November 12, 2010 | 2:33 PM | By Anna
Robert Burdock
If you’re interested in literature, film or South Asian culture, you would probably enjoy the South Asian Literary and Theater Arts Festival (SALTAF), which is happening tomorrow — I love it because it’s an event which is unique to D.C. (and it’s FREE):
This year’s festival will feature panel discussions, readings, and film screenings by internationally acclaimed writers and artists. The literary panel will feature poet Pireeni Sundaralingam, editor of the first anthology of contemporary South Asian poetry, Indivisible; award-winning writer Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author of One Amazing Thing; and writer and artist Naeem Mohaiemen, whose work has been featured in galleries around the world. The non-fiction/journalism panel includes Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of the acclaimed Imperial Life in the Emerald City and National Editor at the Washington Post, and writer and activist Canyon Sam, author of The Sky Train.
Date : Saturday, November 13, 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. |
Location : Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW |
Metro : Smithsonian or Federal Triangle
November 12, 2010 | 11:38 AM | By Anna
After the jump, you’ll find the latest racism-related video to go viral. So far, two of you have sent it to me, even though it didn’t take place in D.C. I’ll warn you that it’s disturbing and filled with ugly language, including the “N-word”. Here’s what it’s about:
Things got ugly when a black mail carrier refused to take back a letter he’d delivered to a lady in Hingham, Mass. She went on a racist rant and slapped him. He secretly taped it all on his cell phone.
So many people assume that the South has a monopoly on racist behavior. I remember when I told my friends that I was starting this exciting new job at WAMU, and one of them, who was from Massachusetts, said, “It’s a shame that D.C. has so many racial issues.” Inwardly, I felt confused because I had heard the exact same thing about their home state. I didn’t say anything because I don’t know Massachusetts that well. I don’t know it any better after watching what’s below, but I do think it’s unhelpful to stereotype certain regions as “backwards” or prone to racism. The quote I excerpted above is from Gawker, where commenters are already chiming in about their lack of surprise that such a thing would happen in Hingham, MA.
I grew up in sunny Northern California, where I got called the N-word plenty of times. I have friends who grew up in Mississippi who never heard that word, once. Massachusetts doesn’t have a problem with racism; America does. Ignorance is everywhere– so is kindness and fairness. What’s interesting to me is how we live in a time when people can use the power of their mobile phones to record what they are seeing, upload it and allow it to go viral. Ten years ago, no one would’ve seen or heard what you are about to watch.
Continue reading →
November 12, 2010 | 8:59 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! Ready for some links?
D.C. Council wants city to hire ex-convicts “The bill’s backers believe that not asking about criminal history on government job applications will make it easier for ex-convicts to get city jobs. They say hiring ex-offenders will keep them from returning to prison. Critics say the legislation will worsen problems the city has with weeding out dangerous job applicants…The District is home to about 60,000 ex-felons, nearly 10 percent of the population, the ACLU estimates.” (Washington Examiner )
MeFites who know DC: Please talk to me about Bloomingdale. “I am considering a move to the Bloomingdale neighborhood in DC. You know, the little one east of LeDroit Park, west of Eckington, and just north of Shaw…? I’m a 29 year old woman. I love the apartments I’ve seen, and they fit my budget… I have some concerns about safety in that area, moreso than other places I’ve lived (Cole Valley in San Francisco, Mt. Pleasant and North Dupont in DC, if that helps for comparison). I consider myself pretty city-savvy, and I know there are generally no guarantees of safety anywhere, but I’m not sure what to expect.” (ask.metafilter.com)
Concrete Bungle: How Immigration Divided a D.C. Union: A campaign to organize D.C. concrete workers hit a wall To talk to people who worked on the UCW organizing effort is to learn that its near-collapse is not the usual sad labor story of valiant unionists against perfidious management. Rather, it’s the story of union advocates turning on one another—in large part over the polarizing politics of immigration. For generations, the labor movement has periodically warred with itself over how to view newcomers, from the Italian-speakers a century ago to Spanish-speakers like Lemos. Are they a wage-depressing threat to be kept out of the job market? Or should they be embraced, on the logic that a unified labor force is the only way to secure better working conditions? (Washington City Paper)
November 11, 2010 | 6:35 PM | By Anna
DCist looked at a map from The District of Columbia Crime Policy Institute and learned some interesting information (I sure didn’t know what a “Census block” was, before their post):
But there are also some surprising spots where high amounts of crime are reported, like a blip on upper Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase.
The figures represent reported Part I crimes (homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and theft from a motor vehicle) and map by Census blocks, not typical city blocks. A Census block is the smallest unit measured by the U.S. Census Bureau — and occasionally they can be rather large, which helps explains why certain areas, like the larger blocks around American University and some of the blocks in the Seventh Police District, are designated as high-crime areas. DCPI researchers also confirmed with us that the presence of college campuses also plays a role in the designation of high-crime areas, like ones located around Georgetown University.
Sometimes, these reports about crime in the city leave me feeling paranoid and worried, but DCist helpfully notes that a majority of all census blocks have experienced only a few crimes per year (and almost a quarter had NO crime in the last ten years!).
November 11, 2010 | 3:14 PM | By Anna
NazarethCollege
Even if you go to college and “do the right thing” by getting a degree, you still may find yourself out of work…especially if you are black:
Education is not a guaranteed path to wealth for any race or demographic. Still, education should be at least a more secure path towards finding employment. It should be but it is not so for many African American college graduates. According to the latest release by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate among African American college graduates who are 25 and older is 7.3 percent…
As expected, since the year 2000 African American college graduates have always had the highest rates of unemployment. However, in 2006, during the nationwide housing boom, African American graduates narrowed the gap between their unemployment rate and the rates of the other races to less than one percentage point. However, as the economy worsened, that gap began to grow. Then between 2008 and 2009, the unemployment rate for African American college graduates jumped from an average of 4 percent to 7.3 percent.
Continue reading →
November 11, 2010 | 12:36 PM | By Anna
What are you reading, right now? I’m immersed in “South Lakes’ Ja’Juan Jones finds his place after a homeless odyssey“, from the Washington Post.
His homeless odyssey has given his play on the football field an angry edge, one that he hopes will land him a college scholarship. A senior running back and free safety at South Lakes High School, Jones has grown up sleeping on floors, couches and, at one point, spent a year living in a shelter…”I’ve always seen Ja’Juan as pretty strong…He’s always had his mind set, this is what I want to do and this is how I’m going to do it. The day he realized he could get a scholarship to go to college, it was like fireworks on the Fourth of July. That boy was running around the house screaming, ‘I’m going to college! I’m going to college!‘ “
“We’ve lost a lot of stuff in storage,” Jones said. “That’s one thing about moving a lot. You put your stuff in storage and then you go back and it’s always gone. I’ve lost trophies. My dad’s American flag that we got when he died is gone too.“
“I started off wanting to just play football in college,” Jones said. “Now, I’m starting to realize that even if I can’t play football, I want to go to college, but, football is my ticket. I want an upper-class job. I want to be in an office. I want to be able to provide for my family, like they deserve to be provided for.“
November 11, 2010 | 10:22 AM | By Anna
JamesCalder
Yesterday, we wrote about DCist’s cheeky response to the stupid Travel + Leisure assertion that Chocolate City is filled with unattractive people; DCist quoted a new study which mentioned that we are a very educated city and that the life expectancy for white residents is very high! The problem was, that same study by the American Human Development Project initiative indicated that life expectancy for black D.C. residents is the lowest, of any state. I was part of a Twitter conversation about the glaring omission, with two bloggers from PostBourgie. A DCist commenter expressed their displeasure as well:
I wasn’t going to mention it, but since you brought it up…. the lede reminded me of Sommer’s post about how she thought a study saying DC was tops in cocaine use was unfair because 1) she didn’t see it nearly as much as she did in LA; and 2) they included crack, which for some reason she thought should not count as cocaine use.
DCist editors look and sound exactly as you would expect.
Except in this case, they don’t. Hours after he published “Who Needs Attractiveness When You’re Living This Well?“, Editor-in-Chief Aaron Morrissey amended his original post: Continue reading →
November 11, 2010 | 8:16 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! While you were cheering on John Wall, we were out searching for links!
Fenty’s Freudian slip “When introducing Gray to the crowd of several hundred, Fenty said, “I couldn’t be happier to turn the government over to…,” then he cut himself short. The crowd laughed and he started over. “I couldn’t be happier to turn the podium over to Mayor-elect Vince Gray.” The slip was one of several lighter moments for Fenty, who was better known for being stiff at public appearances. Since losing the Democratic Primary in September, however, the outgoing mayor has been more relaxed in his public appearances. Almost as if he “couldn’t be happier to turn the government over.” (Washington Examiner )
An accident foretold “The fact that no agency officials saw fit to mention the report’s main conclusions to the Metro Board – even after two dangerous accidents – is an appalling violation of public trust. Officials could have done so either at a Metro board meeting on Oct. 14 or at one last Thursday, after the mishaps occurred. Instead, officials referred to the report but danced around the fact that it warned specifically about the escalators’ braking and maintenance problems.” (The Washington Post)
Beyond Bread: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back “…I often hear the old saying, “One step forward and two steps back.” There are a lot of reasons why using the safety net can feel that way. One is that people spend time in transit between different service providers, only to wait in long lines for assistance, as you saw in our post last week about utility assistance. Another comes from eligibility requirements that suddenly remove people from programs as their income increases. Imagine making another 50 cents an hour and suddenly losing your health insurance and having to pay out of pocket.” (breadforthecity.blogspot.com)
November 10, 2010 | 9:22 PM | By Anna
On my way home from WAMU, I passed the new, soon-to-be-open IHOP in Columbia Heights. Much to my surprise, it was brightly lit, filled with tables and it looked as if they were training employees, inside. It was shocking to see new furniture and activity where there had previously just been dust, but then I remembered that they hope to start serving diners, this month. Finally, a late-night dining option in Columbia Heights. Some of my neighbors are vocal about their fears; they worry that IHOP will attract drunks, rowdy teenagers, gang members (?) and the like. I’ll wait until it’s actually functioning to worry about any of that. I’m a pragmatist (who loves pancakes).
November 10, 2010 | 3:01 PM | By Anna
antoinedodson24
A still from Antoine Dodson's YouTube Q + A
I love what Cord Jefferson has written about Antoine Dodson and other viral videos starring people of color:
…15 million is how many times just one of the many YouTube videos of Dodson has been viewed. In other words, Internet users around the world have tuned in 15 million times to stare and laugh at a black man angry because his sister was nearly raped.
…What is interesting, however, is how common and accepted such biases have become on the Web. In the comfort and solitude of one’s bedroom, laughing at a troubled, poverty-stricken person of color is far more socially acceptable than doing the same on a busy street corner. What’s more, the disposable immediacy of the Internet means it isn’t always conducive to critical thought. Users take in hundreds of images and videos per day — and thousands of lines of text — and rarely pause to analyze what they’ve seen or why they click…
What we’re left with is an Internet community that feeds us, in the isolation of our homes or desks, distasteful videos by the truckload while rarely asking us to stop and absorb what we’re seeing. The Antoine Dodson video isn’t just insidious because we’re laughing at a low-income black man’s frustrations. It’s insidious because the Internet allows us to ignore why we’re laughing.
