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Manga Messiah

Speaking of misinformation in education systems, Manga Messiah, a virulently anti-Semitic comic book representation of the life and times of Jesus Christ, has entered the curriculum in Ugandan primary schools. The comic book paints an image of Jewish people as socially reckless and bloodthirsty, and distinguishes Jesus, who was a Jew, from his Jewish brethren and sistren (I just invented that last word) by, well, painting him as a white guy. Ugh. The logical and historical leaps anti-Semits who "love" Jesus have to make in order to justify their anti-Semitism. First: Jesus wasn't anglo-saxon, he was a middle eastern JEW.

Anglo-saxons didn't even exist at this point because they were still two separate Germanic tribes. Second: One cannot utilize their "love" for Jesus as the pre-text for hating people today. Jesus is dead; so no one can know him and thus love him. They can only know subjective and often contradictory representations of Jesus and his words. Further, whoever killed him is dead as well, so wtvs dude.
Talk2Action has an article.

Please Stop Dancing

I recently saw the video for Lady GaGa's "Just Dance," to which I will only link, I ain't posting that crap. First of all, I hate her weave. Ok, ok, I will stop discounting her (stupid) song by referencing her physical appearence.  However, I am dismayed by both the song and video's misrepresentation of excessive drinking and the dangers implicit in the act like, um, death, and the dangers not implicet like, um, rape. The lyrics follow:
I've had a little bit too much, much
All of the people start to rush, start to rush by
How does he twist the dance? Can't find a drink, oh man
Where are my keys? I lost my phone, phone

What's going on on the floor?
I love this record baby but I can't see straight anymore
Keep it cool, what's the name of this club?
I can't remember but it's alright, a-alright

Just dance, gonna be okay, da da doo-doo-mmm
Just dance, spin that record babe, da da doo-doo-mmm
Just dance, gonna be okay, d-d-d-dance
Dance, dance, just, j-j-just dance

Don't be alarmed, I didn't write that shit out myself. I found it on one of those music lyric website, you know, the ones that infect the life out of your computer so you can know what whether Xtina sang "my hymen broke" or "hi, man, I'm broke."
Ok, I'm not a doctor, but if you drank so much that you can't find your phone, which you may need to call the police department via 9-1-1, and you can't find your keys, which you will need to eventually get back into your house, you should stop drinking. Further, it isn't going to be alright. Nightclubs and houseparties are wonderful places to network and dance with friends and meet a potential significant other, but they aren't safezones for intoxicated young people, especially in the society in which we live. According to RAINN, 1 in 6 American women have been victims of attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. If you can't see straight anymore, then that means someone else will have to lead you out when you want to leave, hopefully that doesn't turn out to be, um, a rapist.
The video grossly misrepresents public intoxication and re-instate terrible drinking habits which may be best describes as "drink till you pass out." I was in the UK this summer while recent high school graduates were receiving their "A levels," qualifications for university which I believe are comparable to the SATs. Anyhow, its a huge partying time, and I got to see a lot of young people equipped with tons of misinformation about alcohol as well as, well, alcohol. At one point I was sitting by the window of a bar, enjoying my friends and my cup of beer, when I saw a young, heavily, intoxicated woman skid across the pavement and bash her head againt a wall.  She was subsequently unconscious. I told her "friends" crowding around her that I was going to call an ambulence. They yelled for me to "mind my own bloody business." Um...possible dead girl on the floor sounds like my business. She awoke a few seconds before the ambulence arrived although I never followed up on the state of her health.
I would love to see Lady GaGa add that glamour to her video.

Misinformation and Education

The first meeting of my Intro to Women's Studies course commenced yesterday. Before I walked through the door I assumed, wrongly so, that I would learn no new concepts in this class (I always feel like my brain is at the brink of exploding with conceptual diarrhea), and I would instead soak up all the factual information that I possibly could - which woman did ____, how many women went through ___, how many women died from _____. A pre-conception if there ever was one.
I suppose that the first thing I felt I could take away from the class (the FIRST class, so dayyuuum) and use in my spare with Republican dinner guest is the effect of misinformation on the conceptual. 
The professor asked "Who was the first African-American to run for president of the U.S.?" Surprise! It wasn't Barack Obama. Surprise! It wasn't Jesse Jackson, although one woman sitting by me was pretty intent upon Jesse Jackson. Well, I knew it was Shirley Chisholm, 1972, on a few tickets across the US. I spend a lot of time on Wikipedia, k? You would assume this is the factual and not the conceptual? "Its another fact we can just pile on the fact-mobile." But it isn't just a fact that Shirley Chisholm was the first Black-American to run for president on a major-party ticket, nor is it only factual that she is a woman.
These are only facts:

Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae
Martha Washington was born on Chestnut Grove Plantation on June 2, 1731
The Walk Disney Concert Hall is located at 111 South Grand Avenue

These facts do little or nothing to the way(s) in which we conceptualize or re-conceptualize society. On the other hand, the fact that Shirley Chisholm was the first Black-American to run for president of the US on a major ticket and the fact that she is identified as a woman and the fact that she was a schoolteacher and the fact that she was the child of immigrant parents and the fact that she graduated from Brooklyn College- these are all facts that, when known, force us to vastly re-conceptualize what is generally accepted in society:  racism, sexism, classism, and anti-Immigrantism.They force us to re-conceptualize because they blatantly contradict pre-conceived notions of society which we received when we were very young by seemingly authoratative adults.
Unfortunately, as I learned, the vast majority of the class, many of whom were Black and female, didn't know who Shirley Chisholm even was let alone that she ran for president in 1972. When I came to think about it, I learned about the damn thing on the Internet. Come to think of it, I've learned most things of importance on the Internet. So what did I learn in primary school:

George Washington was the first president of the United States
George Washington cut down a damn cherry tree
George Washington was a white, straight, Christian, war hero

I think the question at hand is: who does it empower to have access to this information?  Further, how much did it empower the Black-American, Brooklyn College-educated, women with immigrant parents to learn this piece of information?
Does the phenomenon by which we are systematically denied information in primary school, which would otherwise help us contradict large racist, sexist, classist, and anti-Immigrantism structures, even have a name?
It does: Disinformation and Misinformation.
The Washington Post has an article:
"In experiments conducted by political scientist John Bullock at Yale University, volunteers were given various items of political misinformation from real life. One group of volunteers was shown a transcript of an ad created by NARAL Pro-Choice America that accused John G. Roberts Jr., President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court at the time, of "supporting violent fringe groups and a convicted clinic bomber."

A variety of psychological experiments have shown that political misinformation primarily works by feeding into people's preexisting views. People who did not like Roberts to begin with, then, ought to have been most receptive to the damaging allegation, and this is exactly what Bullock found.Democrats were far more likely than Republicans to disapprove of Roberts after hearing the allegation.Bullock then showed volunteers a refutation of the ad by abortion-rights supporters. He also told the volunteers that the advocacy group had withdrawn the ad. Although 56 percent of Democrats had originally disapproved of Roberts before hearing the misinformation, 80 percent of Democrats disapproved of the Supreme Court nominee afterward. Upon hearing the refutation, Democratic disapproval of Roberts dropped only to 72 percent."



For the 6 percent left with flexible thinking: Chisholm won three states, by the by.

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Students protest worldwide against the commercialisation of education (2008)

Contrary to what you learning from the wonderful McCain/Palin camp, we are, along with the rest of the world, in a recession. Most government official have used the recession to legitimize cutting funding to private educational institutions. I've posted about it here, and here. The move wouldn't look so fishy if they had not also been cutting funding to private educational institutions throughout the last 8 years of doom, or, you know, while we were in an economic "boom." i.e. back when people's houses were worth more than dust.
So, behold! Day(s) of Protest. Fo' Shizzle, we need to get on this shit.

!Attention please!:

Constitutive on the
"International Day of Action against the Commercialization of Education"
on Nov.5th 2008,
the "International Students Movement" is calling for a


G l o b a l   W e e k   o f   A c t i o n


in April 2009 (20/04 – 27/04):

Get involved and Organized NOW - Join the discussions in the forum here - and Get organized!

For more info send a mail to: international.students.movement@gmail.com

Or: Join the Facebook Group

If you go to Brooklyn College, we're planning a meeting this week to organize for a protest:
Event InfoHost:Brooklyn College Against the Budget CutsType:Meetings - Club/Group MeetingNetwork:GlobalTime and PlaceDate:Tuesday, February 3, 2009Time:12:15pm - 2:15pmLocation:State Lounge, SUBO

Minority students and Medical events and opportunities

Minority student? Thinking of going into the medical field? Check it out:

The 4th Annual Conference on the Health of the African Diaspora:
Challenges and Solutions from Medical School to Practice and Leadership
Saturday February 28, 2009
9:00AM-6:00PM

NYU Langone Medical Center
550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Keynote Speakers:
Sidney A. McNairy Jr., Ph.D., D.Sc.
Division Director, National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health
Carolyn Barley Britton, M.D., M.S.
President, National Medical Association

Conference Themes:
Professional Advancement
Academic Leadership
Addressing Health Disparities
Transition from Residency
Choosing Specialities
Success in Medical School
Effective Mentoring

Also:

Minority Affairs Summer Research Program at Downstate Applications can now be submitted for the Office of Minority Affairs Summer Research Program at Downstate. The program is open to students who have completed the sophomore year of college or the junior year. The stipend is $3000. Applications can be obtained by going to: http://sls.downstate.edu/minority_affairs. When you open this website, type in "summer research program" in the  search box.

Break the Silence: Call for Submissions

From the Website:

"Welcome to BreakTheSilenceproject.com. Here are the beginning steps of a community project that encourages the exploration of issues surrounding sexual abuse through creative means. Among things to come are a forum and a directory of other creative projects that address these topics.

The main goals of the Break the Silence project are to showcase creative works that deal with sexual violence, to provide a possibility for community-building, and to further raise public awareness and dialogue on these subjects.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS  Break the Silence is looking for submissions that address the themes of the silence around sexual abuse, reasons people stay silent, and experiences of breaking that silence.

All visual and literary arts as well as other forms of creative expression are welcomed. This includes, but is not limited to:

photography, painting, collage, drawing, watercolor, mixed media, digital works
audio and video works - possibilities include music, spoken word, video pieces
fiction, creative nonfiction, prose, poetry
any combinations of the above!
You do NOT have to be a professional artist/writer/musician/whatever to participate in this. You simply need to have something to say on the subject of sexual violence and find the way to say it that best suits you.

Submissions will be showcased on this website, with the possibility of later being part of a printed publication and/or traveling exhibition."

High School Politics

The other day, I took myself out on a veggie burger date on the upper west side. I was particularly impressed with the fine treatment I was receiving from the waitress (she gave me extra pickles and even slid a teaspoon sized piece of baklava across the table, “on the house”) when I noticed the sign on the wall directly across from my booth, “Age and Experience (and treachery) ALWAYS win over Youth and Idealism.” First of all, I don’t know what treachery means in this context. Second, I am assuming “age” means “older age,” and third, I don’t know what this sign was doing squashed in between eye-pleasing photographs of washed up celebrities. Regardless, this very BOLD adultist sign left a sour taste in my mouth, even after I’d consumed the complimentary baklava and after-lunch mints. Since then, adultist “signs” have been popping out at me every which way.  Adultism is everywhere! Take NPR’s weekend edition from last Saturday as an example:



The description of the pod cast: “two teens formed an Obama club and even made a video—now they’ve got tickets to the inauguration.” High school seniors Olivia and Alyssa were interviewed about their involvement.

I was particularly appalled at the interviewers response to Olivia’s articulate explanation for her involvement—she says she was upset when Bush won in 2004 and felt powerless that she had no control over the person who would serve as her president for the rest of her childhood, and that forming this club would be her way of regaining her role in politics.

The interviewer responds, “Regain? You were 13 or 14! I’m trying to figure out what kind of a role you had before that!” He laughs for a really long time. If that’s not enough, he asks whom they will be with (“will you have parental supervision?”) and where they will be staying.  Alyssa responds that she had turned 18 years old that day and is old enough to vote (therefore, old enough to know that she is being belittled).

What is interesting is that their video is that its message to those under the age of 18 (who are unable to vote) to be politically involved regardless of their age or perceived powerlessness. The video encourages youth to get their parents to vote early and not wait till the last moment.  There are some big names featured in the video --Jeff Tweedy, Jonny 5, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, Senator Mark Udall and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. The fact that they were able to form a club in their high school (no easy task if their high school was anything like mine—a fat cat for a vice principal who made sure the football team had brand new uniforms while student run groups like the gay/straight alliance could scarcely afford a single rainbow ribbon!) stick with a campaign for years and articulate themselves on public radio is impressive for anyone. While their efforts should have been applauded, they were met with disrespect.



“It is no surprise that young people may question their own legitimacy,  doubt their own ability  to make a difference, or "internalize the oppression" of adults and the limitations that they place upon them. The "culture of silence" is common among oppressed groups, although its causes are not of their own making.”

 

Re: Poverty and Intelligence

I just want to piggyback on Roy's post to emphasize that poverty, not failing schools, is what's hurting poor students.  I have professors and classmates who could articulate this much better than me, but it doesn't matter how many standards you impose on a school or how many amazing teachers you hire if the students are not coming to school prepared to learn.  Being prepared to learn means coming to school healthy, well-fed, well-rested, and going home to parents who are involved in their education.  Education doesn't happen in a vaccuum-- it's not possible to fix the schools and solve the problem without fixing everything else. 

poverty and intelligence: there is a correlation.

I am considering creating an "Um...duh" article category. A study by the University of Berkley found that there is a strong correlation between poverty and brain functioning, with the study demonstrating that the cognitive abilities of low-income 9 & 10 year olds pale in comparison to those of their wealthy counterparts. When their cognitive abilities were tested, the former demonstrated that they had drastically less attention for cognitive testing, lead researcher Mark Kishiyama of the University of California-Berkeley explains: "It suggests that in these kids, prefrontal function is reduced or disrupted in some way."
Now, correlation does not necessarily mean cause. That is, it isn't the fact of living in a family that has little wealth that leads to a narrowing ability to use one's brains. However, many social aspects accompanying poverty affect brain functioning: poor and discouraging education, unavailable parents or guardians, malnutrition, poor health insurance, exposure to lead, lack of mentally stimulating resources like museums and pretty libraries, and being told by society that poor people are uneducated, trashy, and that they arrived in their social situation because they are inherently destined to be so. Take a long walk through Brooklyn from East New York to Bed-stuy to Fort Green to Prospect Heights to Park Slope. You'll get the drift.
Primary education across the US, is supposed to be, at least on paper, the right of all citizens of the US. However, because taxes which go to public school education is not centralized but localized, young people who have the privilege of having parents who can pay higher taxes also have the privilege of attending schools with books and tutors and computers and ceilings without holes in them. Now, money doesn't guarantee success, and there are ideological factors. For example, because the wealthy are financially privileged and likely white no one is overtly surprised when they do well in school or overtly disappointed when they fail - unlike their impoverished and likely colored counterparts who find success to be coincidential and failure to be characteristic of "who they are."
Now, contrast all that with those wonderful banking families who are using the interest from your college loans to buy their kids ponies. 

Thou Shalt Not Chick-ify

Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle was recently featured in the New York Times Magazine.
He has a bunch of youtube videos out. One video, titled ““macho man” (with headnoddic background music that is sure to please everyone) explores the complex issues of the ever present chick-ification of the Christian faith. From fuscia walls to sea-foam green interior, present day churches drip with femininity (I hear there are even tampons in most bathrooms, sick)! Sweet bros like John the Baptist and Elijah were total “dudes” and should serve as models for how Christian men should be—they would NOT appreciate the chickification and they are likely shaking there heads at us in heaven. The opposite of dudes are total faggy-fags with sweater vests who sing romantic love ballads to Jesus Christ (you know, like, those songs about wanting to make out withJesus). What can we do about the fact that 60% of Christian church-goers are “chicks” and the 40% of men who attend church are still essentially LIKE chicks (and could be homos)? Where are all the real men??? Don’t worry, Driscoll has an answer—he explains they are at home watching football and being innovative—climbing mountains, making money and working on their trucks (so THAT’S why my father never went to church! He was rejecting the feminized church environment, subverting chick-church culture and climbing the mountains in our backyard!)

Driscoll suggests we find these men and bring them to church. Why are young men so important? Why does “the church need dudes?” Because they know what is up--“they are going to get married, make money, make babies…buy real estate, build companies…they are going to make the culture…if you don’t get the young men, you get nothing.” Bring these innovative mountain climbers to church and the war is won. Other youtube videos to explore: biblical oral sex and is homosexuality a sin?

Note: You must be 17 or over to view most videos.  Its for MATURE and hip audiences only.