourselves!).

And according to this article (by fivethirtyeight, which started as a political statistical analysis site and has branched out into applying statistical analyses to all sorts of other things), it’s really not even clear that smaller class sizes will make that much of a difference compared to other possible expenditures such as hiring/training better teachers, giving raises, or putting money into new/better texts, supplies, and technology.

Class-size reductions make sense intuitively — in smaller classes, kids get more attention, distractions are reduced and working conditions are improved. Many economists and education policy experts say, though, that this isn’t a case where the common-sense fix is guaranteed to be the best fix. Many of the studies on class size are inconclusive, and even those who support cutting class size in theory are dubious about whether I-1351 is the best or most cost-effective way to improve public education in Washington.

[…] Attempts to implement large-scale class-reduction policies have yielded less encouraging results. In 2002, Florida voters approved a ballot initiative like I-1351 that amended the state constitution to include caps on class sizes in all grades. An analysis of data from Florida conducted by Matt Chingos, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Education Policy found no differences between students who were new to a small classroom and those who had already been in one.

[…] “Reducing class size is one of the most expensive things you can do in education,” Chingos said. “Even if it does have a substantial positive effect, it still might not be the best use of limited resources.” He said that in some cases, raising teacher salaries could be a more effective use of funds. “Really the lesson is that you want to build in flexibility,” he said. “Different school districts have different needs. It’s very far from one-size-fits-all.”

Eric Hanushek, an economist at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said that I-1351 could have the unintended effect of reducing teacher quality. “This isn’t about hiring high-quality teachers, it’s about hiring more teachers, and that means we’re going to see a lot more inexperienced teachers in the classroom,” he said.

Some education advocates in Washington state are concerned that the class-size mandate will siphon funds from other policies. […] Practically speaking, the state government has only so much money to spend. I-1351’s biggest flaw might be its failure to acknowledge this reality.

At this point, I (and many other people I talk to in higher education) are very worried that without a funding source, the state is going to end up pulling even more money out of the already hard-hit higher education system, damaging it further in the name of improving the K-12 education system.

Everyone agrees that better education — across the board — is important. But, jeez. It’s not magic. There needs to be a way to pay for it.

Two Americas

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Two profoundly different experiences of life in our country that you should be aware of: [#CrimingWhileWhite] and [#AliveWhileBlack].

14- took my dads car to a party. Pulled over for running a stop sign, had a shotgun in backseat (hunting) “Get home safe” #CrimingWhileWhite

— Mrs. Eric Berry (@Miss_Facetious) December 4, 2014

Those police asked where I live. When I pointed behind me at my house where they had called me from they said “no, really” #alivewhileblack

— الشريف M. Ömer (@KTownsVeryOwn) December 4, 2014

At 13 I stole a car with my friends & drove it 2wks before we got busted. Only one charged was black. [#CrimingWhileWhite][#CrimingWhileWhite1]

— Cecily Kellogg (@Cecilyk) December 4, 2014

Walking to library. Campus security stops me and asks for ID. Several times. Claims I don\’t “look” like a law student. #AliveWhileBlack

— GrooveSDC (@GrooveSDC) December 4, 2014

Age 17: I bought gas but forgot to pay; an hour later I came back and they said they told the cops two black men did it. [#CrimingWhileWhite][#CrimingWhileWhite1]

— Jacob Harold (@jacobcharold) December 4, 2014

Stopped b/c child “did not look like he shld be w/me”Asked to prove my light-skinned nephew was not being kidnapped [#alivewhileblack][#alivewhileblack2]

— karla holloway (@ProfHolloway) December 4, 2014

Drug use, vandalism of govt property, running fake ID mill, theft, sale of stolen property — all before I was 20 [#CrimingWhileWhite][#CrimingWhileWhite1]

— Tim Wise (@timjacobwise) December 4, 2014

was robbed at knife point in Charlotte. When the police came, told them what was taken, they asked “Why wld u have a pager” [#alivewhileblack][#alivewhileblack2]

— J I Λ (@missjia) December 4, 2014

Party busted, ran from Indiana cop. He caught me, furious: “if you were black I\’d-a shot you.” Cuffed, lectured, let go. [#CrimingWhileWhite][#CrimingWhileWhite1]

— Andy Cobb (@AndyCobb) December 4, 2014

17 y/o – Drove to Kroger to get mom Nyquil. Pulled over unexplained. Asked why I was in my neighborhood. 4 backup cop cars. [#AliveWhileBlack][#AliveWhileBlack5]

— Akilah Hughes (@AkilahObviously) December 4, 2014

Let’s hope America keeps producing nicer white people

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Absolutely excellent interview with Chris Rock covering mostly comedy, politics, and the intersections between the two. The whole thing is worth reading, but this section I thought was particularly good:

What would you do in Ferguson that a standard reporter wouldn’t?

I’d do a special on race, but I’d have no black people.

Well, that would be much more revealing.

Yes, that would be an event. Here’s the thing. When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they’re not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before

Right. It’s ridiculous.

So, to say Obama is progress is saying that he’s the first black person that is qualified to be president. That’s not black progress. That’s white progress. There’s been black people qualified to be president for hundreds of years. If you saw Tina Turner and Ike having a lovely breakfast over there, would you say their relationship’s improved? Some people would. But a smart person would go, “Oh, he stopped punching her in the face.” It’s not up to her. Ike and Tina Turner’s relationship has nothing to do with Tina Turner. Nothing. It just doesn’t. The question is, you know, my kids are smart, educated, beautiful, polite children. There have been smart, educated, beautiful, polite black children for hundreds of years. The advantage that my children have is that my children are encountering the nicest white people that America has ever produced. Let’s hope America keeps producing nicer white people.

It’s about white people adjusting to a new reality?

Owning their actions. Not even their actions. The actions of your dad. Yeah, it’s unfair that you can get judged by something you didn’t do, but it’s also unfair that you can inherit money that you didn’t work for.

The Washington Post has some additional commentary springboarding off of Rock’s interview, with some very interesting poll results looking at changes in racial attitudes over time. On the one hand, there has been a lot of improvement over the years. On the other hand, though, we still have a long way to go.

In 1972, for instance, nearly two-thirds of whites said homeowners should be able to discriminate against blacks when selling their homes. That number fell to 28 percent by 2008.

Fully one quarter of whites said they would oppose [a family member’s interracial] marriage in 2008, the same year America elected the son of a white mother and a black father to the highest office in the land.

More than four-in-ten white Americans still say whites are more hardworking than blacks, and one-in-five say whites are more intelligent. Similarly, a majority of whites say that lack of willpower among blacks is driving racial inequality, and one-in-ten say that blacks are poor simply because of a lesser ability to learn.