Recently in Organizations Category

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36714961#36739929

This is an interview that was done with Latino Civil Rights leader Janet Murguia regarding the recent immigration bill that was passed in Arizona. She talks about some of the negative consequences of this bill on the Latino population of Arizona. She argues that the passing of this bill will essentially legalize racial profiling in that if anyone is at all suspected of being in the country illegally, authorities will have the right to search their homes and/or personal possessions. It sounds that if one is of Latino decent, that is all the proof authorities need to, basically, remove your constitutional rights. I'm not all that familiar with this story, but it definitely sounds unconstitutional to me.

What do you guys think? Does it seem to you that racial profiling is inevitable through the passing of this bill? Does the bill need to be changed to better protect the rights of the Latino population in Arizona? If you have not already heard about the passing of this bill, I would imagine that it will be hard to avoid as it snowballs in the uproar it is causing.


Here are a couple more news clips regarding some of the details of this bill - They make it sound that people can be identified as "possible illegals" based on appearance only, including the type of SHOES a person wears.....Are you kidding me?! Is our country going backwards away from civil rights legislation? What the hell....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36714961#36735699

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36714961#36726296

Something tells me this bill will not be around for too long....

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/04/umd_facebook_ra.php

This is an article about a recent incident at the University of Minnesota-Duluth that involves blatantly racist comments posted on a wall-to-wall conversation on Facebook. The comments were between two white girls discussing the presence of a black girl in the room they were in. Before I go on, here are some of the horrible comments they were making:

"ewww a obabacare is in the room, i feel dirty, and unsafe. keep a eye on all of your valuables and dont make direct eye contact.... i just threw up in my mouth right now....,"

"were two white girls.. she already has her 'nigga' instinct to kill us and use us to her pleasure..."

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that these comments are pretty messed up. The girls claim that they were just joking around, but I don't know what kind of person actually thinks this is funny. And what the f***, why were they publicly posting a conversation like this on Facebook?! Do people not understand that ANYONE can go on Facebook and see what you say to other people? Also, if they were in the same room, why were they using Facebook to talk to each other?!.....I hate technology....

Anyway, what kind of punishment do you think they deserve? Is it even possible to punish somebody for something like this? What leads a person to believe it is okay to 1) make these comments in the first place, 2) post this comments on their PUBLIC Facebook page, and 3) think that there is nothing wrong with making comments like this open to all eyes?

I know this doesn't sound like it belongs here by the title, but I think it has some important points to make. Last night, South Park was censored by Comedy Central (Viacom) for attempting to depict Muhammad (the prophet of Islam forbidden to be shown). His image was censored as well as any his name being bleeped out and the end message (ironically the end message was supposed to refer to what fear and terror does to our freedom). Do we really have free speech in this country? The episode was censored beyond what the creators allowed due to threats from one Muslim group. Also ironic is the fact that the show depicted Muhammad once before prior to 9/11, but now it's not allowed? 

Here's a link to a video about the U.S. Census: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36101466#36101466

The problem is people are having difficulty filling out the form when they have to choose a "box" or group to identify with. One of the newscasters shares his family's stories. Also, the statistics about Hispanics are interesting too.

What should be done about this issue? How should we address it?

This is a short article about the tea party movement that's been happening that found some surprising (or maybe not) findings about people in support of the movement. The study found that people who think the government has done too much to support blacks are also more likely to support the tea party.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/03/31/2010-03-31_somethings_queer_with_census__gays.html

You may have already heard about this, but this is an article about a movement for the U.S. Census to include responses for single gay individuals. This year's census had an option for homosexual married couples, but that was it. Does it surprise you that the U.S. Census, one of the most organized and expensive survey organizations, doesn't include something so socially salient on their survey? Shouldn't this be something that was identified as missing before the census was even close to being sent out?

In addition to this, the article talks about transgendered individuals being identified on the census. This year transgender individuals were told to check "male" or "female" according to which sex they most identified. They argue that a separate box should be included for this question. This is something that has, from my knowledge, hasn't been included on any other survey's I've come across. Do you agree with adding this box to the "Sex" question on the census? Is this something that would then need to be included on other official surveys or demographic forms?

Author Tim Wise does an excellent job describing the state of racism in America (both before the age of Obama and during his 2008 presidential campaign). Wise's book is broken down into two main parts, or essays as he describes it. The first is an overview of racism and discrimination in America, citing both explicit and subtle forms of racism within the realms of employment and income, housing, education, criminal justice and law, health care, and even going into great detail of the inequality demonstrated during hurricane Katrina in 2006 and the 2008 presidential campaign. This portion of the book was mainly aimed at getting across the point that racism in America is still going strong, despite the fact that statistics show that most white Americans believe Obama's election as our president signals the end of racism in our country. Wise argues that although the election of a black man to our highest ranking position is a big step in the right direction, it does not mean that white people view black people on the same level they may see the president (he uses the analogy of Bill Cosby and the Cosby Show in terms of how white people view him differently because he does not fit the stereotype-consistent role of the "black man in America". Wise also spends a good portion of this part of the book criticizing Obama for his failure to address racism in a more direct fashion, stating that Obama has often side-stepped the issue of race in America and what needs to be done to promote more equality within the realms I mentioned above. My question regarding the first part of the book is: Is it really Obama's task to focus more of this effort on racism in America because he is our first black president? Because of the fact that he is our first black president, does it just come with the territory, whereas presidents before him were not "expected" to tackle this issue because they were old white men?

The second essay of the book focuses on what needs to be done to help alleviate modern racism (or racism 2.0, as Wise refers to it). In particular, Wise focuses on what white America needs to do in order to help promote equality in our country. He mentions five main goals for white America: 1) Take personal responsibility addressing racism and white privilege. 2) Listen to black people regarding racism. 3) Stop the denial of our disturbing history dealing with race. 4) Connect with anti-racist white culture to help promote understanding. 5) Speak up! - When you see racism, no matter how subtle, take action and make a difference.

Overall, I thought this book was a well organized argument for how racism is still a very big issue in our country and it can be seen where ever we go. Wise definitely did an excellent job getting the point across about how Obama's election to president does not mean racism is ending, it is simply not what it used to be....racism has evolved. Wise point out several instances of racism and discrimination in the book that relate to many concepts we have discussed in class, including stereotype threat, ingroup/outgroup biases, situational factors that bring out hidden prejudices, and institutional and modern racism. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good overview of where America stands in our battle against racism and discrimination.

The New York Times article "Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences" describes the report by the American Association of University Women that addresses the underpresentation of women in scientific fields such as math and technology.

The report talks about the factors that may influence this underpresentation, including the controversial issue of innate differences. When discussing the differences in male and female brains, the leading author of the report, Catherine Hill, said: "None of the research convincingly links those differences to specific skills, so we don't know what they mean in terms of mathematical abilities."

Thus, the report also focused on the cultural factors that influence this phenomenon, with findings such as this: "One study of postdoctoral applicants, for example, found that women had to publish 3 more papers in prestigious journals, or 20 more in less-known publications, to be judged as productive as male applicants."

Cultural stereotypes affect the performance of women, as the findings in stereotype threat research suggest, and therefore, prevention of that effect becomes important. The authors of the report searched for ways in which women can be encouraged to enter scientific fields, finding things such as teaching girls that math is not a static ability, teaching special courses for women entering the fields, and teaching girls about stereotype threat and its effect on performance.

Although the report indicates that the number of women in scientific fields is growing, equality has not been achieved: "But even as women earn a growing share of the doctorates in the STEM fields, the university women's report found, they do not show up, a decade later, in a proportionate number of tenured faculty positions."

For the New York Times Article, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/science/22women.html

For the full report (Why so Few?) click here: http://www.aauw.org/research/whysofew.cfm

This is one of the first petitions I have seen that has the particular goal of trying to curb Tea Party hate-speech. There have been several posts on here about the Tea Party movement being racist, but I think more importantly there is an unacceptable amount of downright hateful rhetoric coming from the protesters. For an example see below:

http://www.bing.com/videos/?FORM=MFEVID&publ=2BE19A43-506C-4905-B386-894988BC18EB&crea=STND_MFEVID_core_HuffPo_CustomVidLink_1x1&q=tea+party+hate&docid=1710637056421

This link is a plea for signatures by a group on Facebook called Cuentame. I suggest you go to their page and check out some of their videos. It's pretty cool stuff they're doing. You could sign the petition too if you wanted. http://www.facebook.com/cuentame?action_id=1494448&akid=.1122584.lu_Vgz&v=app_10339498918#!/cuentame

Here is their video posted on Huffington Post today.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/latino-group-pushes-petit_n_511476.html 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/03/AR2010030303895_pf.html

 

Recently, a sorority of white girls won the national step dancing championship. This is significant because this is a type of dance that is primarily dominated by African American culture, so the upset win did just that....upset people. There is some controversy of the white girls impedeing on black culture. The judges actually awarded the 2nd place team the same amount of money as the winning team because of the number of complaints about the results of the competition. What do you think about this? If anyone is eligible to compete in the competition, why is there such an outrage over white women winning it? Do you agree with the actions that have taken place following this, or do you think this could have been handled differently?

http://www.uni.edu/diversity/index.shtml

"At the University of Northern Iowa, our mission is to create and maintain an inclusive educational environment which prepares students to thrive in a diverse, global environment."

http://www.uni.edu/cme/

"We foster success in racial and ethnic minority students, contribute to the cultural competence of all students, and promote an appreciation of diversity in the University community."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rusty-weiss/2010/02/01/rush-racism-media-stunned-black-woman-could-win-over-limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh surprised the media in voting for a Black women at the Miss America Pageant in which she actually won. He has been labeled as a racist by many sources and people. Rush has a conservative talk show where he expresses his opinion about various issues going on in America and the world. The other judges were Vivica A. Fox and Shawn Johnson. Do you think Rush's vote was sincere or do you think he was singled out by the other judges? Another questioned to keep in mind is if he picked her to convince people that he wasn't a racist.

On the way home from school today I was listing to NPR and heard this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p006czyf (start listing at about 26:35) story on BBC News Hour.  It is a story about how anti abortion activists are starting a new campaign claiming that groups like Planned parenthood are targeting African American women for abortions to reduce their population. 

There is an interview with a representative of planned parenthood who talks about the work they do with low income people in inner cities to give them the choice of when to have a child.  The other interview is with a member of the Georgia right to life group who happens to be a niece of Martin Luther King Jr.  After he initial claims of "just knowing" this is happening she doesn't really back it up and starts going back to the normal antiabortionist lines about the rights of the child.

What do you think about this story?  Also do you think that the right to life activist is using her family's historical importance to sway this argument? 

If anyone is interested. I have been in a couple of different meetings, working behind the scenes, talking with different community leaders, radio and news.

We will be starting a radio program call the "Word on the Street" which will be conversations for campus and community efforts to bring open dialogues, and discussion about issues on discrimination, stereotyping, and  racism.

The Program will be starting this Friday, and will be held on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the week from 2:00-3:00pm at KBBG radio

 

Open:  To all students and Staff from UNI and HCC.

Guests:  We are looking for persons/agencies/city and county officials

Focus of the Show: Addressing and discussing topic and issues of interest at the university, and community college. Addressing and discussing topics and issues of interest at the University, and in the Community, in a dialogue format, using the study circle style, Topics will be determined by the participants/organizers and with input from the student and listeners.

 

First program:

Dialogue about why we are doing the show, issues that brought it about, the need to work collaboratively between the colleges and the community, the discussion of diversity, race, ethnicity and why these are important topics to talk about.  Opening the program up to listeners to talk about what they would like to hear discussed.

Contact:  Alex Esquivel at esquivea@uni.edu

 

Just a little plug for an event and an organization that I think you all should know about if you do not already. V-Day is an international organization with the mission of ending all violence toward women and girls. Below I have left a link for the V-Day website and the link to V-Men a series of essays from men about their journeys to their contributions toward ending violence against women and girls. Guys especially might want to check that out.

I feel the whole movement works to change people's sometimes misinformed views about violence against women. It also helps give women a voice all around the world and helps create awareness for the way woman are treated in various parts of the world.

The Vagina Monologues is a wonderful show that everyone should see at least once because of its ability to stretch one's horizons. Especially if one considers themselves  "Midwestern" and/or "of a traditional upbringing" this show might make you uncomfortable (but that's because of the mental scaffolding its breaking). It certainly has a lot of talking points. UNI is having a show this weekend, if you cannot go you could go to Wartburg's Monologues March 6th at 8pm! If that's not available you can pull up some of the scenes from it on youtube. I feel it's more insightful as a whole show in context though.

If anyone has done anything or seen anything from any of these sources, I would love to hear how they impacted you.

Vagina Monologues

Friday, 2/19/10 - Saturday, 2/20/10
7 pm, CAC 108 The Vagina Monologues seek to raise awareness and funds for the prevention of violence against women world-wide. Proceeds will benefit Club Les Dames, the NE Iowa Food Bank and V-day international.. Tickets/Registration: Tickets are $10, or $5 with a donation of two canned goods.

 

http://www.vday.org/home

http://www.vday.org/meet-vday/v-men

Alex found this cool website for an organization called Annunciation House. They're an organization comprised of volunteers who aid thousands of people who immigrant to this country from all over Mexico and Latin America. Check out the video to get a better understanding of the hardships that people go through when immigrating to this country:

http://annunciationhouse.org/about/video/

This video really hit close to home because my parents went through enormous amounts of hardship when they brought my sister and I to the U.S. They left their families, their language, their culture, and everything else behind in order to provide a better life for all of us. My mom went 5 years without seeing her mom and 10 years without seeing some of her siblings because she couldn't cross back into Mexico while her paperwork was being processed. My father went from being a Mining Engineer to a farm hand and later a garbage collector for the city of El Paso. They've faced a lot of racism and discrimination not just because of what they look like or where they come from, but also because they speak with an accent. I too remeber being 5 years old and being made fun of for not knowing how to speak English very well. Also, my great grandfather used to tell me horror stories of when he worked on fields in McAllen, Texas and California during the 1950's and 1960's. He said he and his friends would do back breaking labor, in very harsh conditions, and at the end of the day they would see multiple truckes filled with limes leaving the place where they worked, and thinking, "Look at all those limes, the owners are making a lot of money, and here they are paying us 12 cents a day." One of the things that stood out the most however was that he paid into Social Security and never saw a dime out of that money. A lot of people don't realize that there have been millions of workers who are exploited and pay into things like Social Security and taxes, and never see any of that money. Instead, others reap the benefits of their hard work. Anyhow, that's my two cents for the day.

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2008/victims.html

I was looking at the FBI statistics on hate crimes in 2008. And i found that there are different categories that are interesting. that range from racial bias, sexual-orientation, religion, ethnicity and disability. it is interesting on how they categorize the different crimes and the statistics. I wonder if we can look up which part of the country is the highest crime rate, and hate crimes.

Maybe this can help in showing the numbers of event happening with in the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/nyregion/05dna.html

   

The Department of Modern Languages is hosting a film series based on Immigration, Racism and Discrimination issues in the America's (North, Central, & South) Mondays' 7:00pm in the CAC room 108.

 James Day, Mr. & Mrs. Roland Carrillo, Dr. Janet McClain, including Brittney & Myself are hosting a one month series of Study Circles Open Dialog on Racism. Location In the CME, Saturdays (Feb 6,13,20,27) from 12:00pm-2:00pm. Contact Alex : esquivea@uni.edu             

BSU (Black Student Union) is asking for help in Hosting a Maze of Oppression (Immigration, Racial profiling, genocide, Classroom (brown eyes/blue eyes), and two others segments. Looking for actors, help designing props.  February 24, 2010, 6pm-10pm. Within the Month of February there are talks about having a non-violent March from UNI to College Square Mall. Planning is in Progress. Contact Ebony Jackson at jacksone@uni.edu BSU president    

Anyone interested in being on a radio talk show about Racism. Dates are being scheduled for either evening/ or weekends. contact: Mr. Day at www.daytime@cfu.net
 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ8npzELNmQ&feature=related

The G-20 was established in 1999, in the wake of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, to bring together major advanced and emerging economies to stabilize the global financial market. Since its inception, the G-20 has held annual Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meetings and discussed measures to promote the financial stability of the world and to achieve a sustainable economic growth and development.

To tackle the financial and economic crisis that spread across the globe in 2008, the G-20 members were called upon to further strengthen international cooperation. Accordingly, the G-20 Summits have been held in Washington in 2008, and in London and Pittsburgh in 2009.