January 2012
18 posts
Paper Tigers →
Here was a drunk white lady speaking what so many others over the years must have been insufficiently drunk to tell me. It was the key to many things that had, and had not, happened. I understood this encounter better after learning about LEAP, and visiting Asian Playboy’s boot camp. If you are a woman who isn’t beautiful, it is a social reality that you will have to work twice as hard to...
russia in color, a century ago →
black women are standing in a crooked room →
“Today there are more African-Americans under correctional control — in prison or...”
– Michelle Alexander, on the number of blacks in the criminal justice system. On Monday’s Fresh Air, Alexander details how President Reagan’s war on drugs led to a mass incarceration of black males and the difficulties these felons face after serving their prison sentences. (via nprfreshair)
How Many Stephen Colberts Are There? →
playingthecards:
“Stewart also recalled that Colbert worried at first that the ‘Report’ might not be sustainable, and says he kept pointing out, ”I don’t know anyone more interesting than you. You know so much about so many different areas.’’ Stewart went on: ‘I’m not at all surprised that the show is good — he’s amazing at it. He’s able to weave a character in a way that’s never been done on...
On Ron Paul and Louis Farrakhan →
To those who dimly perceived something wrong, something that could not be put on a placard, or could not move the party machine, men such as this become something more than political operators, they become symbols. Substantive charges against them, no matter the reasons, are dismissed. The movement they represent means more. But as sure as the followers of Farrakhan deserved more than UFOs,...
How to be a dictator →
December 2011
12 posts
“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts,...”
– Charles Bukowski (via burnthazel)
Teach for America: The Hidden Curriculum of... →
That education reformers have long argued that “incentives” are necessary to improve the teaching profession underscores another in a series of ironies that mark the movement. Reformers believe that if teachers are subjected to “market forces,” such as merit pay and job insecurity, they will work harder to improve the education they provide for their students. The need to incentivize the...
“If you were to press your heart close up against somebody else’s heart...”
– Andrea Gibson (via kelsofication)
The Rise of the NBA Nerd: Basketball style and... →
But 21st-century blackness has lost its rigid center, and irony permeates the cultural membrane. More than kids knowing they can be president of the United States, it might be more crucial to the expansion of black identity that — thanks to, say, N.E.R.D or Odd Future — they know they can be skate punks. Kanye West can release an album called The College Dropout, then run around the world...
Clash of Civilizations: The Confusion of Being a... →
American political discourse — and American criticism of China — can clash, sometimes painfully so, with the more closed and more uniformly nationalistic social norms Chinese students are accustomed to. Their desire to share in American prosperity and their admiration for its fair social values are often complicated by a defensiveness of their homeland, instilled in them by a...
November 2011
12 posts
China's "Leftover" Women →
In China, the sexist term “leftover woman,” sheng nu, is widely used to describe an urban, professional female over the age of 27 who is still single. This derogatory term has been aggressively disseminated by the Chinese government, warning women that they will become spinsters if they do not marry by the time they turn 30. The irony of the media campaign is that China’s sex-ratio...
What Makes Us Happy? →
In fact, Vaillant went on, positive emotions make us more vulnerable than negative ones. One reason is that they’re future-oriented. Fear and sadness have immediate payoffs—protecting us from attack or attracting resources at times of distress. Gratitude and joy, over time, will yield better health and deeper connections—but in the short term actually put us at risk. That’s because, while...
October 2011
18 posts
The Kids Are Actually Sort of Alright →
We are self-centered and convinced of our specialness and unaccustomed to being denied. “I am sad, jaded, disillusioned, frustrated, and worried,” said one girl I talked to who feels “stuck” in a finance job she took as a stepping-stone to more-fulfilling work she now cannot find. Ours isn’t a generation that will give you just one adjective to describe our hurt.
It’s not that this is a...
A chance in hell: inside a combat hospital in... →
He says he was 7 when his teacher instructed the class to sketch a crystal ball with a picture of their future inside. He drew a paramedic in a plane. “I just always knew this is what I was supposed to do. There’s nothing else like trauma. In some ways it shows you the very worst of humanity, but it also shows you the very best.”
He says it’s especially true here, and it’s a big part of...
Leadership, altruism, and an age-old axiom →