ASK Musings

Policing

– “One of the consequences of the war on drugs is that police officers are pressured to make large numbers of arrests, and it’s easy for some of the less honest cops to plant evidence on innocent people,” said Gabriel Sayegh of the DPA. “The drug war inevitably leads to crooked policing — and quotas further incentivize such practices.” Stephen Anderson, Ex NYPD Cop: We Planted Evidence, Framed Innocent People To Reach Quotas (h/t @Pundit_acadEMIC)

Cultural Appropriation

– “What Azalea does best is mimicry. She might have adopted mentor T.I.’s sound, but she, unlike him, can’t trace her flow to the place she grew up or the specific culture she grew up within.” The Cultural Crimes of Iggy Azalea (h/t @FeministaJones)

Sexism and Nerd Culture

– “Hi there, shy, nerdy boys. Your suffering was and is real. I really fucking hope that it got better, or at least is getting better, At the same time, I want you to understand that that very real suffering does not cancel out male privilege, or make it somehow alright. Privilege doesn’t mean you don’t suffer, which, I know, totally blows.” On Nerd Entitlement (via @PennyRed)

Homelessness

– “What the city is saying is that it refuses to provide affordable housing, but it does not tolerate people living outside,” said Sandy Perry, an organizer at the Affordable Housing Network of Santa Clara County, who has worked with San Jose’s homeless population since 1991. “This is a willful, wholesale violation of human rights.” ‘Some sort of hell’: How one of the wealthiest cities in America treats its homeless (h/t @SarahKendzior)

Transgender Issues

– “By scheduling tumblr posts, #LeelahAlcorn defeated measures by her parents to defame her legacy, her life, herself.” Leelah Alcorn (via @Unit0053)

– “When we talk about “politicizing” an issue like death threats, the presumption that the problem is a localized, personal problem and that publicizing it makes it political. But what if we’re in an environment where threats are endemic and constant? Where the force generating those threats is a widespread, self-sustaining, and virulent social movement? When the problem is already political, when the intolerable situation is the status quo?” Cover-Ups and Concern Trolls: Actually, It’s About Ethics in Suicide Journalism (h/t @Sarah_LNX)

Racism

– “Arguments about race are often heated and anecdotal. As a social scientist, I naturally turn to empirical research for answers. As it turns out, an impressive body of research spanning decades addresses just these issues — and leads to some uncomfortable conclusions and makes us look at this debate from a different angle.” Racial Bias, Even When We Have Good Intentions (via @NYTimes)

– “In August, the Pentagon reversed a decision that banned certain hairstyles that just happened to be the ones that worked for hair that just happened to belong to African-American women. That was widely welcomed as a just result. After all, even the Congressional Black Caucus had called the regulation discriminatory and pushed for a change. But try telling that to some people, like commenters on this military forum, who said, “Oh come on…there’s nothing wrong with these new regulations. I just hate how some people use racism to whine about things they don’t like,” and reasoned like this: “No white dudes get high fades unless they are in the military either. It’s not racist.” 17 horrible things people said weren’t racist in 2014 (h/t @deray)

Rape Culture

– “But we now know enough to be appalled by how Florida State University and the city of Tallahassee handled this entire ordeal. We know that police refused to investigate the original accusation of rape for months and that the school did not interview Winston about the incident for over a year. We know that the police—eventually pressured by the press into investigating the incident—had financial ties as security workers for the Seminole Boosters club.” A Reality of Their Own: Jameis Winston, Rape and Seminole Fandom at Florida State (via @EdgeofSports)

Reproductive Health

– “So I went to see a specialist in reproductive psychiatry (I live in New York City, don’t you know)—and again, believe me, I know exactly how lucky I am to be able to do that. She met with me during a four-hour consultation and at the end told me that whatever possible, minor, and even as-yet-unknown potential side effects my medications might have on my developing baby were completely dwarfed by the significant, major, and enduring effects my depression would definitely have on my developing baby. I was floored—I’d never before considered that my depression could hurt a baby I was making, but indeed, the doctor told me that they can test children even at three or four and still find significant differences—and not good ones—between children whose mothers were depressed during pregnancy and those whose mothers were not.” Taking Medication While Pregnant: I’m Not Sorry