September 21, 2011 | 4:17 PM | By

‘You know there are two Twitters, right?’

You know there are two Twitters, right? #REM trending, but the top TT in the US is #youknowyoughetto. (Black Twitter 1, Other Twitter 0.)
September 21, 2011 1:49 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@jfdulac
J. Freedom du Lac

African Americans make up 25 percent of Twitter users, despite only making up about 12 percent of the general population, according to a 2010 Edison Research study.

Twitter is relatively “blacker” than the United States in part because of how easy it is to access the popular status-updating program via cell phones. Sending a tweet uses nearly the same number of characters — 140 — allowed for text messages. Half of all Twitter users send tweets with their mobile phones, and people of color are more likely to access the Internet using cellphones. So, high-speed internet is wonderful, but unnecessary for using Twitter.

Circling back to the tweet above from Washington Post reporter J. Freedom du Lac, it would behoove us to be mindful that black people may also listen to R.E.M., non-blacks are probably using or reading tweets classified with the “#youknowyoughetto“-hashtag and trending topics are not a zero-sum game. If “Troy Davis” is not trending, that doesn’t mean people aren’t talking about him. It just means more people are talking about “#newfacebook,” or whatever else is popular at any given moment on “black” and “other” Twitter.

FILED UNDER: Media, Race and Class, Social Media
September 21, 2011 | 1:05 PM | By

Troy Davis: What Role Does Race Play?

Alberto Pizzoli / AFP/Getty Images

Amnesty International activists hold banners in support of Troy Davis.

Troy Davis is set to be executed at 7 p.m., barring a last minute stay — which seems unlikely at this point. This, despite witnesses recanting testimony, lack of physical evidence and worldwide protests.

Davis, a black man, was convicted in the 1989 killing of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail, who was white. In this case, Davis’ jury was majority black. But since the sentencing, three of the original jurors have publicly stated they regret their votes.

Much of the protests surrounding Davis’ execution aren’t based largely on claims of racial bias, but rather that overwhelming reasonable doubt should be cause enough to stay the execution. But what role does race play in such death penalty sentences? David C. Baldus, a prominent researcher whose work was at the center of a Supreme Court ruling, studied 2,000 death penalty cases in Georgia in the late 1980s. He found that black defendants were four times more likely to be sentenced to death for killing a white person than for killing a black person. Likewise, prosecutors sought the death penalty 70 percent of the time in cases with black defendants and white victims, and only 20 percent of the time when the defendant was white and the victim was black.

Of course, accusations of killing a police officer bring an added layer of complexity in death penalty sentencing. Still, perhaps the question isn’t whether Davis would be on death row if he were white. Rather, would he be on death row if MacPhail had been black?

 

FILED UNDER: The People, Courts, Race, Troy Davis
September 21, 2011 | 11:43 AM | By

Poll: Is the D.C. Tax Hike Fair?

Plashing Vole / Flickr

While the national debate on raising taxes on the wealthy rages on, D.C. has already made its move. On Tuesday, the City Council narrowly approved a tax hike on those making more than $350,000 a year. The measure raises the tax rate by 0.45 percent, affecting about 6,000 D.C. residents.

Despite the strong divide in the District between the rich and poor, the debate surrounding a tax hike on wealthier residents is quite contentious, with some officials calling it fair and others characterizing it as lazy government. So, what’s your take on the tax hike? Participate in our poll below — or leave your own answer in the comments below:

FILED UNDER: Government, Income disparity, Taxes, Wealth
September 21, 2011 | 7:36 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Comcast’s Internet Essentials, Taxi Cabs v. Gray, Black and White Journalists

Good morning, DCentric readers! Ready for some links?

FCC chairman applauds Comcast for low-cost Internet program "The plan offers high-speed Internet service for $9.95 and a "netbook-style laptop" computer for $149.99. Only low-income families with school-age children are eligible for the program. Comcast agreed to offer the plan in order to secure regulatory approval of its merger with NBC Universal earlier this year. Genachowsk said poor Internet access hurts children's ability to learn. He cited one example of a girl who had to do her homework in the library parking lot in order to use the library's wireless connection." (thehill.com)

Tax Hike For Wealthy In DC "The tax on the wealthy goes from 8.5 to 8.9 percent. Supporters say the measure should bring in $106 million over four years. The tax will expire after that time. Councilman Jack Evans who opposed the tax increase says it will affect 6,000 individuals and small businesses, costing each one about $5,000 per year." (WUSA Washington, DC)

D.C. cabbies sue Mayor Gray and Taxicab Commission chairman Ron Linton "D.C. cab drivers once strongly supported Gray, but their relationship has soured. They're still upset about the change in fare system from zones to meters, which is partly why they supported Gray over Adrian Fenty in the last mayoral race. 'As soon as he got office, we could not meet with him, contact him, he made every excuse in the world,' said taxi driver Larry Frankel." (tbd.com)

Continue reading →

September 20, 2011 | 1:46 PM | By

Kanazawa is Grounded for a Year by LSE

Flickr: indiekidsdontdance

The London School of Economics.

In May of this year, Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics penned a controversial blog post for Psychology Today asking, “Why are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women?” Kanazawa was widely condemned for his views and Psychology today removed his post from their site, then fired him.

Meanwhile, students at the London School of Economics called for Kanazawa’s dismissal. According to Racialicious, which published an update to Kanazawa’s situation, the students didn’t get the outcome for which they were hoping:

The LSE has now published the findings of an internal investigation into the affair, ruling that Dr Kanazawa had “brought the school into disrepute” and barring him from publishing in non-peer-reviewed outlets for a year.

The inquiry, details of which were released to staff on 15 September, also concludes that he had “ignored the basic responsibility of a scientific communicator to qualify claims made in proportion to the certainty of the evidence”.

It found that “some of the arguments used…were flawed and not supported by evidence, that an error was made in publishing the blog post” and that Dr Kanazawa had not given “due consideration to his approach or audience”.

In addition to the 12-month ban, he will not teach any compulsory courses this academic year.

Racialicious’ Andrea Plaid characterized this reaction as a “slap on the wrist.” What do you think?

FILED UNDER: Media, Race, Race and Ethnicity, Racial Divide, Social Media
September 20, 2011 | 11:14 AM | By

“Rediscovering Swampoodle”

We’ve delved into the past of neighborhoods like Foggy Bottom, but what do you know about Swampoodle, the Irish immigrant enclave where Union Station is now located?


D.C. was never an immigrant magnet like New York or Philadelphia, Lane says, but when the Irish fled their country during the famine of the 1840s and 50s, the U.S. Government was in the midst of a hiring spree. Immigrants who ventured further down the coast went right to work building the Capitol, the Post Office and many other structures that make up the National Mall. And because they wanted to live as close to work as possible, they patched together homes and stores near the capitol.

— wamu.org

September 20, 2011 | 10:08 AM | By

As Business Closes, Owner Looks Back at Decades on H Street

George Butler is closing shop after nearly five decades. His men’s clothing store, George’s Place Ltd., is an H Street NE institution, one of the longest-running businesses on a corridor now synonymous with gentrification. But the recession, online competition and H Street streetcar construction led him to call it quits.

The 73-year-old managed clothing stores on the street in the 1950s before opening his store in 1968.

“I saw a future in H Street and my being in the neighborhood, I knew a lot of my customers,” he said while sitting in the back of his store on a recent afternoon. Hats and shoes lined the walls, along with 50 percent off signs.

Through it all, he’s had a front row seat to all the ups and downs of the corridor: from the heyday when  it was “it was like Connecticut Avenue, like downtown,” to the 1968 riots. “I’m a vet, and I saw things I never saw in the war,” he recalled of the riots. “The street was unreal. Fires were everywhere. It was just burning down.”

The riots marked the commercial decline of the street, beginning decades of empty storefronts. “People left and never came back,” Butler said.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: History, The People, Gentrification, H Street NE, Small Business
September 20, 2011 | 7:58 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Homing a Homeless Vet, the Newly Poor and Raising D.C. Taxes on Wealthy

Good morning, DCentric readers! And now, for some links:

How the city bought a homeless vet a house “Jackson, an ‘O3-11 grunt,’ or rifleman in the United States Marine Corps in the 1970s…who grew up on the city’s streets and has spent the past two decades scouting apartment basements, vacant buildings and even dump trucks to sleep in, said this was ‘definitely a good spot, one of the better ones.’” (Greater Greater Washington)

Anti-Abortion Billboard Seeks the Help of Black Men “The abortion industry has created a culture of abandonment. Responsibility has become someone else’s concern, and death the solution to ‘unplanned’ pregnancies — the natural result of sexual behavior,” Ryan Bomberger, Black pro-life and adoption advocate…“There’s nothing natural about an industry that generates over $200 million, annually, by killing a child left defenseless by the absence of a father.” (BET.com: Blogs)

Some of the faces behind the new US poverty figures; for many it’s first brush with being poor “At a food pantry in a Chicago suburb, a 38-year-old mother of two breaks into tears. She and her husband have been out of work for nearly two years. Their house and car are gone. So is their foothold in the middle class and, at times, their self-esteem. ‘It’s like there is no way out,’ says Kris Fallon.”(The Washington Post)
Continue reading →

September 19, 2011 | 4:06 PM | By

Does D.C. Need a Jobs Czar?

Mladen Antonov / AFP/Getty

Unemployment has reached a “nearly record high” in the District — it’s now at 11.1 percent — and lawmakers and experts are scrambling to figure out ways to tackle the problem.

So what about a jobs czar? That’s what D.C. Councilman Vincent Orange (At-large) will be proposing when he introduces legislation Tuesday to create such an office.

According to Orange’s press release, the jobs czar’s primary role would be to “develop a workforce that can be connected to jobs coming on line within the District of Columbia.” The jobs czar would also be responsible for ensuring compliance with first source employment agreements, which guarantees D.C. residents get priority in hiring for certain jobs. That’s been a particularly sore issue east of the Anacostia River, where two major development projects have been criticized for not hiring enough District residents.

So, tell us: do you think a jobs czar will help alleviate the District’s unemployment divide?

FILED UNDER: Government, Unemployment
September 19, 2011 | 11:50 AM | By

“Racially divisive character assassination”

Do white politicians get treated differently than black politicians when it comes to ethics violations? D.C. Councilmen Jack Evans (Ward 2) and Jim Graham (Ward 1), who are white, respond to being compared to Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas, who is black and accused of misusing grant money for personal use.


“Racially divisive character assassination does not contribute to this discussion on how we improve ethics,” Graham said.

”I’ll join Jim’s quote,” said Evans.

— www.washingtonpost.com