log

[fishingboatproceeds]

New video: Racism in America by the Numbers

The playlist discussed at the end of the video. (If you have suggestions for others, share them!)

SOURCES:

On average, black men’s prison sentences are 20% longer than white men’s for comparable crimes.

Black people and white people use illegal drugs at similar rates, but black people are far more likely to be arrested for drug use.

African Americans are far more likely to be stopped and searched (although the contraband hit rate is higher among white people) in California.

And also in New York (where the data isn’t quite as good but appears to be comparable to CA).

Those wrongfully convicted and later exonerated by DNA are disproportionately African American.

Black kids are far more likely to be tried as adults and more likely to receive life sentences.

Black former convicts get fewer employer callbacks than white former convicts.

Emily and Brendan are more hirable than Lakisha and Jamal.

Another study on racial bias in hiring.

Similar results have been found in the UK: and also in Australia. Also, this news story has some great analysis about employment and race. 

High schools with mostly African American and Latino students are less likely to offer courses in Algebra II or Chemistry than high schools with mostly white students.

This article explores many of the other ways that increasingly segregated schools have negatively affected African American students.

And this story discusses the fact that African American students are more than twice as likely to be suspended as white students—even in preschool.

The American College of Physicians report on racial disparities in U.S. health care.

This (dated) study is also damning, and there’s lot of good info here.

More info on increasing disparities in life expectancy between black and white people in the U.S.

The most recent polls show fewer white people thinking racism is not a problem than the ones I used in this video MY BAD (although still a huge divide): here and here and here.

Inheritance plays a huge role in the racial wealth disparity. (And a related wikipedia article.)

And lastly, the wealth gap is indeed widening. 

Sorry for the wall of text, but I wanted to make sure I sourced everything. 

[wasarahbi]

The thing that struck me most in this video is how much I still don’t understand when it comes to knowing how deeply racism is rooted in American society. Hearing out the individual stories of people is so necessary - so here are some of the things that I’ve read and listened to recently that offer perspectives from those who feel and live the effects of racism. I’ll try to add to this list, and please send over any suggestions:

I Don’t Know What to Do With Good White People by Brit Bennett

Black Boy Interrupted by Ta-Nehisi Coates and The Case for Reparations by Coates, the latter of which is less of a personal account than the former but is nonetheless inimitable.

This American Life: Is This Working? (particularly Act 1)

Radiolab: Ally’s Choice

[knmead]

Here are some more suggestions for the list of first-person or on-the-ground stories and perspectives that make an impact:

Excerpt from Citizen, poetry by Claudia Rankine

Working Podcast episode with Dr. Meri Kolbrener, an inner-city family practice doctor in Washington, D.C. who describes the daily challenges of class disparity with empathy and pragmatism

Also, NPR's Code Switch blog is a great source for news and commentary on race, culture, and ethnicity

And this Ferguson Masterpost has been really helpful for me to learn more, answer questions, and find new resources. It's the most worthwhile wall of text on tumblr.

[firstdraftsofhistory]

Article: Barack Obama

Revision: 18 March 2004

[knmead]

This is what Barack Obama's wikipedia entry looked like 10 years ago.

[smithsonianlibrariesarchives]

About a year ago, we posted a gif of hover whales. This, however, was our original creation—at the time too big for Tumblr but now able to be posted.

from Suggestions to the keepers of the U.S. life-saving stations, light-houses, and light-ships; and to other observers, relative to the best means of collecting and preserving specimens of whales and porpoises. By Frederick W. True.

[roxanegay]

How bad could that be?

How fun is that?

How’s that for easy?

How good does that look?

How good does this look?

Who could turn that down?

Isn’t that great?

Who wouldn’t want that for their birthday?

Who wouldn’t want that for his birthday?

We need a nice cocktail for breakfast, don’t we?

Who wouldn’t like that for breakfast?

[knmead]

I just started reading Bad Feminist, and it's excellent. And today I see this--I can always appreciate a fellow attentive Ina-watcher. How excellent is that?

[smartereveryday]

I had no idea that a Scythe was so efficient.  I guess that makes me a technology snob.  Or as CS Lewis put it, a proponent of “Chronological Snobbery”.

[melodykramer]

Conundrum: I am trying to put together a repository of every social media handle of every person who works in public radio.

This is difficult because:

1. There are 875 stations with varying numbers of reporters + NPR + PRX + independent producers + APM + CBC + BBC + etc. etc. etc.

2. People...

[knmead]

This has a few similarities to something magical I discovered yesterday, the Museum Universe Data File updated twice annually from a number of sources by IMLS. It's an impressive undertaking on its own, but then I found this blog post explaining how the developer of Omeka used those tools to create a basic site that browses the data and adds info from Wikipedia: US Museums Explorer. 

There may not actually be that many parallels, chiefly that this doesn't address your goal of auto-updating the list based on input from the stations. Could there be some way that every x number of months, all user handles on the list get an auto-generated message with instructions to opt out if their job has changed, edit their details, etc.?

[whenyouworkatamuseum]

A dinosaur being delivered to the Boston Museum of Science. 1984 

(h/t to twitter.com/history_pics)

[livelymorgue]

Aug. 27, 1975: Leslie Camp primped a Dorset ram at the Flemington Agricultural Fair in Flemington, N.J., where attractions included the “world’s largest alligator” and a wheel of fortune game that offered prizes of stuffed sharks. “The only thing that counts here is your animal,” said Eleanor Perry, founder of the Hunterdon County 4-H Sheep Club. “I eat sheep and dream sheep and if my hair would turn to wool I would shear it.” Photo: William E. Sauro/The New York Times

[knmead]

Picture vs. Words

Moving Language: Futility Closet

Writing in Word Ways in May 1975, David Silverman noted that the phrase LEFT TURN FROM THIS LANE ONLY, stenciled in the leftmost traffic lane at various U.S. intersections, was ambiguous — and that both meanings had been struck down, in contested court cases in Arizona and California.

In one case, the motorist had driven straight ahead rather than turning, which the prosecutor said was illegal. The motorist returned that this wasn’t so — LEFT TURN FROM THIS LANE ONLY meant that it would be illegal to make a left turn from any other lane, but it didn’t require that a left turn be made from this one. “If the city had meant my failure to turn to be illegal, they should have written FROM THIS LANE, ONLY A LEFT TURN.”

In the other case, the motorist had made a left turn from the lane to the right of one marked LEFT TURN FROM THIS LANE ONLY. He argued that this was legal — the marking required drivers in the leftmost lane to turn left, but imposed no requirement on the other lanes. “Had the city wanted to make my turn illegal the marking should have been LEFT TURN ONLY FROM THIS LANE.”

Both motorists were found not guilty. Perhaps because of such confusion, Silverman noted, most intersections had lately begun to use unambiguous arrows: “One good picture is worth ten thousand signs reading LEFT TURN IF AND ONLY IF FROM THIS LANE.”

[nevver]

Another day, Another dollar

[johndarnielle]

George you’re a resourceful dude and everything but I don’t see how you’re gonna talk your way out of this one

[knmead]

What. That George Washington wearing overalls. What.

[nprfreshair]

“The day before the buildings were razed, the 43 women appeared in their finest attire, went into the buildings, climbed the old stairs, and took their places in the windows. I was set up on my fire escape across the streeet, directing the scene, with bullhorn in hand. Of course I was concerned for the Models’ safety, as some were daring enough to pose out on the crumbling sills.”

- Ormond Gigli, 1960

via Retronaut

[knmead]

Grammar Googling

Faced with indecision about my word choices, I turned to Google with the aid of "search exact matches in quotation marks."

"express curiosity for": 4,780 hits (my first choice, then doubted)

"express curiosity with": 11,700 hits

"express curiosity about": 185,000 hits (what I settled on using)

"express curiosity regrading": 470 hits

"express curiosity with regards to": 2 hits (both from a cheater's computer-generated essay about anime from a site of similar essays called Leave them Kids Alone)

[livelymorgue]

April 6, 1966: On Second Avenue, a parade of children skipped alongside a parade of elephants in town for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The circus arrived, a reporter wrote, “with its annual puzzle: Which ring do you watch when there is something astounding, breath-stopping, comic, dazzling, eerie, fantastic, gorgeous, hippodromic and even quite interesting wherever you look?” Photo: Neal Boenzi/The New York Times

[melodykramer]

1. Be Kind. If this is the one thing I manage to do, I’ve done enough. Kindness may seem like a personality trait, but I think of it more as a habitual spiritual practice. Being kind has taught me that simple, seemingly insignificant human interactions can be profound. It has opened people and their stories to me. And, perhaps most important to my work, being kind has taught me that I know far less than I think I do. Always. 2. Love What You Do. This is not a passive thing, or a happenstance of trying to do what you love. It is a proactive, daily decision to nurture and seek satisfaction in the work I am doing. I think of it like marriage: sometimes it’s easy and simple. Sometimes it’s a daily, grinding decision to love. And sometimes, when you can’t do it any more, the last act of love is walking away. 3. Keep Your Brain Spongy. This is the fun part. I’m a big believer in feeding curiosity, and offering my subconscious mind a cornucopia of ideas. I read history, literature, and ancient Chinese murder mysteries. I feed the birds, train my ear to identify distinct birdsong, and try to learn the differences between sparrow species (almost all are the same buffy, brown color). I study physics, the latest developments in the modeling of protein-folding, and the genetic underpinnings of personality. I dig big holes in the yard, play and talk with animals, and right now I’m thinking about buying a metal detector. I am never bored. 4. Do the Next, Most Interesting Thing. This is a corollary of keeping your brain spongy, but it requires a very loose hold on one’s life-plans. In fact, I do very little life-planning at all; for better or worse, no career path can hold my attention for very long. So when people ask me how I became an NPR correspondent at such a young age, (or for that matter, how I ended up with a bit part in a Mexican telenovela) my best answer is that I didn’t really mean to. I just did a long series of the next, most interesting things. It’s kind of an informed version of winging-it.

Andrea Seabrook’s personal rules are awesome. (via melodykramer)

[ourpresidents]

Via the George W. Bush Presidential Center:

As part of the Dedication Ceremonies, President and Mrs. Bush presented the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which will operate the Library and Museum. The Bush Center and NARA signed a joint use agreement at a ceremony in Freedom Hall today.

[knmead]

That American-flag-as-open-book-pages logo is a great idea, and I'm surprised it hasn't shown up before!

[absolumentmoderne]

Spencer Finch

366 (EMILY DICKINSON’S MIRACULOUS YEAR)

2009

This work is based on the year 1862, Emily Dickinson’s annus mirabilis, when she wrote an amazing 366 poems in 365 days. It is a real-time memorial to that year, which burns for exactly one year. The sculpture is comprised of 366 individual candles arranged in linear sequence, each of which burns for 24 hours. The color of each candle matches a color mentioned in the corresponding poem; poems in which no color is mentioned are made out of natural paraffin.

[knmead]

Annals of Linguistics: Utopia for Beginners

Describes the in-depth process of conlangers, or those who construct languages (Tolkien was just the tip of the iceberg). I thought I couldn't be more stunned after reading about the genius minds who create these worlds, but then I read about the place that elected this president:

To the extent that it’s known at all, Kalmykia is notable for two things: for being the only majority-Buddhist state west of the Ural Mountains, and for having an eccentric former President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, an oligarch-turned-politician, spend millions of dollars of his own fortune turning a dusty, forgotten corner of the Russian steppe into the chess capital of the world. Ilyumzhinov claims to have been abducted from his Moscow apartment, in 1997, by extraterrestrials, who gave him a tour of the galaxy and taught him that chess came from outer space.

Something must have been lost in translation on that one.

The subject of the article, John Quijada, has invented a language that attempts to contain all possibilities for all expression. He demonstrates the language's capability by describing Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 by Marcel Duchamp: 

He began with several of the language’s root words: -QV- for person, -GV- for clothing, -TN- for an implement that counters gravity, and -GW- for ambulation, and showed how to transform those roots through each of the language’s twenty-two grammatical categories to arrive at the six-word sentence “Aukkras êqutta ogvëuļa tnou’elkwa pal-lši augwaikštülnàmbu,” which translates roughly to “An imaginary representation of a nude woman in the midst of descending a staircase in a step-by-step series of tightly integrated ambulatory bodily movements which combine into a three-dimensional wake behind her, forming a timeless, emergent whole to be considered intellectually, emotionally, and aesthetically.”

And then he finds out that his language has become central to a spiritual-psychological-utopian-possibly terrorist? movement in Russia, which is worth a read.