NPR Special Series: The Race Card Project: Six-Word Essays

“NPR’s partnership with The Race Card Project explores a different kind of conversation about race. We ask people to think about their experiences, observations, triumphs, laments, theories or anthem about race or cultural identity. Then they take those thoughts and distill them down to one six-word sentence.

Thousands of people have shared their six-word stories and every so often NPR Host/Special Correspondent Michele Norris will dip into the trove of stories to explore issues surrounding race and cultural identity for “Morning Edition.”

You can find hundreds of submissions and submit your own stories atwww.theracecardproject.com

 

http://www.npr.org/series/173814508/the-race-card-project

Report: Separate and Unequal, the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce

“The higher education system is more and more complicit as a passive agent in the systematic reproduction of white racial privilege across generations. This report analyzes enrollment trends at 4,400 postsecondary institutions by race and institutional selectivity over the past 15 years.

Since 1995, 82 percent of new white enrollments have gone to the 468 most selective colleges, while 72 percent of new Hispanic enrollment and 68 percent of new African-American enrollment have gone to the two-year open-access schools.”

http://cew.georgetown.edu/separateandunequal/

The Persistent Geography of Disadvantage by RICHARD FLORIDA

“Inequality stems from place itself and is located in the urban neighborhoods that generations of African-Americans have called home. Despite the civil rights gains of the 1960s, there has been little change in the concentrated disadvantage faced by a large number of black families. Sharkey found that over 70 percent of the African-American residents of America’s poorest and and most segregated neighborhoods are the children and grandchildren of those who lived in similar neighborhoods forty years ago. The persistence of intergenerational poverty and economic disadvantage is thus inextricably linked to location and place.”

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/07/persistent-geography-disadvantage/6231/

New Book — African American women in the news: Gender, race and class in journalism (Routledge, June 2013) by Marian Meyers

From CRT-NET: “African American Women in the News offers the first in-depth examination of the varied representations of Black women in American journalism, from analyses of coverage of domestic abuse and “crack mothers” to exploration of new media coverage of Michelle Obama on Youtube. Marian Meyers interrogates the complex and often contradictory images of African American women in news media through detailed studies of national and local news, the mainstream and Black press, and traditional news outlets as well as newer digital platforms. She argues that previous studies of African Americans and the news have largely ignored the representations of women as distinct from men, and the ways in which socioeconomic class can be a determining factor in how black women are portrayed in the news. Meyers also proposes that a pattern of paternalistic racism, as distinct from the “modern” racism found in previous studies of news coverage of African Americans, is more likely to characterize the media’s treatment of African American women. Drawing on critical cultural studies and black feminist theory concerning representation and the intersectionality of gender, race and class, Meyers goes beyond the cultural myths and stereotypes of African American women to provide an updated portrayal of Black women today.”

I haven’t read it, but it looks interesting!

Legalese Aside, How Do We Talk About Race Nowadays? by NPR

Trevon Martin, George Zimmerman, the Voting Rights Act, Paula Dean, and many more stories about race have been in the media in the last week. This NPR story looks at issues of race, racism, discrimination, and how we negotiate and talk about race in the United States.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/06/29/197043324/Legalese-Aside-How-Do-We-Talk-About-Race-Nowadays

Race in the US – LeVar Burton explains his ritual to prevent being shot by police

LeVar Burton (Reading Rainbow) and Tim Wise describe how different their experiences have been in interactions with police based on race.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/01/levar-burton-explains-his-ritual-to-prevent-being-shot-by-police/

Immigration Policies Around the World (National Geographic Article)

Immigration is often a touchy issues… who should be allowed and who should be excluded are questions that are often asked. Associated is the question of cultural authenticity and identity. This article compares a few countries’ positions.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130630-immigration-reform-world-refugees-asylum-canada-japan-australia-sweden-denmark-united-kingdom-undocumented-immigrants/

Chimamanda Adichie: ‘Dark-skinned girls are never the babes’

I can’t wait to read her new book…

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/chimamanda-adichie-darkskinned-girls-are-never-the-babes-8572145.html