YoungVoteTheYoungVoteTheYoungVoteTheYou

“Students are paying more, and a greater share of the costs, but are arguably getting less,”

File this under "Um...Duh."
The Times reports that a study by the Delta Project describes what every student who is either attending or has attended college in the last 15 years already knows:  Students are covering a huge share of their college education, aren't getting their money's worth in terms of services, and, after college, aren't able to pay off the loans . In other words, the US has taken on the medieval feudal system: which makes one enslaved to a lord on account of their debt. Yup, we are working our college educated asses off so that the children of banking families can have ponies for Christmas.
It's often entertaining to see the mainstream media peer into Higher Education news. When CNN or the Times reports on primary and secondary edu-ma-cation, they usually do so from the point of the "concerned parent." And then they wonder why young people don't care about their shitty news. However, when MSM (mainstream media) reports on higher education, its often as if they are peering into a world they know so little about. It's as if their writers have formed a disconnect between their years at university and their professional life thereafter.
But this news report isn't some surprise to college students. I have friends who have college debt in the range of $0.01-$70,000. That's US dollars, not pesos.
But good news! Ok, I'm kidding. It's actually bad news. David Patterson is going to cut state funding to CUNY by 102 million dollars by 2010, which I have posted about here. Feel free to hate on him. Really, he isn't just the player, he's the entire game.
You can find and contact your NY state senator here. They vote on the governor's budget proposals.

Obama and the Intra-net

I think that if Dubya Bush spent some time during his very busy terrorist-ass-kicking presidency reading any of thousands of blogs and bloggers who hate his stupid ass then he wouldn't have been too surprised when he received boos from two million Americans upon departing from DC.  Hell, even the thought of Bush on the internet is hilarious. Truth of the matter is, bloggers aren't as polite as the Times and CNN because we represent the plebeians. We aren't, as Sarah Palin puts it, the "Liberal Media Elite." We are rude, crass, and lack silly rhetoric (unless we're hating on some damn fool).
Although the mainstream media did raise public favor for Obama in some respects, such as representing Sarah Palin as though she had fried eggs for brains (Which, for the record, she does not), they failed to cover all the obvious paradoxes of the McCain/Palin run for office, such as McCain's claim to support women while conveniently missing the senate vote on the Liddy Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would enable people with vaginas to sue the millions of companies which regularly do a one-over on them by paying them less then people with penises, and Palin's claims to be a feminist in light of the fact that one of the only, or the only, shelter for pregnant teens in Alaska was shut down during her governorship. And remember when Palin said that she had gay friends and that we would be "very tolerant" of gays, as if we were living in Iran or something. The gays were like "No she don't and no she ain't." Probably the only person giggling in the CNN Newsroom was Anderson Cooper.
Blogs and bloggers continue to pick up where mainstream media is lacking. Such as when the BradBlog covered the very suspicious death of Michal Connel, a very key witness in Ohio's 2004 presidential race voter fraud case, after being threatened by Karl Rove. What was on CNN that day? JonBennet Ramsay.  OMGZ! She died like a million years ago and the only people who care are white soccer moms from NJ.
That said, young people voted overwhelmingly for Obama, young people don't read CNN or the Times we read blogs and facebook, and the blogs and facebook were all up for Obama.
It isn't that we don't read CNN and the Times because they are a snorefest, we don't read them because they have News titles such as these:
"Freezing woman 'felt my soul leaving'"
"Deliver pizzas: wife tells laid-off hubby"
"Cheney upset with Bush decision"
Let me spell it out for you CNN: No one. Effing. Cares. PS: The soul is a social construction.
As it turns out, Obama has recognized the importance of non-mainstream and diversified media outlets and has set aside an entire page on technology. One underpaid whitehouse intern (probably) typed this point of the Obama agenda up:

"Encourage Diversity in Media Ownership: Encourage diversity in the ownership of broadcast media, promote the development of new media outlets for expression of diverse viewpoints, and clarify the public interest obligations of broadcasters who occupy the nation's spectrum."

Two points come to mind as I read this: 1) Hopefully now mainstream media, such as z100 (you know, "today's hit music station"), will be more socially responsible and stop airing commercials that exploit people by stimulating their distresses such as that miserable ad about how men need to buy liquid formula that will increase the girth of their penis because, you know, women contemplate nothing other than penis size all day long.
2) If this means that young people will have a stake in mainstream media then I am putting a stake in that shit like I was Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
But why, you ask, am I so concerned about mainstream media? Well, the truth is that bloggers are only plebeian to a finite degree. Most bloggers who report and discuss the political are college educated. We have been trained to be quite critical of sources of information and processes of thought. We are equipped with the language of sociology that makes in easy to communicate instances of discrimination, oppression, abuse, and other social injustices. Meanwhile, most people get their information from...well...Z100. Brad Friedman at the BradBlog verbalizes this point well:

"One of the reasons I was most looking forward to the likely-victory of John Kerry back in 2004, was so that I could begin to make his life a living hell in regards to Media Reform, the most important --- in my opinion --- reform of all at this particular point in the 21st Century. While the Supreme Court has declared many times that the right to vote is protective of all other rights, I'd suggest that the right to be informed, accurately, via our nation's publicly owned airwaves, is the right that ensures our right to vote is ultimately protective of anything. With our current hard right-leaning corporate media landscape, every attempted reform, including Election Reform, by any Democratic administration, must overcome a nearly impossible crucible of rightwing opposition --- and more disturbingly, propaganda --- across the nation's public airwaves."

If you are considering organizing for young people representation in mainstream media, now is the time. Trust me, we can do much better than the marketing interns are doing at Z100.

Roe v Wade Anniversary: Future Directions in the Anti-Abortion Movement

Happy anniversary, Roe vs wade ! Recently, NPR invited Jay Sekulow, Rev. Thomas Reese and Randall Terry to answer the question, “what’s next for the anti-abortion movement?" 

According to Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, politically overturning Roe v Wade in the near future looks dim in the political sense, but this doesn’t mean the fight is over for the pro-life side. The advance of medical science, specifically the availability of the sonogram has been the biggest shift for the pro-life cause. As medical technology becomes more advanced, more people (especially young people) will re-think abortion. “ Jay Sekulow noted that the most significant impact on the abortion movement comes from crisis pregnancy centers, like Life Choices, that are now becoming medical centers with ultrasound equipment and trained personnel on site. When a woman sees that beating heart, sees that baby suck its thumb in utero, sees it wave back at its mama, the mother will choose life."  This concept is not new—mandatory sonograms for women has gained popularity the past few years, and Sekulow has hope that more states will require the practice within the next few years—having a democrat as our president for the next 4-8 years doesn’t mean the pro-life side has to end its battle. 
Some argue that finding a common ground on the issue of abortion is important, and that this cultural battle has gone on long enough. Those who are pro-life and those who are pro-life may agree that reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies could certainly reduce the number of abortions, which is a good thing. Everybody wins! However, Sekulow stands firm in his belief that abortion is a human rights issue and that it is ultimately murder it is NOT an issue those on the pro-life side should compromise. 

Randall Terry,founder of Operation Rescue urges the pro life side to use different language when it comes to talking about abortion and suggests the rhetoric needs to be changed—people need to take the word “abortion” out and put the word “slavery” in or “killing Jews” in its place. “We need to find common ground with slave holders so that need to slavery is reduced. Find common ground with the Nazis so that the need to killing Jews is reduced...” Abortion should be compared to the Holocaust and slavery. Finding common ground is a good idea if it means ending at least some of the injustices. Finding common ground with slave owners and Nazis would not be a bad idea if it could reduce the number of Jews exterminated or the number of Africans used as slaves. Women terminating a pregnancy and those who are pro-choice are then lumped into the same category as Nazis and slave owners—they are evil people, but perhaps a compromise would be possible.


And while we are comparing certain atrocities to other “atrocities,” Sekulow believes the pro-life’s battle to protect life can and should be compared to other social movements. Important historical movements like “women’s voting rights, ending slavery, child labor and segregation” shared in common a strong and tireless minority fighting against injustices. 

 

Call me crazy, but in my opinion, fighting with the pro-life team  is not the same as fighting for a woman’s right to vote—besides, why would we want slave owners and Nazis to vote in the first place?

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Parental Obsession with Gender Norms and Suffering Boys

If you ever thought England was a Kingdom filled with classy folk, tasteful diction, and nervously correct grammar then you've been mistaken. Fo shizzle. For one, I'm a two-time eye-witness, and two, some people there read the stain of my brain "news"paper The Daily Mail. Which should really be renamed The Daily Load of Crap.  The entire right sidebar on their website is designated to "Femail" which is just stories about Posh Beckham and plastic surgery mishaps. There's one article titled, "My wife Debee McGee looks better than Madonna." nuff said.
Anyhow, they have one article by Jill Parkin titled, "Stop feminising our schools - our boys are suffering' which argues that boys are failing out of school and refusing to apply for college because of the "feminising" agenda of the British school system. She writes contemptuously:

"The problems start in the classroom. Instead of the make-or-break sprint to the exam deadline, boys have to endure stultifying coursework.
This system of continuous assessment means that anyone who can call up Google on a computer can cut and paste answers from the internet at home. Girls, with their more patient approach to learning, thrive under such a system."

I suppose she gathered her sources from wikipedia's entry on Eugenics or Mein Kampf for idiots or something. In this parallel universe, young women are more patient because they are getting ready for motherhood where they will have to focus patient attention on the baby and, as Sarah Haskins puts it, in order to wake up at 6 in the morning to put beef chunks in a slow cooker so that her husband can go "Wow" 13 hours later. In regards to school, women are "genetically" wired away from competition and toward coursework and their vaginas just gobble up books. Excuse the image but I just have to deconstruct this conception. 
You know, the one about the gulf of difference between people with vaginas and people with penises. Parkin blames the school systems in GB for not acknowledging these difference. Don't you worry Parkin, the media makes up for any of the school systems discriminatory shortcomings.

The text reads:
"Healthy muscle function with Magnesium (for Him)
Healthy skin with Vitamins A and C, Copper, and Iron (For Her)"

Apparently all women need is healthy skin. skip the strong muscles and bones crap. Its not like our grandmothers are dying from osteoporosis or something. Better yet, women don't even have any muscles or bones.  OMGZ! That's why women can't open doors themselves! It all ties in together so neatly!
According to Parkin, these differences between young men and young women were not concocted by marketing interns at One-a-Day and they really are bones deep.

"What boys are made of is this: tremendous data banks that can recall years of FA Cup ties in minute detail; lashings of testosterone that needs constant burning off on a sports field; and a hideous competitive streak almost as vital to them as lifeblood itself."

I'll just post my response in an image:

With that wonderful image of one tough ass woman, I will say that yes, there are differences between people with penises and people with vaginas, and yes the school systems in the western world are doing serious disservices to young men, but no, "feminising," which is a polite way of saying "sissy-a-fying," is not to blame.  Parkin is using a tool which I call "misrepresentation of cause" in order to push her own agenda: a sexist agenda. Parkin is using the shortcommings of the British school system and misidentifying their cause with a push for gender fluidity.  God, I hate her.

Affirmative Action: Self Haterz and Irrational Women

 NPR’s Talk of The Nation recently addressed the issue of affirmative action and how issues of race, class and sex can be negotiated under the Obama administration. Two of the featured guests included Shanta Driver, “chairperson and national spokesperson of By Any Means Necessary, who advocates affirmative action,” andJohn McWhorter, “an author and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who is against affirmative action”. The discussion was mediated/hosted by Neal Conan.

I listened to the pod cast on the subway and got angry when I starting picking up on the fact that Conan interrupts Driver 8 billion times and McWhorter treats her like naughty little infant.

Driver explained how racism only increases when affirmative action is eliminated (especially in higher education) and how she, the daughter of a black man and Indian woman personally benefitted from affirmative action as a Harvard graduate—as a woman and woman of color, she would not have been able to attend Harvard without affirmative action. Similarly, she adds, Obama benefitted from affirmative action, and look where he is today.

She goes on to state that she felt every bit and entitled and worthy of a Harvard education as white students and men. Students of color face challenges in their college application process and the SAT is a flawed system to use because it is bias. As her argument gains momentum, Conan cuts her off—“okay, we get your point there” and turns the discussion to McWhorter.

McWhorter scolds Driver (that bad, bad baby!) for suggesting the SAT favors upper class, white and privileged students—after all, you can search high and low but you will not find one section of the SAT that tests students on vacation homes in Cape Cod or Ladies Luncheon etiquette—the test itself cannot be bias because it doesn’t ask which type of wine to serve with chicken (only white students in their late teens/early 20’s know that answer, duh!) surely, it cannot be benefitting some and failing others. Sure, students of color tend to score lower on the test, but that’s neither here nor there, Driver!

Is it a coincidence that Driver is woman of color? Is it possible that as she started to get “emotional” and “personal” and “irrational” and began to “over-react”  (as women ALWAYS do) she was intentionally silenced?

As for McWhorter, many have deemed him a “hater” and worse, a self hater because he is black. He admits to feeling bullied by other black kids growing up and preferred spending time at home and away from “them .” Simply put, McWhorter thinks African Americans are held back (or hold themselves back) because of "black culture"—they are not held back (by oppressors) because of racism. McWhorter, a man who entered college at the age of 15 after attending private schools and is the son of two Temple University employed parents did not “feel” the racism other people of color felt when “so-called black issues” came up in the 1990’s. And if he did not feel this racism (as he was playing the piano, listening to spanish language records and studying in his home) it probably did not exist.

As a professor at University of California-Berkeley, he has an insiders perspective on race in the classroom—he claims more black students than white students blithely turn in incomplete work and choose not to take their education seriously. Black students, according to McWhorter, tend to stretch the truth when it comes to racism--they even make up stories about the racism they face from professors and other students (who think they are stupid and are only there because of affirmative action).

Is McWhorter a hater? A self-hater? Or is he simply a victim of internalized racism and oppression???? A great book on this topic is Beverly Daniel Tatum’s book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?   

Celebrate the inauguration with the Brecht Forum

The Brecht Forum is a social networking and activism site for young people, approved by Naomi Klein, by the by, which focuses on change through art, writing, independent politics, and supporting the development of free thought. A kick ass group indeed.
If you have nothing better to do, or even if you think you have something better to do :cough:online shopping and internet pornography:cough: then you should come check them out at their inauguration event.
Info is below, and on their website, an on the facebook invite. Best part, I'll be there so be square.

Tuesday, January 20
7:00 pm

Hello-o-o Barack! Bye-Bye Bush Ball!!

Performers TBA

Couldn't make it to DC for the Inauguration? Want to watch the highlights in the company of some progressive activists? & strategize & party too?

Join us at the Brecht Forum's Bye-Bye Bush Ball!

Drinks & Potluck
Bring food & your ideas about how to make that "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN"

Admission: $6/$10/$15
or $5 with a Food Contribution
No One Turned Away

A glimpse of the Feministing community

Yes, its a lazy g/day, so I'll just post some things another mind envisioned and verbalized. This is a snippet from a post on the community board on feministing.com, a young feminist site I urge you to check out.

"My understanding of reproduction is that it is the basis of the institutions of marriage and family, and those two provide the moorings to the structure of gender and sexual oppression. Family is the social institution that ensures unpaid reproductive and domestic labor, and is concerned with initiating a new generation into the gendered (as I analyzed here) and classed social set-up. Not only that, families prevent money [sic] the flow of money from the rich to the poor: wealth accumulates in a few hands to be squandered on and bequeathed to the next generation, and that makes families as economic units selfishly pursue their own interests and become especially prone to consumerism."

Because HBO wouldn't air it...

The speaker is Gene Robinson, first openly gay priest ordained as a bishop in a major Christian denomination, the Episcopalians. The ostentation of his identity was one of the causes for sectarianism within the Anglican Church, the other ones being homophobia, the fear of homosexuals, and ethnocentrism, the belief that one's cultural perspective is the end all be all and tha they define the word "progress" and thus the correct direction in which the world ought to be heading. In other words, they're damn haters.
Gene Robinson was asked by Obama to give the invocation for the kickoff to the inaugural event. HBO claimed they they would air an "exclusive live-broadcast" of the entire inauguration but happened to leave this wonderful bit out.
Enjoy.

For the deaf:

"O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN."

Post-shopping thought...

Is anyone else tired of low-rise jeans?

Most stores don't offer much else to young women. But doing anything other than standing up straight while  wearing them often leaves you with plumber's crack.  (Has anyone else ever experienced holding onto your belt loops while walking up a flight of stairs?) 

I always see women sitting in class fidgeting with the backs of their shirts and pants, constantly checking to make sure their underwear or butt cleavage isn't making any guest appearances.  But think about it: women already struggle against seeing themselves as objects.  A study in 1998 showed that after trying on bathingsuits, women's math performance decreased significantly.  My guess is that worrying about how exposed their pants leave them would just exacerbate the problem.  Not to mention that most young women are students wearing low-rise jeans in classrooms, worrying about their butts and underwear showing and subconsciously hurting themselves.

Let's rise a little a higher.

Abstinence-only education = denying young people information

Just in case you were wondering whether or not abstinence-only education is efficient- it isn't. Denying young people information about their bodies leads to a map that looks like this:

Yes, that does look like Bush's Texas. Red is so appropriate.