October 22, 2010 | 10:15 AM | By Anna
Mark Sardella
Juan Williams
My favorite comment under Ta-Nehisi Coates’ post about Juan Williams and NPR is by “Cynic”:
No one is burning journalists at the stake. What’s happening is that as reporters cross over to the world of punditry and talk shows, and offer the unfiltered opinions and personal reflections that are hallmarks of the format, the two cultures collide. Williams, Sanchez, and Thomas were all sacked by organizations whose business revolves around their news operations, and were concerned for their reputations. (They were also, a Cynic might note, less than stellar performers by the time they were summarily dismissed.) But Fox, which has built its business model around punditry, thrives on controversy. So NPR fires its Senior News Analyst while Fox retains its Panelist – and they’re both Juan Williams.
Traditional journalists and their bosses alike are struggling to navigate this strange new world. The old rules on journalistic conduct are clearly antiquated. Perhaps we’ll decide to allow journalists to air their personal views, even if they say idiotic or offensive things, without that reflecting on their reportage. More likely, the two media ecosystems will increasingly separate themselves, with news-driven organizations on one side, and controversy-peddlers on the other. But until that happens, we’ll continue to see a succession of similar controversies. And news organizations will be entirely justified in deciding that when their employees opt for controversy, it’s time to sever ties.
October 22, 2010 | 8:01 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! While you were contemplating this adorable lion cub, I was at NPR headquarters meeting other Project Argo participants. Thanks for letting me take a break, yesterday.
Juan Williams Tossed From NPR – Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Atlantic “This is not about free speech. Sanchez and Williams are free to say whatever they want–just as their employers are free to dissociate themselves from their remarks in any legal manner they choose. I’m all for free speech. But I would not expect my current employer to allow me to use this space to vent, as fact, all the prejudiced thoughts that fly through my head. I guess I understand how you come to believe that someone in Muslim dress is less American, or that Michelle Obama is actually “Stokely Carmichael in a dress.” But I’m not clear on why, in this era of blogs and social media, NPR then owes you their association.” (The Atlantic)
Gentrification needn’t displace if we do more than shrug “It’s laudable to raise the question of one’s location in a gentrifiying neighborhood—those of us who live in or might move into a such a neighborhood should be self-reflexive about our presence. But McArdle simply shrugs her shoulders at the issue, assuming the effects and changes her investment will bring are inevitable. They’re not, and potential gentrifiers need to talk about the real issues and policies that can solve them.” (Greater Greater Washington)
GW student proposes ‘Christian only’ swim hour “One white, conservative Christian woman, despite being inconvenienced neither by the pool’s regular swim hours nor by the women-only session, takes exception to this arrangement. “As a female, I feel the need to speak up regarding the idiocy of this most recent example of politically correct nonsense. Namely, the audacity of creating female-only swim hours to ‘accommodate’ female Muslim students,” (tbd.com)
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October 21, 2010 | 9:10 AM | By Anna
Smithsonian's National Zoo
Nababiep's cub.
Posting will be very light today, because I am at NPR headquarters with some of the other Project Argo bloggers. While I learn a bunch of useful bloggy stuff, please forgive me for the lack of updates and focus on this adorable Lion cub from our National Zoo. See? You’re barely noticing my absence! Happy Thursday, everyone.
October 21, 2010 | 8:01 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! It’s link-time!
A Culture of Poverty, Ctd. “A relatively straightforward decision, like opening a bank account, makes a lot of sense if you’re middle class and trying to save, but it may actually be counterproductive if you’re poor. It’s really hard to get people to make the leap from thinking their values and behavior will translate to other social locations, to hammer home the idea hat the things that are important to middle class foodies might not be the same things that inform the choices made by the food stamp recipient in Section 8 housing.” (postbourgie.com)
ABRA Report Says Ali Ahmed Mohammed Was Chased by DC9 Employees “As more details emerge, the culture clash that seems to be happening in the wake of the incident is likely to intensify. Though a coming autopsy report could clear up a lot about what happened the night Mohammed died, it might not do much to resolve the tensions that emerged afterward. One man, speaking at the vigil Tuesday night, yelled that “America was built on the backbones of immigrants.” Later on, as the mostly East African vigil participants milled around, the mostly white patrons at Nellie’s Sports Bar on the corner seemed not to notice the grievers, and no one from the vigil seemed to want to wander into Nellie’s for a drink.” (Washington City Paper)
More, still, on the meaning of Rhee “Fenty, who was elected by winning every voting precinct in the city, needed to take the case for reform to the neighborhood meetings with all the energy that had characterized his campaign for office…He needed to compensate for Rhee’s inexperience and modulate her natural belligerence–for example by not allowing her to appear on the cover of Time magazine clad in black and holding a broom, looking for all the world like the 21st century version of the wicked witch of the west.” (voices.washingtonpost.com)
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October 20, 2010 | 4:45 PM | By Anna
Mr. T in DC
1829 1st Street NW, Bloomingdale
I guess I’ll link to The Atlantic twice in one day; Megan McArdle is reluctant about gentrifying her neighborhood.
Yesterday, I rode the bus for the first time from the stop near my house, and ended up chatting with a lifelong neighborhood resident who has just moved to Arizona, and was back visiting family. We talked about the vagaries of the city bus system, and then after a pause, he said, “You know, you may have heard us talking about you people, how we don’t want you here. A lot of people are saying you all are taking the city from us. Way I feel is, you don’t own a city.” He paused and looked around the admittedly somewhat seedy street corner. “Besides, look what we did with it. We had it for forty years, and look what we did with it!”
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October 20, 2010 | 3:45 PM | By Anna
ohad*
When I was a child, my favorite way to learn about someone or something else was to devour fiction. Considering how often I am mistaken for Ethiopian (daily, if not hourly), it feels apposite to learn a little about this unique, visible community in D.C. The next time I’m near a bookstore, I’m going to look for Georgetown Alum Dinaw Mengestu‘s work, whose first novel was born “when he spotted a solitary Ethiopian store owner while on a walk one day through the Adams-Morgan neighborhood” (via NYT):
Mr. Mengestu’s first novel, “The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears,” focuses on an Ethiopian shopkeeper, living in isolation in a gentrifying neighborhood in Washington, who develops a tentative bond with a professor of American history, a white woman, and her precocious biracial daughter. The New York Times Book Review named the novel, whose title derives from Dante’s “Inferno,” as one of the notable books of 2007, and Mr. Mengestu quickly became a literary name to watch.
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October 20, 2010 | 3:34 PM | By Anna
Leeds Museums and Galleries
Amanda Hess has a fascinating post up at TBD, about two D.C. children (who are affiliated with Lifting Voices, a non-profit) who met with Councilmember Michael A. Brown to share their thoughts on gender roles. Jahisua is 14; he is a Freshman in high school. Shalayla is 11 and she’s in sixth grade at a charter school:
“A man’s role in the neighborhood is to be a provider,” Jahisua told Brown. To Jahisua, that role includes supporting “a home, a job, a relationship with his child’s mother, and an education.” In order to fulfill that role, Jahisua said, the government needed to support men with programs like affordable housing, couple’s counseling, anger management classes, job training, and financial literacy.
But women must conform to different expectations, the students told the councilmember. “Part of a woman’s role is having self-confidence to make good decisions, so she’s not pressured to do bad things, like be immodest,” Shalayala said. “She needs someone to look up to.” In order to support women, Shalayla told Brown, “one thing we need to help women be self-confident is affordable shopping, so she doesn’t spend too much on clothes and so she can afford clothes to cover up well, to not be taken advantage of.” Women could also use motivational speakers, job training classes, and community activities “so they have something to do at different times,” Shalayla said.
Jahisua and Shalayla’s takes on gender were the result of “reflection, interviews with adults, and talks with peers”.
October 20, 2010 | 11:33 AM | By Anna
Ta-Nehisi Coates posts about the “culture of poverty” and jeopardizing his big break at The Atlantic by getting in someone’s face in Denver two years ago, in “the most embarrassing thing” he has ever written:
I had thought as far as the dude stepping outside–but I hadn’t thought any further. I hadn’t thought about getting arrested. I hadn’t thought about the implications of a 6’4 260 pound black dude assaulting a 5’11 (maybe?) white dude. I hadn’t thought about all of this playing out against the backdrop of Obama’s nomination. I hadn’t thought about losing my job. And, most criminally, I hadn’t thought about my family , who were depending on that job…
“I ain’t no punk” may shield you from neighborhood violence. But it can not shield you from algebra, when your teacher tries to correct you. It can not shield you from losing hours, when your supervisor corrects your work. And it would not have shielded me from unemployment, after I cold-cocked a guy over a blog post…
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October 20, 2010 | 8:00 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! Ready for some links?
America Is Not Post-Racial Yet “In measured tones, my cousin explained that the flowers were for her oldest daughter. Classmates had given them to her after an older white man spat on her and called her a nigger as she ran cross-country practice. The family filed a police report, but the man was gone. My cousin’s daughter is 13.” (The Root)
Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized over claims on black Confederate soldiers “The issues first came to light after College of William & Mary historian Carol Sheriff opened her daughter’s copy of “Our Virginia” and saw the reference to black Confederate soldiers. “It’s disconcerting that the next generation is being taught history based on an unfounded claim instead of accepted scholarship,” Sheriff said. “It concerns me not just as a professional historian but as a parent.” (The Washington Post)
Somber scene at vigil outside DC9 “Mohammed is an American born in Ethiopia, and in addition to family and friends of Mohammed, members of the Ethiopian community came out in large numbers to the vigil. Some carried signs, others lit candles, and many cried as they listened to emotional speeches. “My son was not a violent man, and he did not deserve to die as he did,” says Ahmed Galtchu, Mohammed’s father. “We have faith in the American system of justice and we know that the truth will come very soon…” (wtop.com)
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October 19, 2010 | 5:59 PM | By Anna
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
DCentric reader Matt kindly pointed me towards a blog I was unaware of– “Just up the Pike“. It is written by Dan Reed, who apparently moved to Philly in August. The link Matt sent me was to a post called, “why are all the poor kids sitting together in the cafeteria?“. In it, Reed wrote:
The biggest sin of the local blogosphere is that Lydia Sullivan at Snoburbia doesn’t get more attention for her thoughtful and provocative posts on the life of the privileged Montgomery County (Md.) suburbs. Over the weekend, she wrote that class, not race defines who you are…
I headed over to Snoburbia and found a post about Lydia Sullivan’s children and their classmates– and how they interact with each other:
This got me thinking about how race is treated in snoburbia. In the local snoburban high school, kids mix seemingly without regard to race. They think nothing of calling someone of another race, “hot.” (Where and when I grew up, one would have kept such a thought to oneself.) My kids and their cohort have friends of white, African American, Asian, Middle Eastern and Latino family background. They don’t talk about race at all. At all. Really. It just doesn’t come up, except perhaps as a descriptor.
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