Author Archives: Elahe Izadi

January 24, 2012 | 12:26 PM | By

Examining D.C.’s Dropout Crisis

Rosa Say / Flickr

One reason why some parts of D.C. have such high jobless rates is that many of the unemployed lack the skills and credentials to qualify for D.C.’s jobs. While most available jobs require a bachelor’s degree, 21 percent of people living in Ward 8 haven’t even completed high school.

Dropping out of high school has far-reaching effects on one’s life, family and community. WAMU 88.5′s Kavitha Cardoza reports on why people leave school in her examination of D.C.’s dropout crisis. In her first installment, she profiles a family with a history of dropping out:

The causes and consequences of dropping out are often intertwined. Low-income students are more likely to drop out, which means they can’t get jobs that pay well and continue lives of poverty.

Four generations of Walker’s and McMillan’s family haven’t graduated from high school. They have many of the risk factors for dropping out, including learning disabilities, teen pregnancy, and drug abuse. And it’s not clear whether or how the cycle could be broken.

The story, which you can read here, is the first of a nine-part series.

FILED UNDER: Education, The People, Drop-out crisis, Kavitha Cardoza, Unemployment
January 24, 2012 | 9:10 AM | By

The Racial Bias of Bankruptcy

African Americans have been hit harder by the recession and the foreclosure crisis. And now a new study published in The Journal of Empirical Legal Studies shows disparities persist even when they want to resolve debts. Blacks filing for bankruptcy are more likely to end up in a costlier and more time-consuming process than whites. Such a bias exists even when controlling for factors such as income, education and assets.

The study’s authors didn’t find that overt discrimination by lawyers was the cause of the disparity. “But when you have a complex system,” Robert M. Lawless, one of the authors, told the New York Times, “these biases can play out and the people within the system don’t see the pattern because nobody is in charge of looking at these big issues.”


The vast majority of debtors file under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code, which typically allows them to erase most debts in a matter of months. It tends to have a higher success rate and is less expensive than the alternative, Chapter 13, which requires debtors to dedicate their disposable income to paying back their debts for several years.

… A survey conducted as part of their research found that bankruptcy lawyers were much more likely to steer black debtors into a Chapter 13 than white filers even when they had identical financial situations. The lawyers, the survey found, were also more likely to view blacks as having “good values” when they expressed a preference for Chapter 13.

Read more at: www.nytimes.com

January 23, 2012 | 2:00 PM | By

On Writing About Black Women

The Washington Post is running a series on black women, largely based off of results of a survey conducted by the paper and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

It’s difficult to paint a portrait of an entire group of people, whether it’s defined by race or class. Although statistical and demographic data can be used, there will always be exceptions and nuances because people are nuanced. Here, Washington City Paper’s Shani Hilton offers her thoughts on the series, including, “The group most frequently out of touch with everyone surveyed? White men. Still waiting on the story about their hopes and dreams.”


Author Krissah Thompson says there are “a number of significant differences in the outlooks and experiences of black and white women,” but she fails to point out that in most of the questions where black and white women’s opinions diverge, black women’s responses tend to be in line with black men. Which is to be expected, but bears some exploration. (The group most frequently out of touch with everyone surveyed? White men. Still waiting on the story about their hopes and dreams.)

Read more at: www.washingtoncitypaper.com

January 23, 2012 | 10:28 AM | By

Ranking Countries By Tolerance

Richard Florida of The Atlantic Cities explores the economic repercussions of prejudice. He created a Global Prejudice Index by examining how hospitable countries are for ethnic and racial minorities, immigrants, religious minorities and gays and lesbians; countries with more prejudice tend to be poorer. The United States ranks as the fifth most tolerant country in the world.


It makes intuitive sense. Places that are welcoming to different kinds of people are also likely to be hospitable to the kind of creative, out-of-the-box thinking that drives innovation and prosperity. Less prejudiced, more open-minded places benefit from their ability to tap into the talents of the whole spectrum of their population. At the same time, they are able to attract energetic and talented immigrants from across the globe.

Read more at: www.theatlanticcities.com

January 20, 2012 | 12:26 PM | By

Explaining the Coverage Gap for Missing People of Color

David McNew / Getty Images

A reward poster near television news trucks in San Diego, Calif. advertises the reward for finding Danielle van Dam, 7.

A new TV show premiered this week on TV One, focusing on cases of missing African Americans. One of the first featured stories was about a missing D.C. black woman.

The show, “Finding Our Missing,” aims to correct the disparity in coverage of missing African Americans. For years, critics have blasted media outlets for devoting significant airtime to cases of missing white women, while not devoting similar coverage to cases of missing blacks or Latinos.

Why is there such a disparity, or “coverage gap?” Our sister blog Multi-American pointed to an interview with Poynter Institute faculty member and media ethics expert Kelly McBride. Here is an excerpt:

It’s possible that the people making decisions in newsrooms have a default assumption about what’s normal (functional) and not normal (dysfunctional) for white families. And it’s possible that they have a default assumption about families of color that are the opposite of what they assume for white families. Maybe some of that is true or all of it is true. But it plays into how editors make news judgments.

McBride continued, saying that it’s easier to fix the coverage gap on a local level. She suggested a few strategies:

.. Journalists simply need to make sure they are examining all murders and missing people and giving them similar coverage. (That’s actually really hard to do, but it’s easier than the national solution.) And because local journalists are loyal to their local community, they are generally motivated to serve that audience well.

On a national level, journalists are not accountable in the same way. So there’s less motivation to change the dynamics that lead to tilted coverage. It would take a significant act of leadership at a place like CNN or Fox to break out of this cycle. And I’m not sure there’s enough accountability to make that happen.

You can read the entire Q&A here.

FILED UNDER: Media, Finding Our Missing, Missing persons, Racial disparities, The Poynter Institute
January 20, 2012 | 11:07 AM | By

How Chinese Are America’s Chinatowns?

D.C.’s Chinatown isn’t, well, the most authentic Chinatown around. Only about 500 Chinese immigrants remain in the neighborhood, and because of D.C. regulations, businesses have to display signs with Chinese characters.

But the Associated Press reports that what has happened in the District is no anomaly. Across the country, Chinatowns have lost their Chinese populations. Yet, many retain their neighborhood names and are serving as tourist attractions.


Shifts also are under way in Los Angeles, Boston, Houston, San Francisco and Seattle, where shiny new “satellite Chinatowns” in the suburbs and outer city limits rival if not overshadow the originals.

“The traditional Chinatown is changing, and in most cities it is no longer the residential, political and cultural center of Asian-American life that it once was,” said Wei Li, an Arizona State University professor who chairs the Census Bureau’s advisory committee on the Asian population.

She explained that urban Chinatowns continue to serve a role for newly arrived immigrants with less education or lower skills who seek entry-level work, as well as for elderly residents with poor English skills who cannot drive. But middle-class families are almost nowhere to be found, and in many cities, rising downtown property costs and urban gentrification threaten their traditional existence.

Read more at: www.google.com

January 20, 2012 | 8:00 AM | By

Job Training and D.C. Unemployment By Race

WAMU 88.5′s Patrick Madden has been reporting on the ineffectiveness of past D.C. job training practices and changes the city is making to how it prepares residents for jobs. His investigation revealed that much of job training money went to training people to be bus drivers and Metro train operators. But such training programs haven’t resulted in graduates getting jobs.

The debate over job training has particular relevance for D.C.’s black and Hispanic communities. This chart shows 2010 D.C. unemployment rates by race, with the numbers coming courtesy of the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics [PDF]:

D.C. Unemployment By Race (2010)

 

DCentric has previously explored the causes behind D.C.’s unemployment disparities. One major reason is the mismatch between the skills people have and those required by District jobs. For instance, unemployment is at 25 percent in Ward 8, where more than 20 percent of residents lack a high school diploma. Without effective job training, can that unemployment number go down by very much?

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Patrick Madden, Race and Class, Unemployment
January 19, 2012 | 12:07 PM | By

[Stuff] Who Says? (Video)

The [Stuff] people say meme has come to D.C., courtesy of this SocialStudies DC video (which you can watch at the bottom of this post). Some choice lines include, “Wait, where are you from, originally?” and “It’s only $1,400 a month for their converted sunroom, so, not bad.”

But who’s really saying this stuff? Is it really accurate to call it “[Stuff] D.C. says?”

A couple of people, including @clintonyates, tweeted the video is really things that white people in D.C. say.

@ Funny, but very "white DC" tho. You can't have a DC video without the words "bamma" and "uhrea" (DC pronounciation of area)
January 19, 2012 11:42 am via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite
@ricktagious
Ricky Ribeiro

A few folks pointed out that race and class don’t always intersect:

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Around the City, SocialStudies DC, Stereotypes
January 19, 2012 | 9:05 AM | By

When Job Training Doesn’t Lead to Jobs

There are questions over the effectiveness of job training in D.C., a city where the unemployment rate is higher than the national average and peaks at 25 percent in some wards. Today, WAMU 88.5′s Patrick Madden continues his series on District-funded job training efforts. He found that the companies getting the most money in contracts are those offering commercial drivers licenses, or CDLs. D.C. Department of Employment Services Director Lisa Mallory tells Madden that companies offering CDLs will no longer get contracts because they don’t get people hired.


“The big employer with CDL in the District of Columbia is WMATA,” says Mallory. “We were sending 4,000 people in a year last year to WMATA. 90 got hired.” That means just 2 percent of D.C. residents made the cut.

“There is a problem with offering CDL to anybody,” she says. “If you don’t have a clean driver’s record, or even a record, or you’re not clean, in terms of being able to pass the drug test, you’re not gonna be able to be successful in that area.”

Read more at: wamu.org

January 18, 2012 | 4:43 PM | By

‘Finding Our Missing’ and Disparities in Missing Persons Coverage

Roxanne Cooke / Flickr

For years, there have been vocal critics of media’s handling of missing persons cases. Particularly when it comes to national news, cases of missing white women tend to get more attention than people of other races. The problem extends beyond not adequately covering minority communities; media coverage and attention can be crucial in solving cases of missing persons.

A new TV One show premiering tonight, “Find Our Missing,” aims to correct the disparity by spreading the word about missing African Americans. The show is part of a collaboration with nonprofit Black and Missing. Some of the first cases featured on the show focus on D.C. women Pamela Butler and Unique Harris. The Washington Posts reports:

… “Find Our Missing’s” main mission isn’t media criticism or a social harangue — especially since the first two cases seen here received a considerable, if belated, amount of local coverage. Rather, in the manner of “America’s Most Wanted,” it encourages viewers to come forward with useful information. Everything you need to know about “Find Our Missing” is in that second word: our. The series keeps its outrage just out of view; its foremost concern is for the missing, as well as their friends and relatives.

Increasing television airtime for these cases could lead to their solving. Another tool that could be useful is social media, but is there a disparity there, too? Twitter, Facebook and other forums are free and open for anyone to use, so it would seem these could be the perfect ways to circumvent any media bias. But take the case of Emily Hershenson, a white D.C. woman and ex-Capitol Hill staffer, who went missing on 2011. Many locals took to Twitter and other networks to spread the word. Tweets called on news organizations to move the story up in prominence, and her name was a trending topic. Some wondered, however, if the case would have received as much attention on Twitter had Hershenson been of a different race and class.

FILED UNDER: The People, Finding Our Missing, Media coverage, Missing persons, Racial disparities, TV One