Race and Racism
Category archives for Race and Racism
Joe Wilson’s outburst is not about civility. It’s about racism.
Posted by Greg Laden on September 14, 2009 It has been said that civility is an excellent conversation stopper. And it can be, because demanding civility has been a way to control or limit the voice of alterity or the unprivileged. When it comes to Joe Wilson’s now-infamous shouted remark at the joint session, the question arises as to whether the tone or…
Let the Post 9/11 World be Over
Posted by Greg Laden on September 11, 2009 Joe Wilson is a child of 9/11. When he shouted “Liar” in that crowded theater … the joint session of the House and Senate being addressed by President Obama … he did so as a proud white southern man angry at his country for electing a black liberal president in this time of crisis, that…
Does the term “DrugMonkey” give you the warm fuzzies? How about “GoatF$ck@ry”?
Posted by Greg Laden on September 3, 2009 It has been said that the only way to effect real change in important socio-political debates is to be very aggressive and unapologetically rude in making arguments. Civility and politeness are the hobgoblins of the Western Heternormative Colonoracist Patriarchy. I personally feel that there are indeed times and places for such a thing, but I…
More evidence that races don’t really exist
Posted by Greg Laden on September 2, 2009 Central Asian ethnic groups are more defined by societal rules than ancestry. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Genetics found that overall there are more genetic differences within ethnic groups than between them, indicating that separate ‘ethnic groups’ exist in the mind more than the blood.
Explaining the Spread of Agriculture into Europe
Posted by Greg Laden on August 31, 2009 The practice of growing food and keeping livestock was invented numerous times throughout the world. One ‘center’ of agriculture is said to be the Middle East. Despite the fact that calling the Middle East a “center” in this context is a gross oversimplification, it is true that agriculture was practiced in Anatolia and the Levant…
When the big cat eats the black man
Posted by Greg Laden on August 22, 2009 It was important that this man was thrown in jail. It is very bad that he is not spending more time there. Let me tell you why. The South African man convicted of feeding one of his ex-workers to the lions is due to be freed on parole shortly, after three years in jail. Mark…
Billy Wayne Posey is finally dead. Better late than never.
Posted by Greg Laden on August 17, 2009 Posey was one of several, probably several dozen, people directly involved in the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. He died a free man and of natural causes last Thursday at the age of 77. In those days, America was an unabashedly racist society, so it was quite possible for a horrendous…
The town hall meetings
Posted by Greg Laden on August 10, 2009 A bit of reporting on what they look like. I’m sticking with my original story: They look like the Roe v. Wade protests of the 1980s, but with a racialized twist. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Health Care Protests as Racism
Posted by Greg Laden on August 9, 2009 Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
“Game characters are too white, too male”
Posted by Greg Laden on August 3, 2009 Games developers are failing to reflect diversity, according to the first survey of game characters. Latinos are nearly invisible, and women and other groups are woefully underrepresented. Study leader Dmitri Williams, a social psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication looked at the top 150 games in a…
Update on GatesGate: Cop lied, screwed 911 caller.
Posted by Greg Laden on July 29, 2009 At this point, I don’t think I’d have a beer with this cop. Also, I have to agree that Obama stuck his foot in it on this one. He may have been right, wrong, whatever, but when this sort of thing happens it is best to stand back and not get directly involved in this…
Cambridge Cop has some ‘splainin’ to do…
Posted by Greg Laden on July 29, 2009 According to the following, the person who made the 911 call did not mention race until asked, and even then did not mention “two black males with backpacks.” The two black guys with backpacks seem to have been added in to the police report authored by Police Seargant James Crowley. Specifically, he states that the…
Gov. Crist Pwned by White Supremacist using Hate Film
Posted by Greg Laden on July 25, 2009 Jud Süß is a 1940 Nazi anti-Semetic propaganda film that was widely loved in much of Europe, especially Germany (and also vilified and banned in various places). The production and showing of this film was a significant moment in the development of the widespread German hate of the Jewish People that facilitated a nearly successful…
Cambridge Police: A matter of black and white
Posted by Greg Laden on July 24, 2009 UPDATED (based on feedback from commenters, new information, and some other data) Is racial bias ever a factor in police work? Was racial bias a factor in GatesGate, the recent incident in Cambridge Massachusetts involving Harvard scholar Skip Gates and the Cambridge Police? Here, I want to relate an incident in which I was involved…
Racist bomber in the dock at Old Bailey
Posted by Greg Laden on June 29, 2009 A racist arrested by chance at a railway station was “on the cusp” of waging a terror campaign using tennis balls and weedkiller, a jury has heard. Neil Lewington, 43, had a bomb factory at his parents’ home in Reading, Berks, and wanted to target those he thought “non-British”, prosecutors alleged. The Old Bailey heard…
Class Action Status for Race Discrimination Suit Against Eli Lilly
Posted by Greg Laden on June 21, 2009 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is seeking class action status for a 2006 federal lawsuit that accuses drug manufacturer Eli Lilly of discrimination against African-American employees. The plaintiffs include nine current and former employees who allege that the drug manufacturer engaged in pay and promotion discrimination on the basis of…
Walter Cronkite
Posted by Greg Laden on June 19, 2009 Sadly, we hear the news that Walter Cronkite is gravely ill. Well, not so sadly really, since he appears to have had a great life and in living that life, managed to get quite old. So good for him. I have one Cronkite story (below the fold) and only one, and I’ll tell it to…
Chronic Racial Discrimination Affects Health
Posted by Greg Laden on June 11, 2009 The role of racial discrimination in mental health has been established in a number of studies, and a new study works out some of the details in how this works. The study found blacks may, in general, have poorer mental health as a result of two mechanisms: First, chronic exposure to racial discrimination leads to…
White Supremacist Shoots Guard in Holocaust Museum (Update: Charged)
Posted by Greg Laden on June 10, 2009 MORE UPDATES: The guard, Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, shot earlier today by right winger von Brunn has died. The 89 year old gunman, James Wenneker von Brunn 88, of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, shot one person, who is in grave condition in hospital. The gunman was himself shot by one or more guards and…
J. Smooth Schools Asher Roth
Posted by Greg Laden on June 4, 2009 Hat Tip Ana
Hendren’s Macaca Moment
Posted by Greg Laden on May 15, 2009 Important note: This ‘gaff’ (=offensive remark) was made in a private meeting but ‘got out’ via Twitter, and eventually nailed down by a blogger. Welcome to the 21st century. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
To Engage or Not To Engage
Posted by Greg Laden on April 19, 2009 During the election campaign, the Palin/Whatshisname ticket made hay over Obama’s statements that he would engage in international conversations with unsavory knee-jerks such as the president of Iran. I call these people knee-jerks because they invoke a knee-jerk response in right wing and even moderate circles. Obama is of course right in that it is…
When Do Immigrants Learn English? Likely, not when you think.
Posted by Greg Laden on April 13, 2009 A timely repost, given the discussion going on here. The North End, Boston, Massachusetts I’m standing outside Luigi’s restaurant having a smoke, and Luigi’s doorman had joined me. Across the street yellow stingray is parked, as usual, to block the alley. The word is, the fire escape down into that alley leads directly from Baronelli’s…
If only their names weren’t so funny and hard to pronounce…
Posted by Greg Laden on April 12, 2009 The problem with those dang ethnic people is that you can’t even pronounced their names. Regarding the difficulty some Chinese and other east Asian people have with conflicts in their own naming system and the naming system assued by, for instance, a state’s Motor Vehicle department, Texas (where else) State Representative Betty Brown says: Rather…
Ultimate Racism: The Liberation of Paris
Posted by Greg Laden on April 6, 2009 In June of 1940, France fell to Germany. Among the troops who were overwhelmed by the German attacks were about 17,000 black West African colonial troops with the French Army. Many of these soldiers were shot do death by the Germans, who considered these Africans to be subhumans, as they stood in surrender. Surely, it…
Anonymity may not be assured on the Canadian part of the Internet
Posted by Greg Laden on March 26, 2009 A Canadian Court has ruled that identifying information on eight individual anonymous posters must be made available in a case regarding hate speech, with the court indicating that individuals posting on the Internet do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The site in question is Free Dominion, a very conservative and heavily visited discussion…
Diversity in Science Carnival
Posted by Greg Laden on February 24, 2009 I want to draw your attention to this carnival: Diversity in Science #1: Black History Month Celebration This is the first one, and this should prove to be an important blogospheric contribution.
Race, Gender, IQ and Nature
Posted by Greg Laden on February 18, 2009 Nature, the publishing group, not the Mother, has taken Darwin’s 200th as an opportunity to play the race card (which always sells copy) and went ahead and published two opposing views on this question: “Should scientists study race and IQ? The answers are Yes, argued by Stephen Cici and Wendy Williams of the Dept of…
Charles and Willie
Posted by Greg Laden on February 18, 2009 I never knew her name, but I knew she worked in the cafeteria. We talked about a wide range of topics, including (and possibly mainly) the weather. A week or so earlier, we had an especially interesting conversation. “He’s my nephew, you know.” “Who?” “That Bennett boy. We live on the same street. We’re blood,…
Heroes of the Future: Contrasting Contexts, The Race Thing, and Science Education
Posted by Greg Laden on February 16, 2009 So Amanda and I arrive at some public building in a largish Midwestern city. I’m a scientist, here to sit on a panel for a public discussion related to science and education. The building, a library, is not open yet but is scheduled to open in a few minutes. There are two groups of people…
, which is now available for the 
