What I’m Reading – November 8, 2015
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in What I'm Reading
Death
– “If you don’t believe me, turn to Google News and see how many times this week our nation’s news writers and broadcasters deployed the phrase “doctors told him he’d never walk again.” It makes a good story. But how about the kid who will have to learn to navigate life in a wheelchair? Is he any less brave? How about the woman whose cancer came back, and who has chosen to stop chemotherapy and rely on palliative care? Is she a wimp? Is she a loser?” If survivors are “winners,” what should we call patients who die? (h/t @elementalnw)
Diversity
– “A particular low moment for Miley, he wrote, happened when he asked a question at Twitter’s engineering leadership meeting about what specific steps Twitter engineering was taking to increase diversity. Twitter’s senior VP of Engineering responded, “diversity is important, but we won’t lower the bar.” Miley did not name names in his post. A visit to the leadership page on Twitter’s website will reveal that the company’s SVP of engineering is Alex Roetter.” Twitter Engineering Manager Leslie Miley Leaves Company Because Of Diversity Issues (h/t @tariqmoosa)
Racism
– “But, by this morning, a sick feeling started to set in when people started to contest my race. More than a few tweets came my way asking why the CBC was airing an all-white panel on the subject of diversity in politics. Good question, in any other context. Here’s the rub, if it’s still unclear: I am not, nor have I ever been, a white person.” I Was On A CBC Panel And The Internet Wanted To Guess My Race (h/t @ijeomaoluo)
– “The investigation into the death of Gliniewicz, a 30-year veteran of the force and Army Reserve sergeant, started with a massive manhunt but shifted weeks later into an analysis of the single gunshot that killed him.” Death of Illinois police officer Charles Joseph Gliniewicz to be ruled suicide (h/t @DrStacyPatton)
– “Among other things, Foster’s lead prosecutor noted that several of the prospective black jurors he dismissed hadn’t made sufficient eye contact when he questioned them. In any case, it’s not hard to invent reasonable-sounding explanations for striking a juror, and therein lies the problem. Only when you run the numbers does the racist intent comes into sharp focus.” This Is How Prosecutors (Still) Keep Black People Off Juries (via @motherjones)
– “I didn’t want to write this review because I’m tired of writing about white people. I’m tired of fantasy worlds where people of color don’t exist. Where even the made up—excuse me—composite characters are white. It gets really disheartening to see yourself written out of popular culture, written out of history time and time again. It’s really hard to keep answering my son’s question: “How come there aren’t any brown people in this?”” Why I Won’t Write a Review of Suffragette (via @strangerslog)
State Sponsored Killing
– Attack on Kunduz Trauma Centre | AFGHANISTAN Initial MSF internal review (via @MSF)