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Daily Archive: 23/04/2017

Sunday

23

April 2017

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COMMENTS

What I’m Reading – April 23, 2017

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Must-Read

“Dolezal chuckles as she says this, as if it is the most clever and original idea anybody has ever had. I don’t know how many times a white person has told me that they don’t care if I’m “red, green, blue, or purple” when they are trying to explain to me just how “not racist” they are—I’ve lost count. I do know that I’ve rolled my eyes every time. As my brother Ahamefule said to me once, “They may not care if I’m red or green or blue or purple—but they sure as hell care that I’m black.”” The Heart of Whiteness: Ijeoma Oluo Interviews Rachel Dolezal, the White Woman Who Identifies as Black (by Ijeoma Oluo for The Stranger)

Fight Back

Direct link to spreadsheet listing details of all who donated to the Trump Inauguration. Trump Inauguration Donors

Horrific Executive Action and Legislation

“Montes had left his wallet in a friend’s car, so he couldn’t produce his ID or proof of his DACA status and was told by agents he couldn’t retrieve them. Within three hours, he was back in Mexico, becoming the first undocumented immigrant with active DACA status deported by the Trump administration’s stepped-up deportation policy.” First protected DREAMer is deported under Trump (by Alan Gomez and David Agren for USA Today)

“The letter describes Severino’s “long history of making bigoted statements” about the LGBTQ community and states that his hire raises “deep concerns” about the Trump administration’s hiring practices. The two-page letter was obtained by the Washington Blade, and the office of Senator Patty Murray, the ranking member of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, confirmed its existence to NBC Out.” Senators ‘Deeply Troubled’ by Trump’s New Health Department Pick (by Julie Moreau for NBC)

Racism

“Since 1988, we’ve never seen such a clear correspondence between vote choice and racial perceptions. The biggest movement was among those who voted for the Democrat, who were far less likely to agree with attitudes coded as more racially biased.” Racism motivated Trump voters more than authoritarianism (by Thomas Wood for Washington Post)

“The “incident”: another passenger on the plane, who was obviously inebriated, accused my husband of child trafficking. She claimed that my fair-skinned daughter didn’t look like her Mexican father, and stoked suspicion that he had kidnapped her. This passenger had no basis for this claim, nor any evidence to back it up.” My Mexican Husband Was Accused Of Trafficking Our Daughter On A United Flight (by Maura Furfey for Huffington Post)

“For most black women, the findings will not be surprising but, perhaps, will provide hard evidence and affirm what we’ve known for some time: bias against natural hair is real.” The Beautifully Complicated Reason I Created a Quiz That Tests Bias Against Black Hair (by Alexis McGill Johnson for Essence)

Classism

“Despite the protestations of editors and linguists, it’s still mainstream to believe that the strict enforcement of standardized squiggles in English is a linchpin not only of communication but also of virtue. So I’m here to hammer it in: That belief is wrong. It’s technically wrong, because the fetishization of specific uses of punctuation marks does not actually improve communication. Worse, it’s an unfair judgment of people who, through no fault of their own, don’t have the background and resources needed to produce what’s widely seen as good English.” ‘Good Grammar’ Comes From Privilege, Not Virtue (by Sarah Bronson for The Establishment)

Capitalism

“Second, as Slate Chief Political Correspondent Jamelle Bouie tweeted, the demographics of a job can determine its political salience. Coal mining is still 95 percent white and 95 percent male. Department store workers are 40 percent minority and just 40 percent male. The emphasis on work that is white, male, and burly may represent an implicit bias against the working class of the modern service economy, which is more diverse and female.” The Silent Crisis of Retail Employment (by Derek Thompson for The Atlantic)